ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's basketball team will help No. 18 Baylor christen its new facility, Foster Pavilion, when the Big Red visits Waco, Texas on Tuesday, Jan. 2 at 7 p.m. CT. The contest will be broadcast on Big 12 Now/ESPN+.

• Entering Sunday's games, Cornell is tied for third nationally with five true road wins vs. Division I opponents and its seven total victories away from home is tied for first.
• The Big Red is off and running again this season, averaging 84.7 points per game while shooting .506 overall and 34 percent from 3-point range while assisting on 18.3 buckets per outing.
• The team's 10-2 start matches its best after 12 games in a season since 1964-65 when it was also 10-2.
• Eight different players are averaging at least 6.3 points per game with four in double figures and six at 9.0 ppg. or better.
• Head coach Brian Earl's team is shooting a blistering .652 from inside the arc this season (first nationally in two-point field goal percentage).
• Cornell is completing a span where it will play just four games from December 6-January 8 due to exams, the holidays and the late start to the Ivy League season.
• The Big Red is coming off a 77-64 win over four-time defending Patriot champ Colgate on Saturday afternoon, its first home game in more than a month. 
• Cornell head coach Brian Earl and Baylor head coach Scott Drew are among five active sets of brothers as Division I head coaches.
• Earl's brother Dan is off to an 8-5 start at Chattanooga, including a road win at Louisville, while Bryce Drew is 12-1 at Grand Canyon.
• Other brother tandems include Bobby (Arizona State) and Danny (Connecticut) Hurley, Joe (Boston University) and James (Yale) Jones and Archie (Rhode Island) and Sean (Xavier) Miller.
• Entering Sunday's games, Baylor (8th, 88.4 ppg.) and Cornell (24th, 84.7 ppg.) rank among the top 25 teams nationally in scoring and in the top 12 in field goal percentage (Baylor third at .523; Cornell 12th at .506).
• Standing at No. 83 in the NET Rankings and 114 in Ken Pom, the Big Red's losses came in road guarantee games against 11-2 George Mason and 10-3 Syracuse.
• Senior forwards Keller Boothby (Plano, Texas) and Evan Williams (Murphy, Texas) both will have a chance to play in front of their families and friends. Both grew up within two hours of the Baylor campus. 

GAME INFORMATION
Cornell at #18 Baylor
DATE & TIME: Tuesday, Jan. 2 at 7:00 p.m. CT
SITE: Foster Pavilion – Waco, Texas
RECORDS: Cornell (10-2, 0-0 Ivy League), Baylor (10-2, 0-0 Big 12)
SERIES RECORD: First Meeting
BROADCAST: ESPN+/Big 12 Now
STATS: BaylorBears.com
DIGITAL PROGRAM: CornellBigRed.com

THE SERIES
1 Year • 1,600 Miles • 0 Meetings
Overall: First Meeting
At Neutral Sites: First Meeting
Current Streak: N/A
Last Meeting: First Meeting
Earl vs. Baylor: First Meeting

SERIES NOTES
This will be the first-ever meeting between Cornell and Baylor • Cornell is looking for its first-ever win in the Lone Star State (0-3 — 0-1 at Houston,  0-2 at SMU) and is 0-7 all-time vs. schools located in Texas (0-1 vs. Houston, 0-1 vs. Rice, 0-3 vs. SMU , 0-1 vs. Texas, 0-1 vs. Texas-Pan American) • the Big Red is 5-12 all-time against current members of the Big 12, but has never defeated an active member of the conference • its wins have come against BYU (1-1), Cincinnati (1-0) and West Virginia (3-3), with all five wins prior to 1970.

A WIN OVER BAYLOR WOULD
• push Cornell's record to 11-2 to open the season for the first time in 59 years, matching its best mark after 13 games since the 1964-65 campaign (started 19-2).
• give Cornell a 43-24 record overall (.642) since the beginning of the 2021-22 season.
• make Cornell 1-0 (and Baylor 0-1) all-time at Foster Pavilion.
• make the Big Red 7-75 all-time against ranked opponents, snapping an 11-game skid.
• be the first win over a ranked opponent since defeating then-No. 16 Wisconsin 87-69 in the second round of the 2010 NCAA Tournament.
• mark the first Big Red win over a ranked opponent in a true road game since knocking off No. 17 Syracuse on Dec. 14, 1957 (60-54) at Manly Fieldhouse.
• be the second-highest ranked win in program history, behind only a 62-56 victory then-No. 3 Princeton (eventual Final Four participant led by Bill Bradley) on Feb. 18, 1967.
• be the Big Red's first win ever over an active member of the Big 12 Conference and its first win over a current member since Dec. 27, 1969 when it topped BYU 68-62 in the first round of the Quaker City Tournament in Philadelphia.
• improve Cornell to 6-12 all-time vs. current members of the Big 12.
• be Cornell's first win in a guarantee game since topping Duquesne 78-71 on Nov. 27, 2017 (snapping a 15-game skid in guarantee contests).
• be the 1,337th in program history (1,336-1,494-2 in 123 seasons, .472).

LAST TIME VS. A CURRENT BIG 12 OPPONENT
• Houston jumped out to leads of 14-0 and 26-2 and never allowed Cornell back in the game, remaining unbeaten with an 83-53 victory at Hofheinz Pavilion. 
• Sophomore Matt Morgan had a game-high 23 points to go along with four rebounds and senior JoJo Fallas had 12 points and three steals for the Big Red. T
• he visitors struggled all evening from the field, connecting on just 31 percent from the floor and 21 percent from beyond the 3-point arc while turning the ball over a season-high 19 times.
• Devin Davis led four double figure scorers with 18 points and nine rebounds for the Cougars, while Rob Gray chipped in 15, Wes Vanbeck had 12 and Damyean Dotson scored 10. 
• The Cougars shot 55 percent from the floor with the home team scoring 46 of its points in the paint.
• Cornell's first 12 and a half minutes were too difficult to overcome. 
• The Big Red missed 12-of-13 shots from the floor, including all eight 3-point tries, misfired on three free throw attempts and turned it over six times as the Cougars jumped out to a 26-2 lead. 
• Though the visitors were game through the rest of the first half and much of the second, Cornell couldn't cut the lead below 16 the rest of the way.
 
LAST TIME OUT
• The Big Red scored the game's first 19 points and led wire-to-wire against four-time defending Patriot League champion Colgate, knocking off its Central New York rival 77-64 at Newman Arena. 
• Cornell shot 54 percent from the floor overall and assisted on 19 baskets while collecting 12 steals in the victory. 
• The Big Red held big advantages in paint points (46-28), points off turnovers (25-12), bench points (33-24) and fastbreak points (21-12). 
• Sean Hansen's 15 points led four double figure scorers, with Chris Manon adding 14 points, four assists, four steals and three rebounds. 
• Guy Ragland Jr. (12 points, four rebounds) and Nazir Williams (11 points, four rebounds, three assists) also reached double figures. 
• Isaiah Gray set the tone early and finished with six points, eight assists, five steals, three rebounds and a blocked shot before fouling out in the second half. 
• Braden Smith led Colgate with 12 points, five assists and four rebounds, while Ryan Moffatt netted 11 points and four boards. 



PLAYER NOTES TO KNOW
• Cornell enters the week with four double figure scorers, six with at least 9.0 ppg. and eight regulars averaging at least 6.3 points per contest.
• Five regular Big Red players are shooting .544 or better from the floor and nine are connecting on at least a .472 clip.
The Big Red's three leading 3-point shooters (Cooper Noard, Keller Boothby and Guy Ragland) have combined to shoot .412 (63-153) from beyond the arc so far.
• Sophomore Cooper Noard leads the team in minutes played at 23.8 through 12 contests and is among nine regulars averaging at least 10.9 minutes (two others average at least eight minutes).
• Senior Chris Manon has 139 steals in 65 career games, or 2.14 steals per game, ahead of Wallace Prather's school record average of 1.89. Manon is challenging the record despite averaging just 19.2 minutes per game for his career. 
• Manon had 63 steals in 2022-23, surpassing a two-decades old single-season school record 54 set by DeShawn Standard (1997-98) and matched by Wallace Prather (2001-02).
• In his 18 minutes of action against Fordham this season, Manon was +24 and finished with a line of 14-4-3 with three steals.
• Manon's .528 career field goal percentage ranks seventh all-time at Cornell among players with at least 400 shot attempts.
• The reigning Ivy League Player of the Week is averaging 17.0 points, 4.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 4.5 steals over his past two contests while shooting .722 from the floor (13-of-18).
• Senior Isaiah Gray is shooting .671 from inside the 3-point arc this season (43-of-64).
• Over the team's past three games, Gray is averaging 3.7 steals per game.
• The Big Red's two-headed center of Sean Hansen and Guy Ragland Jr. combined to average 18.1 points, 9.1 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 1.4 steals and 0.8 blocks while playing 40.8 minutes per game in 2022-23.
• The duo is even better this season, averaging 20.7 points, 8.9 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.4 steals in 38.8 minutes per game while shooting 52 percent from the floor and 35 percent from 3-point range. 
• Both Manon and Hansen are looking to join a select group of 10 Big Red players to record at least 500 points, 250 rebounds, 100 assists, 25 blocked shots and 25 steals in their careers. Manon is just seven rebounds away, while Hansen needs 20 rebounds and one blocked shot. Two of those 10 Big Red players to reach those marks have played for head coach Brian Earl (Matt Morgan '19 and Josh Warren '20).  
• With his double-double in last year's win over Ithaca, Ragland became just the sixth player in school history with multiple double-double efforts off the bench (Stan Brown, Mike Millane, Bernard Jackson, Brian Kopf and Jeff Foote) in a career.
• Senior Keller Boothby has multiple 3-pointers made in seven of his past nine games, shooting 18-of-38 (.474) over that stretch.
• Boothby shot .478 (22-of-46) from 3-point range in Ivy play last year.
• In 13 home games in 2022-23, Boothby had 11 assists and one turnover in 245 minutes of play.
• Boothby's 2.41 career assist-turnover ratio is the highest in program history for a non-guard (53 assists/22 turnovers). 
• Sophomore AK Okereke is shooting 67 percent from the floor (32-of-48). The former walk-on had a streak of 10 consecutive made field goals over the first three games of 2023-24, tied for the fifth-longest streak in school history (record is 14 by Darryl Smith in 2015-16).
• Freshman Jacob Beccles scored 15 points in his collegiate debut, the most by a Big Red rookie in his first game since Chris Manon netted 17 points in a win over Binghamton to kick off the 2021-22 season.

TEAM NOTES TO KNOW
• Since its return from COVID, Cornell men's basketball has posted a 42-24 record (.636), a mark that is 42-16 when removing guarantee games (.724).
• Over the past three seasons, the Big Red is averaging 17.6 assists per game and hitting 10.1 3-pointers per game while averaging 81.2 points per game. 
• Cornell  led the Ivy League in 11 categories in 2022-23, including scoring offense (81.7), 3-pointers made (10.7) and attempted (30.4) per game, assists (17.5), assist:turnover ratio (1.41), steals (9.7), effective field goal percentage (.556) and fastbreak points (15.9), while ranking in the top 10 nationally in scoring offense, assists, bench points, fastbreak points, steals and 3-pointers made and attempted. 
• The Big Red had its streak of 23 consecutive non-conference wins against opponents from conferences other than the ACC or Big Ten dating back to an 80-76 loss at Hartford on Dec. 22, 2019 snapped at George Mason— a streak that spanned 1,424 days.
• Over its past six contests, the Big Red is shooting .681 (130-of-191) from inside the 3-point arc.
• At the same time, Cornell has now won 29 straight non-guarantee non-conference games dating back to that same loss to Hartford.
• Cornell has hit double figures in 3-pointers five times this season, with season highs of 14 vs. SUNY Morrisville and George Mason.
• In its past eight games, Cornell is shooting just .299 (67-of-224) from beyond the arc after connecting at a .414 clip over its first four contests (46-of-111).
• Division I opponents are shooting just 31 percent from 3-point range this season (94-of-301).
• Of the 30 100-point games for the Big Red in school history, head coach Brian Earl has been at the helm for nine of them, including for five of the top 10 totals.
• Earl's teams also have seven of the top 10 single-game assist totals and six of the top 10 made 3-point field goal totals.
• The Big Red was placed third in the Ivy League Preseason Media Poll, its highest preseason selection since also being chosen third in the 2010-11 poll
• Despite playing at the fastest pace in the Ancient Eight, Cornell's 12.4 turnovers per game was the second-lowest average in the league a year ago.
• Cornell is 24-4 at home over the past three seasons, including a perfect 14-0 against non-conference opponents over that span.
• Cornell has hit a 3-pointer in 951 consecutive games dating back to a contest against Denison in the 1988-89 season opener (0-for-2). Since the 3-point shot came into effect in NCAA play during the 1986-87 season, the Big Red has hit at least one shot behind the arc in 996 of 1,000 games (6,761 3-pointers over that span).
• Graduated seniors Greg Dolan '23 (Loyola Chicago) and Marcus Filien (UAlbany) have moved on to play as graduate transfers at other Division I institutions (Ivy League does not allow graduate student eligibility).  
• Over the past three seasons, nine grad transfers have gone on to play Division I basketball elsewhere — Jimmy Boeheim (Syracuse), Kobe Dickson (Howard), Bryan Knapp (George Washington), Terrance McBride (Rice), Dean Noll (Stony Brook), Sarju Patel (UAlbany) and Riley Voss (Wright State).
• Current seniors Darius Ervin, Isaiah Gray, Sean Hansen, Chris Manon and Evan Williams are currently in the portal for 2024-25.

MISCELLANEOUS TEAM NOTES
• Associate head coach Jon Jaques was a starter and senior captain on the 2009-10 Cornell team that advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16.
• Cornell has played in 47 different states, as well as in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Australia, France and Spain. The only states the Big Red has not played in are Alaska, North Dakota and Mississippi.
• The Big Red continues to be ranked among the best according to the annual NCAA Division I Academic Progress Report (APR). The APR measures semester-by-semester records for every individual team in Division I with regard to each team members' continuing eligibility, retention and progress toward graduation. The NCAA "commends" teams that have APR scores in the top 10 percent within their sport. Cornell has been recognized 10 times in since the APR began in 2005, including seven consecutive (2009-16).

THE BIG RED IN OVERTIME
• Dating back to the first overtime game against Penn way back in 1922, Cornell is 42-51 in games that go an extra period. 
• Cornell is 7-10 in multiple overtime games, with the longest game for the Big Red being a five overtime contest against Princeton, won by the Tigers 66-61 on Feb. 24, 1979 at Barton Hall. 
• Cornell is 31-19 in home overtime games, 2-2 in neutral contests and 10-29 in road games.

ARE CORNELL STUDENT-ATHLETES ON SCHOLARSHIP?
• The easy answer is no. Cornell student-athletes are awarded need-based financial aid, just as any other student who applies to the school - that package can come in the form of student loans and grants. 
• The basic intent of the original Ivy League agreement of 1954 was to improve and foster intercollegiate athletics while keeping the emphasis on such competition in harmony with the educational purpose of the institutions. 
• The Ivy League is nationally recognized for its level of success — absent of athletic scholarships — while rigorously maintaining its self-imposed high academic standards. 
• The Ivy League has demonstrated a rare willingness and ability, given the current national pressures on intercollegiate success, to abide by these rules and still compete successfully in Division I athletics.

UP NEXT
• The Big Red opens Ivy League competition when it welcomes Columbia to Newman Arena on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024 at 6 p.m.
• The contest will be broadcast live on ESPN+.
• The Lions lead the all-time series 131-107, though Cornell has won five straight overall and at Newman Arena.
• The two teams have evenly split the past 26 contests dating back to the 2009-10 season.