ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's basketball team welcomes defending Ivy champ and 2023 NCAA Sweet 16 participant Princeton to Newman Arena in a key early season game on Saturday, Jan. 27 at 2 p.m. The contest will be broadcast on ESPN+ with Nick DeLuca and Eric Taylor '05 on the call.

• Picked third in the Ivy League preseason, the Big Red and the defending conference champion Tigers will meet with first place on the line in the early season matchup.
• Head coach Brian Earl's Big Red is off and running again this season, averaging 85.4 points per game while shooting .501 overall and 35 percent from 3-point range while assisting on 18.7 buckets per outing.
• Earl, the 1999 Ivy League Player of the Year, was college teammates with Princeton head coach Mitch Henderson and served as an assistant coach on his staff for five seasons (nine overall at his alma mater).
• The Big Red's 14-3 start is its best after 17 games in a season since 1964-65 when it began 14-2.
• The matchup features two of the most potent offenses in the country — Cornell ranks among the national leaders in scoring offense (11th, 85.4 ppg.), 3-pointers per game (12th, 10.4), field goal percentage (8th, .501), effective field goal percentage (4th, .585), assists per game (8th, 18.7) and bench points (1st, 40.4).
• Princeton is ranked No. 1 in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major top 25 poll, while the Big Red enters the game at No. 20 in the rankings.

GAME INFORMATION
Princeton at Cornell
DATE & TIME: Saturday, Jan. 27 at 2:00 p.m.
SITE: Newman Arena – Ithaca, N.Y.
RECORDS: Princeton (15-1, 3-0 Ivy League), Cornell (14-3, 3-0 Ivy League)
SERIES RECORD: Princeton leads 153-84
BROADCAST: ESPN+
STATS: CornellBigRed.com
DIGITAL PROGRAM: CornellBigRed.com

THE SERIES
123 Years • 224 Miles • 237 Meetings
Overall: Princeton leads 153-84
In Ithaca, N.Y.: Princeton leads 62-53
Current Streak: Princeton, 3 games
Last Meeting: Princeton won 89-82, 2/3/23 in Princeton, N.J.
Earl vs. Princeton: 4-9

SERIES NOTES
Series dates back to the 1901-02 season • the two teams have nearly split the meetings down the middle over the last 18 seasons (Princeton leads 20-17) • the Tigers have the better of the recent meetings, claiming 19 of the past 25 after the Big Red had gone 7-1 in the previous eight matchups • Cornell snapped a six-game Princeton win streak in 2018, a three overtime thriller won by the Big Red at Newman Arena • the Tigers have won three straight overall in the series

A WIN OVER PRINCETON WOULD
• push Cornell's record to 15-3 to open the season, matching its best mark after 18 games since the 1964-65 campaign (started 19-2).
• give the Big Red a 4-0 start in Ivy League play for the first time since 2009-10 (6-0 start).
• extend Cornell's win streak to five games overall.
• up its home win streak to eight games, including 7-0 this season and 28-4 since the beginning of the 2021-22 campaign.
• narrow Princeton's lead in the all-time series to 1553-85 and snap a three-game skid against the Tigers.
• give Cornell a 47-25 record overall (.653) since the beginning of the 2021-22 season.
• be the 1,341st in program history (1,340-1,495-2 in 123 seasons, .473).

LAST TIME VS. PRINCETON
• Princeton scored 54 second half points and overcame a 13-point second half deficit to top Cornell 89-82 in a battle for first place in the Ivy League standings at Jadwin Gymnasium. 
• Princeton shot 67 percent in the second half and 58 percent for the game and the Big Red went ice cold, hitting just one of its final 13 3-point attempts in the loss. 
• The defeat overshadowed a 23-point, seven-rebound, three-assist, three-steal, two-block effort from Chris Manon as the Big Red lost for its second time in the past three games. 
• Besides Manon's effort, Isaiah Gray had 13 points and Sean Hansen scored 12, with Greg Dolan, Keller Boothby and Guy Ragland Jr. netting eight points apiece.
• Tosan Evbuomwan had 17 points to lead the Tigers, with Matt Allocco scoring 16 to go along with five rebounds and five assists. 
• Princeton overcame 18 turnovers with second half defense, limiting the visitors to 36 percent shooting (2-of-14 from 3-point range) after the Big Red shot 62 percent in the first 20 minutes.
• The loss dropped Cornell into a tie for second place with Yale at 5-3, one game behind the Tigers (6-2) and a game clear of fourth-place teams Brown, Dartmouth and Penn - all at 4-4.


 
LAST TIME OUT
• Sixteen players reached the scoring column as the Cornell men's basketball team extended its non-conference home win streak to 17 games following a 105-49 victory over local Division III foe Wells College at Newman Arena. 
• The Big Red put three players in double figures, as freshman Ian Imegwu and senior Max Watson each drilled four 3-pointers and junior Guy Ragland Jr. tallied 12 in just six minutes of action off the bench. 
• Cornell shot 48 percent from the floor and made 17 3-pointers, tied for the fourth most in a game in school history. 
• The 105 points marks the 10th time the Big Red has reached the century mark under head coach Brian Earl and the 31st time total in school history. 
• The team's 28 assists are tied for sixth in a single game, while the 39 field goals made are tied for 12th. 
• A total of 25 of the team's 51 rebounds came on the offensive glass, leading to a 32-6 edge in second chance points. 
• Cornell also dominated in points off turnovers (33-2) and bench points (77-10).



PLAYER NOTES TO KNOW
• Cornell enters the week with three double figure scorers, six with at least 9.2 ppg. and eight regulars averaging at least 5.9 points per contest.
• Seven regular Big Red players are shooting 50 percent or better from the floor.
• The Big Red's three leading 3-point shooters (Cooper Noard, Keller Boothby and Guy Ragland) have combined to shoot .424 (89-210) from beyond the arc so far.
• Junior Nazir Williams is averaging 13.2 points and 3.2 assists with a 15:2 assist:turnover ratio and has shot 48-41-67 over the past five contests.
• Over his past eight contests, Williams has a 5.20 assist-turnover ratio (26:5) and is 22-of-25 from the free-throw line (88 percent).
• Senior Isaiah Gray leads the team in minutes played at 23.4 through 17 contests and is among 11 regulars averaging at least 8.9 minutes.
• Manon has 151 steals in 71 career games, or 2.13 steals per game, ahead of Wallace Prather's school record average of 1.89. Manon is challenging the record despite averaging just 19.5 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 .529 career field goal percentage ranks seventh all-time at Cornell among players with at least 400 shot attempts.
• Manon, who was the Ivy League Player of the Week on Jan. 2, is averaging 13.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 3.0 steals over his past seven contests while shooting .594 from the floor (38-of-64).
• Manon joined a select group of 11 Big Red players to record at least 500 points, 250 rebounds, 100 assists, 25 blocked shots and 25 steals in their careers when hie ripped down four boards against Columbia. Sean Hansen is just one blocked shot from becoming the 12th player to reach those milestones. Three of those 11 Big Red players to reach those marks have played for head coach Brian Earl (Matt Morgan '19 and Josh Warren '20).  
• Senior Isaiah Gray is shooting .702 from inside the 3-point arc this season (59-of-84).
• Gray has reached double figures in points in nine of his past 10 games, averaging 12.6 points over that stretch while shooting .721 (49-of-68) from the floor.
• Gray has shot 50 percent or better from the floor in each of his past 10 contests.
• Over his last seven games, Gray is averaging 2.0 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 has been every bit as productive this season, averaging 19.7 points, 8.6 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.4 steals and 0.6 blocks in 37.6 minutes per game while shooting 51 percent from the floor and 36 percent from 3-point range. 
• 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 11 of his past 14 games, shooting 29-of-57 (.509) over that stretch and has connected on 13-of-21 over the last six contests (62 percent).
• Over the past two seasons, Boothby has shot .517 (30-of-58) from 3-point range in Ivy play.
• In 13 home games in 2022-23, Boothby had 11 assists and one turnover in 245 minutes of play.
• Boothby's 2.33 career assist-turnover ratio is the highest in program history for a non-guard (56 assists/24 turnovers). 
• Boothby has committed just 24 career turnovers in 1439 minutes, or one every 60.0 minutes of action.
• Sophomore AK Okereke is shooting 63 percent from the floor (40-of-64). 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).
• Okereke has shot 67 percent or better from the floor in nine different contests.
• 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 46-25 record (.648), a mark that is 46-17 when removing guarantee games (.730).
• Cornell is 27-4 at home over the past three seasons, including a perfect 15-0 against non-conference opponents over that span.
• Over the past three seasons, the Big Red is averaging 17.7 assists per game and hitting 10.2 3-pointers per game while averaging 81.7 points per game. 
• Over its past 11 contests, the Big Red is shooting .644 (228-of-354) from inside the 3-point arc.
• In three Ivy games this season, Cornell has assisted on 56 baskets with 33 turnovers (1.70 assist-turnover ratio).  
• Cornell is turning the ball over just 10.8 times per game in the past six games after averaging 15.0 over the first 11 contests.
• Cornell has hit double figures in 3-pointers nine times this season, with a season high 17 coming in the midweek win over Wells.
• Of the 31 100-point games for the Big Red in school history, head coach Brian Earl has been at the helm for 10 of them, including for five of the top 10 totals.
• Earl's teams also have 11 of the top 20 single-game assist totals and 18 of the top 20 made 3-point field goal totals.
• The Big Red was picked third in the Ivy League Preseason Media Poll, its highest preseason selection since also being chosen third in the 2010-11 poll.
• Cornell has hit a 3-pointer in 956 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 1,001 of 1,005 games (6,824 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.
• 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.
• At the same time, Cornell has now won 30 straight non-guarantee non-conference games dating back to that same loss to Hartford.

MISCELLANEOUS TEAM NOTES
• Brian Earl and his brother Dan (Chattanooga) are one of five active sets of brothers directing Division I programs, joining Bryce (Grand Canyon) and Scott (Baylor) Drew, Bobby (Arizona State) and Danny (Connecticut) Hurley, Joe (Boston University) and James (Yale) Jones and Archie (Rhode Island) and Sean (Xavier) Miller.
• 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
• Cornell begins a three-game Ivy League road swing when it visits Dartmouth on Friday, Feb. 2 at 7 p.m. at Leede Arena in Hanover, N.H.
• The contest will be broadcast live on ESPN+.
• Cornell leads the all-time series 115-109, including a season sweep of the series in 2022-23.
• The Big Red is 6-2 against the Big Green in Hanover over the past eight seasons.