ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's basketball team will attempt to sweep a road Ivy weekend for the first time since 2019 when it visits Harvard on Saturday, Feb. 3 at 7 p.m. at Lavietes Pavilion. The contest will be broadcast on ESPN+.

• Cornell is coming off a 56-53 win at Dartmouth on Friday evening, overcoming an eight-point deficit with eight minutes to play.
• Cornell shot a season-low 37 percent and scored a season-low 56 points, but earned its ninth win away from home this season.
• Cornell's nine wins away from home (7-3 road, 2-0 neutral) is tied for third nationally, one behind national leader James Madison.
• The Big Red has now won six straight and is 9-1 in its past 10 games with its lone loss at nationally-ranked Baylor.
• The Big Red's 16-3 start is its best after 19 games in a season since 1964-65 when it began 17-2.
• Head coach Brian Earl's Big Red is off and running again this season, averaging 83.7 points per game while shooting .498 overall and 34 percent from 3-point range while assisting on 18.3 buckets per outing.
• Cornell is shooting a blistering .639 from inside the arc this season (first nationally in two-point field goal percentage).
• The Big Red is out to snap a three-game skid against Harvard and keep pace with Yale (5-0) atop the Ivy standings.

GAME INFORMATION
Cornell at Harvard
DATE & TIME: Saturday, Feb. 3 at 7:00 p.m.
SITE: Lavietes Pavilion – Cambridge, Mass.
RECORDS: Cornell (16-3, 5-0 Ivy League), Harvard (11-7, 2-3 Ivy League)
SERIES RECORD: Cornell leads 96-87
BROADCAST: ESPN+
STATS: GoCrimson.com
DIGITAL PROGRAM: CornellBigRed.com

THE SERIES
121 Years • 227 Miles • 183 Meetings
Overall: Cornell leads 96-87
In Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard leads 46-44
Current Streak: Harvard, 3 games
Last Meeting: Harvard won 73-56, 2/18/23 in Ithaca, N.Y.
Earl vs. Harvard: 3-10

SERIES NOTES
Series dates back to the 1901-02 season • Harvard had won six straight meetings before the Big Red's season sweep during the 2018-19 campaign • Cornell won two consecutive prior to that stretch, but that came on the heels of nine straight Crimson wins

A WIN OVER HARVARD WOULD
• push Cornell's record to 17-3 to open the season, its best mark after 20 games since the 1964-65 campaign (started 19-2).
• give the Big Red a 6-0 start in Ivy League play for the first time since 2009-10 (also a 6-0 start) while keeping pace at the top of the conference standings (Yale also 5-0).
• extend Cornell's win streak to seven games overall.
• be the 10th win away from home this season, matching James Madison for the most in the country (10).
• give the Big Red three consecutive wins to kick off Ivy play for the first time since 2007-08.
• snap a three-game skid against Harvard while upping the Big Red's lead in the all-time series to 97-87.
• give Cornell a 49-25 record overall (.662) since the beginning of the 2021-22 season.
• be the 1,343rd in program history (1,342-1,495-2 in 123 seasons, .473).

LAST TIME VS. HARVARD
• Cornell shot 22 percent from the floor in the second half and Harvard's Chris Ledlum put up a dominant performance as the Crimson took a 73-56 win over the Big Red at Newman Arena. 
• Ledlum put up 35 points, 13 rebounds, six steals, three assists and two blocked shots, hitting 12-of-17 field goals and generally making every play all evening. 
• Idan Tretout added 19 points, three rebounds and three assists in the victory for the Crimson, who shot 50 percent from the floor and held a 38-18 edge in paint scoring.
• Isaiah Gray had a team-high 11 points to lead the Big Red, while Sean Hansen had 10 points and seven rebounds and Greg Dolan chipped in 10 points. 
• Cornell shot just 33 percent from the floor overall, including 5-of-23 in the final 20 minutes. 
• The team's eight assists were a season low for a team that entered the day third nationally in that category.
• Coupled with Brown's 90-69 loss at Penn, the Big Red remains tied for fourth in the Ancient Eight standings with the Bears (6-6), a single game ahead of both Dartmouth and Harvard (5-7) and two games behind Ivy leaders Penn, Princeton and Yale, all at 8-4.


 
LAST TIME OUT
• Nearly nothing went right for the Cornell men's basketball team over a 30-minute stretch at Dartmouth, but the Big Red made winning plays when it mattered to rally past the Big Green 56-53 at Leede Arena. 
• Cornell opened the game on a 19-0 run, watched the Big Green catch and pass them in the second half to go up by eight, then did all the right things in the final minute to earn the hard-fought win. 
• A Chris Manon steal and free throw broke a tie, then after a defensive stop, Nazir Williams hit a step-back jumper in the lane to push the edge to three. 
• Cornell did not allow a good look in the final seven seconds to escape New Hampshire with the victory.
• The win came despite Cornell shooting just 37 percent overall and connecting on 6-of-31 shots from 3-point range, with only Manon reaching double figures with his 11 points. 
• Dartmouth's Dusan Neskovic had 16 points and Brandon Mitchell-Day posted a 10-point, 10-rebound double-double to lead the Big Green.

PLAYER NOTES TO KNOW
• Cornell enters the week with three double figure scorers, six with at least 8.9 ppg. and eight regulars averaging at least 6.2 points per contest.
• Five regular Big Red players are shooting 50 percent or better from the floor with three others over 48 percent.
• The Big Red's four leading 3-point shooters (Cooper Noard, Keller Boothby, Nazir Williams and Guy Ragland) have combined to shoot .395 (117-296) from beyond the arc.
• Junior Nazir Williams is averaging 13.4 points and 3.0 assists with a 20:6 assist:turnover ratio and has shot 51-48-67 over the past six contests.
• Over his past nine contests, Williams has a 3.44 assist-turnover ratio (31:9) and is 24-of-27 from the free-throw line (89 percent).
• Senior Isaiah Gray and junior Nazir Williams lead the team in minutes played at 23.1 through 19 contests and are among 11 regulars averaging at least 9.0 minutes.
• Manon has 155 steals in 73 career games, or 2.12 steals per game, ahead of Wallace Prather's school record average of 1.89. Manon is challenging the record despite averaging just 19.7 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 .532 career field goal percentage ranks seventh all-time at Cornell among players with at least 400 shot attempts.
• Manon, a two-time Ivy League Player of the Week this season (Jan. 2, Jan. 29), is averaging 13.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 2.8 steals and 0.6 blocks over his past nine contests while shooting .595 from the floor (50-of-84).
• 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 .700 from inside the 3-point arc this season (63-of-90).
• Gray has reached double figures in points in nine of his past 11 games, averaging 12.2 points over that stretch while shooting .697 (53-of-76) from the floor.
• Gray has shot 50 percent or better from the floor in each of his past 11 contests.
• Over his past eight games, Gray is averaging 2.1 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 18.8 points, 8.2 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.5 steals and 0.5 blocks in 37.8 minutes per game while shooting 51 percent from the floor and 35 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 16 games, shooting 30-of-64 (.469) over that stretch.
• Over the past two seasons, Boothby has shot .477 (31-of-65) 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 2.42 career assist-turnover ratio is the highest in program history for a non-guard (58 assists/24 turnovers). 
• Boothby has committed just 24 career turnovers in 1474 minutes, or one every 61.4 minutes of action.
• Sophomore AK Okereke is shooting 63 percent from the floor (46-of-73). 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).
• The Big Red is 2-0 with Okereke in the starting lineup this season, with the sophomore averaging 10.5 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.0 assists while shooting 80 percent from the floor (8-of-10) and 67 percent from beyond the arc (2-of-3) in those games.
• Okereke has shot 67 percent or better from the floor in 10 different contests.
• Freshman Jake Fiegen has seen a significant increase in his minutes over the past six games (from 8.1 to 18.2). His insertion into the lineup has coincided with a Big Red defense renaissance, as Cornell has gone 6-0 while cutting down its points allowed (65.3 from 78.3 over the first 13 games) and field goal percentage defense (.423 from .448).
• 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 48-25 record (.658), a mark that is 48-17 when removing guarantee games (.738).
• Cornell is 28-4 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 17.6 assists per game and hitting 10.2 3-pointers per game while averaging 81.3 points per game. Over that stretch, Cornell is shooting .591 from two-point range.
• Over its past 13 contests, the Big Red is shooting .648 (267-of-412) from inside the 3-point arc.
• In five Ivy games this season, Cornell has assisted on 85 baskets with 50 turnovers (1.70 assist-turnover ratio).  
• Cornell is turning the ball over just 10.3 times per game in the past eight 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 958 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 1,003 of 1,007 games (6,839 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
• The Big Red completes its three-game road trip when it visits Yale on Saturday, Feb. 10 at 2 p.m. at the John J. Lee Amphitheater.
• The game will be broadcast live on ESPN+.
• Yale leads the all-time series 121-112 and has won two straight, including an 80-60 contest in the 2023 Ivy League Tournament semifinals.
• Prior to the current two-game skid, the Big Red had won two straight against the Bulldogs.