PRINCETON, N.J. -- The Cornell men's basketball team's seven seniors have played (and won) big games to get themselves into the Ivy League Tournament. Their nine road wins this season ranks in the top 10 nationally, and only two squads have more than their 11 victories away from home. Their toughness is unquestioned.
 
But a first-place matchup at Princeton just 21 hours after walking off the court from a gutty 87-81 win at the Palestra against Penn?

That would be history-making.

The Big Red will attempt to become just the 14th team in more than 60 years (364 opportunities) to sweep the Penn-Princeton road trip when it visits the Tigers on Saturday, March 2 at 7 p.m. at Jadwin. Cornell has accomplished the feat just one other time in its history - in 2007-08 en route to a perfect 14-0 season. Even the 2009-10 Ivy champion and NCAA Sweet 16 couldn't pull off the sweep.

Cornell head coach Brian Earl, a former Ivy League Player of the Year for Princeton, will attempt to knock his alma mater out of first place in the Ivy standings and get the inside track for the No. 1 overall seed at Ivy Madness on March 16-17 in New York City. The Big Red, the Tigers and Yale each enter the final two contests of the season knotted up with 10-2 records. A Cornell victory would complete a season sweep of the Tigers and all but clinch tiebreakers against both Princeton and Yale with a season-ending matchup against Columbia on tap for next Saturday.

The Big Red won the first meeting between the teams 83-68 on Jan. 27, using a 30-5 first half run to blitz the Tigers. Cornell shot 58 percent, held the Tigers to 32 percent shooting and was in control nearly the entire way despite playing without senior guard Isaiah Gray, who missed the game with an injury. At the time, it was just Princeton's second loss of the season. Since then, Mitch Henderson's Tigers have gone 7-1. Earl's Big Red is 6-2 over that same span.

Cornell could clinch at least a share of the regular season title with a win coupled with a Yale defeat at home against Harvard. But a 22-3 Princeton team looking for revenge and hoping to cap an unbeaten home schedule stands in the way.

GAME INFORMATION
Cornell at Princeton
DATE & TIME: Saturday, March 2 at 7:00 p.m.
SITE: Jadwin Gymnasium – Princeton, N.J.
RECORDS: Cornell (21-5, 10-2 Ivy League), Princeton (22-3, 10-2 Ivy League)
SERIES RECORD: Princeton leads 152-85
BROADCAST: ESPN+
STATS: CornellBigRed.com
DIGITAL PROGRAM: CornellBigRed.com

THE SERIES
123 Years • 224 Miles • 238 Meetings
Overall: Princeton leads 152-85
In Princeton, N.J.: Princeton leads 89-29
Current Streak: Cornell, 1 game
Last Meeting: Cornell won 83-68, 1/27/24 in Ithaca, N.Y.
Earl vs. Princeton: 5-9

SERIES NOTES
Series dates back to the 1901-02 season • the two teams have nearly split the meetings down the middle over the last 19 seasons (Princeton leads 20-18) • the Tigers have the better of the recent meetings, claiming 19 of the past 26 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 had their three-game win streak snapped in the first meeting of 2024.

A WIN OVER PRINCETON WOULD
• push Cornell's record to 22-5 overall.
• keep Cornell atop the Ivy League standings at 11-2.
• coupled with a Yale loss to Harvard, give the Big Red at least a share of the program's sixth Ivy League title and first since 2009-10.
• give the Big Red 22 wins on the season, tied with the 2007-08 Ivy League champions for the second-most in a season in school history.
• make Cornell the 14th team in Ivy history to sweep the Penn-Princeton weekend (second time for Cornell - also the 2007-08 season).
• complete a season sweep of Princeton, the Big Red's second over the Tigers in the past four seasons.
• improve the Big Red's road record to 10-4 on the year, just the third 10-win road season in program history (2007-08 and 2009-10).
• move Cornell to second in the nation in most road victories with 10, two behind leader James Madison.
• give Cornell a 54-27 record overall (.667) since the beginning of the 2021-22 season.
• be the 1,348th in program history (1,347-1,497-2 in 123 seasons, .474).

LAST TIME VS. PRINCETON
• The Cornell crowd set the tone and the Big Red men's basketball team did the rest, blitzing Princeton for a 30-5 first half run en route to an 83-68 victory over the Tigers on Saturday afternoon at Newman Arena. 
• The Big Red shot 58 percent from the floor, limited Princeton to 32 percent shooting and dominated the matchup for first-place in the Ivy League. 
• Junior Nazir Williams scored 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds while hitting all four of his 3-pointers, while senior Chris Manon had 16 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, two steals and two blocks to electrify a Newman Nation crowd of better than 3,600. 
• Both AK Okereke and Sean Hansen had 12 points apiece to round out four double figure scorers.
• The Tigers, the defending Ivy champ and 2023 NCAA Sweet 16 squad, entered the game just outside the national rankings, but had just one double figure scorer - Xaivian Lee with 17 points on 3-of-13 shooting. 
• Caden Pierce was 3-for-13 en route to eight points, 11 rebounds and four assists.


 
LAST TIME OUT
•  After a first half where nothing went right, the Cornell men's basketball team could seemingly do nothing wrong after the break. 
• The Big Red weathered a barrage of Penn 3-pointers and a decade's worth of Palestra sadness with an 87-81 victory over the Quakers. 
• Cornell scored 53 points in the second half on 53 percent shooting, didn't turn the ball over in the final 20 minutes and closed strong to snap a nine-game skid against Penn at the famed Palestra. 
• AK Okereke scored a career-high 18 points, including the go-ahead 3-pointer with 2:12 to play, to pace four double figure scorers for the visitors. 
• Cooper Noard notched 13 points, Chris Manon tallied 11 points with five rebounds and three steals and Nazir Williams had 10 points, three rebounds and three assists in the win. 
• Cornell shot 47 percent from the floor and made 12 3-pointers while outrebounding the home team 36-33.
• Clark Slajchert scored a game-high 22 points to lead the Quakers.



PLAYER NOTES TO KNOW
• Cornell enters Saturday with two double figure scorers, six with at least 8.4 ppg. and eight regulars averaging at least 5.9 points per contest.
• A total of 14 different Cornell players have scored in double figures at least once this season.
• Four regular Big Red players are shooting 53 percent better from the floor with six at 49 percent or above and three at .574 or above.
• The Big Red's four leading 3-point shooters (Cooper Noard, Keller Boothby, Nazir Williams and Guy Ragland) have combined to shoot .384 (151-393) from beyond the arc.
• Williams leads the team in minutes played at 24.8 and is among 11 regulars averaging at least 8.4 minutes per game.
• Senior Chris Manon, a two-time Ivy League Player of the Week this season (Jan. 2, Jan. 29), is averaging 13.9 points, 4.2 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 2.6 steals and 0.8 blocks over his past 16 contests while shooting .591 from the floor (91-of-154).
• Manon entered the weekend atop the Ancient Eight in steals per game (2.3 spg.) and in the top five in field goal percentage (fifth, .572). In Ivy play, he ranked in the top five in steals (first, 2.5 spg.) and blocked shots (1.0 bpg.) and is in the top 10 in assists (sixth, 3.5 apg.) and scoring (10th, 14.5 ppg.).
• Senior Isaiah Gray is shooting .661 from inside the 3-point arc this season (80-of-121).
• The Big Red's two-headed center of senior Sean Hansen and junior 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 18.0 points, 8.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.7 blocks in 38.5 minutes per game while shooting 51 percent from the floor and 39 percent from 3-point range. 
• In 13 home games in 2022-23, senior Keller Boothby had 11 assists and one turnover in 245 minutes of play.
• Boothby's 2.52 career assist-turnover ratio is the highest in program history for a non-guard (63 assists/25 turnovers). 
• Boothby has committed just 25 career turnovers in 1569 minutes, or one every 62.8 minutes of action.
• Boothby missed his first career game at Harvard after making 74 appearances over his first three seasons.
• Sophomore AK Okereke is shooting 59 percent from the floor (62-of-105). 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 12 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
• Cornell earned two votes in the USA Today Coaches Poll on Jan. 29 after its victory over Princeton, the first time the Big Red earned recognition in the poll since ranking No. 17 in the final poll in 2010 (April 6, 2010).
• Since its return from COVID, Cornell men's basketball has posted a 53-27 record (.663), a mark that is 53-19 when removing guarantee games (.736).
• Cornell is 31-5 at home over the past three seasons, including a perfect 15-0 against non-conference opponents over that span.
• The team's 21 wins are tied for third-most in a season, matching the 2008-09 Ivy League champion squad.
• Four of Cornell's five losses have come on the road against nationally-ranked Baylor (No. 16 in NET, 19-8), Syracuse (No. 85 in NET, 18-10), George Mason (No. 88 in NET, 18-9) and Yale (No. 93 in NET, 18-8), four teams that have combined to go 73-35 this year and are all ranked in the top 100 in the NCAA's NET rankings. 
• Over the past three seasons, the Big Red is averaging 17.5 assists per game and hitting 10.2 3-pointers per game while averaging 81.2 points per game. Over that stretch, Cornell is shooting .590 from two-point range.
• Entering the weekend, the Big Red led Division I in bench scoring (36.7 ppg.) and ranks in the top 10 in effective field goal percentage (fifth, .576) and assists per game (ninth, 17.7 apg.).
• In 12 Ivy games this season, Cornell has assisted on 198 baskets with 133 turnovers (1.49 assist-turnover ratio).  
• The Big Red is 17-1 this season when leading at halftime, with the lone loss at Yale after holding a 46-38 edge (lost 80-78).
• 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.
• Cornell has hit a 3-pointer in 965 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 1,010 of 1,014 games (6,913 3-pointers over that span).
• ESPN analyst and Hall of Famer Dick Vitale named Brian Earl his national Coach of the Week on Feb. 5 following the Big Red's 83-68 victory over first-place Princeton.

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 will look to close the regular season when it visits Columbia on Saturday, March 9 at 2 p.m. at Levien Gymnasium.
• The contest will be broadcast live on ESPN+.
• The Big Red will return to Levien the following weekend for the 2024 Ivy League Tournament.
• Cornell won the first meeting between the teams 91-79 on January 9 in the Ivy opener for both teams at Newman Arena.