ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell men's basketball team will attempt to build some momentum heading into Ivy Madness when it closes the regular season at Columbia on Saturday, March 9 at 2 p.m. at Levien Gymnasium. The contest will be broadcast on ESPN+ with Lance Medow and Barry Rohrssen on the call.

• Head coach Brian Earl's team is still in the hunt for the program's fifth Ivy League title and would clinch a share of the crown with a win coupled with a Yale loss to Brown and a Princeton defeat by Penn.
• Win or lose against the Lions, Cornell will be returning to Levien next weekend after it clinched a bid in Ivy Madness, its third consecutive appearance and fourth under the direction of Big Red head coach Brian Earl (2018-22-23-24).
• The Big Red will almost certainly be the No. 3 seed and will play in the 2 p.m. game against either Yale or Princeton, depending on the weekend results.
• Before we get there, Cornell will attempt to claim its third consecutive season sweep of the Lions on Senior Day.
• The Big Red has been one of the top road teams in the country all season, as its nine true road wins (t-13th) and 11 wins away from home (t-6th) rank among the nation's best.
• Cornell continues to play at one of the fastest paces in the nation, averaging 82.4 points on 49 percent shooting overall, while connecting on 10.1 3-pointers and assisting on 17.6 buckets.

GAME INFORMATION
Columbia at Cornell
DATE & TIME: Saturday, March 9 at 2:00 p.m.
SITE: Levien Gymnasium – New York, N.Y.
RECORDS: Columbia (13-13, 4-9 Ivy League), Cornell (21-6, 10-3 Ivy League)
SERIES RECORD: Princeton leads 152-85
BROADCAST: ESPN+
STATS: CornellBigRed.com
DIGITAL PROGRAM: CornellBigRed.com

THE SERIES
121 Years • 227 Miles • 239 Meetings
Overall: Columbia leads 131-108
In New York, N.Y.: Columbia leads 80-38
Current Streak: Cornell, 6 games
Last Meeting: Cornell won 91-79, 1/9/24 in Ithaca, N.Y.
Earl vs. Columbia: 9-4

SERIES NOTES
Series dates back to the 1902-03 season • Cornell leads 25-16 over the past 21 seasons • narrowing that down, the Lions have a 13-12 lead over the past 13 seasons • seven of the past 17 meetings have been decided by five points or less

A WIN OVER COLUMBIA WOULD
• push Cornell's record to 22-6 overall (11-3 Ivy).
• coupled with losses by Princeton (at Penn) and Yale (vs. Brown), give Cornell a share of its fifth Ivy League title in school history (1988, 2008, 2009, 2010).
• be the seventh consecutive win over the Lions in the series, cutting Cornell's deficit to 131-109.
• 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.
• improve the Big Red's record on the road to 10-5 on the year, just the third 10-win road season in program history (2007-08 and 2009-10).
• avoid Cornell's first losing streak since Feb. 18 (Harvard) and Feb. 25 (at Yale) of 2023
• give Cornell a 54-28 record overall (.659) since the beginning of the 2021-22 season.
• be the 1,348th in program history (1,347-1,498-2 in 123 seasons, .473).

LAST TIME VS. COLUMBIA
• Nazir Williams scored a season-best 24 points in his first start of the year as the Cornell men's basketball team won its Ivy League opener over Columbia 91-79 at Newman Arena. 
• Williams connected on 8-of-12 shots from the floor and assisted on three baskets without committing a turnover as the Big Red shot 54 percent from the floor and knocked down 12 3-pointers. 
• Sean Hansen added 14 points, six rebounds and three assists and both Isaiah Gray and Cooper Noard added 11 points to round out four double figure scorers. 
• Cornell turned it over just nine times and held a 33-30 edge on the glass. 
• Columbia shot 51 percent itself and connected on 10-of-18 3-pointers, assisting on 19 baskets with five players in double figures. 
• Avery Brown led the way with 17 along with four assists, three rebounds and three steals. 
• Kenny Noland and Josh Odunowo had 11 points apiece and Jaden Cooper and Zine Eddine Bedri scored 10 each off the bench. 


 
LAST TIME OUT
•  In a back-and-forth battle that lived up to the billing, Princeton was one possession better in a 79-77 win over Cornell at a sold-out Jadwin Gymnasium. 
• Nazir Williams scored a game-high 23 points and added six rebounds and five assists, while Chris Manon netted 16 with six boards, three helpers and a pair of blocked shots in the loss as the lone double figure scorers. 
• Cooper Noard and Guy Ragland Jr. each scored nine. 
• The Big Red struggled from beyond the 3-point arc (9-of-32) and forced just six Tiger turnovers.
• Caden Pierce had 23 points, eight rebounds, four assists and three steals, while Matt Allocco had 19 points and four boards on Senior Day. 
• Xaivian Lee recorded a double-double with 16 points, 10 rebounds and two assists in the win. 
• The Tigers, meanwhile, outscored the Big Red 15-6 off turnovers - a difference-making total in a two-point contest.
• The final 18 minutes saw 10 lead changes and five ties with neither team backing down.

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 5.7 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 48 percent or above and three at .561 or above.
• The Big Red's four leading 3-point shooters (Cooper Noard, Keller Boothby, Nazir Williams and Guy Ragland) have combined to shoot .385 (161-418) from beyond the arc.
• Williams leads the team in minutes played at 25.0 and is among 11 regulars averaging at least 8.5 minutes per game.
• Senior Chris Manon, a two-time Ivy League Player of the Week this season (Jan. 2, Jan. 29), is averaging 14.1 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 2.5 steals and 0.9 blocks over his past 17 contests while shooting .594 from the floor (98-of-165).
• Manon entered the weekend atop the Ancient Eight in steals per game (2.3 spg.) and in the top five in field goal percentage (second, .579). In Ivy play, he ranked in the top 10 in steals (first, 2.4 spg.), field goal percentage (third, .580), blocked shots (sixth, 1.0 bpg.), assists (ninth, 3.2 apg.) and scoring (10th, 14.5 ppg.). He is 11th in rebounding (4.7 rpg.).
• Senior Isaiah Gray is shooting .667 from inside the 3-point arc this season (82-of-123).
• 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, 3.4 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 1581 minutes, or one every 63.2 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 56 percent from the floor (63-of-112). 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 53-28 record (.654), a mark that is 53-20 when removing guarantee games (.726).
• 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.
• Five of Cornell's six losses have come on the road against nationally-ranked Baylor (No. 13 in NET, 22-8), Princeton (No. 51 in NET, 23-3), Yale (No. 93 in NET, 20-8), Syracuse (No. 83 in NET, 20-10) and George Mason (No. 99 in NET, 18-11), five teams that have combined to go 103-40 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 81.1 points per game. Over that stretch, Cornell is shooting .591 from two-point range.
• Entering the weekend, the Big Red is second Division I in bench scoring (36.1 ppg.) and ranks in the top 20 in effective field goal percentage (sixth, .574), assists per game (12th, 17.6 apg.), 3-pointers (13th, 10.1) field goal percentage (17th, .491) and scoring offense (20th, 82.4).
• In 13 Ivy games this season, Cornell has assisted on 213 baskets with 143 turnovers (1.49 assist-turnover ratio).  
• The Big Red is 17-2 this season when leading at halftime, with the two losses on the road at Ivy leaders Yale (46-38) and Princeton (35-33).
• 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 966 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 1,011 of 1,015 games (6,922 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 returns to New York City and Columbia for the Ivy League Tournament on Saturday, March 16 at Levien Gymnasium with an opponent and time to be determined.
• The first semifinal will will be broadcast live on ESPNU at 11 a.m. with the second semifinal at 2 p.m. on ESPNews.
• It will be Cornell's fourth appearance and third consecutive in the Ivy Tournament, with the Big Red looking for its first win.