2009-10 NCAA Tournament Guide (PDF)
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GAME INFORMATION
Game #34: No. 12 Cornell vs. No. 1 Kentucky
Tip off: Thursday, March 25, at 9:57 p.m. ET
Site: The Carrier Dome (33,633), Syracuse, N.Y.
2009-10 Records: No. 12 Cornell (29-4, 13-1 Ivy); No. 1 Kentucky (34-2, 14-2 SEC)
Series Record: Cornell leads 1-0
Last Meeting: Cornell won 92-77, Dec. 28, 1966 in Lexington, Ky.
Radio: 93.5 WVBR-FM (Barry Leonard)
TV: CBS (Dick Enberg, Jay Bilas)
Live Stats: Available at www.NCAASports.com
Live Video: Available at www.NCAASports.com
Tickets: Sold-out through Cornell Athletics

HEAD COACH STEVE DONAHUE
Cornell head coach Steve Donahue is in his 10th season at Cornell (146-137, .516) ... Donahue became the fourth Robert E. Gallagher '44 Coach of Men's Basketball at Cornell on Sept. 6, 2000.

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ITHACA, N.Y. — After shocking the college basketball world with consecutive impressive wins over top five seeds, the Ivy League champion Cornell men's basketball team will attempt to make the tournament even more memorable when it meets No. 1 seed Kentucky on Thursday, March 25 at 9:57 p.m. at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, N.Y. Cornell will attempt to win its third NCAA tournament in program history in a nationally televised game on CBS, while Barry Leonard will provide the call on 93.5 WVBR-FM. Per NCAA regulations, live streaming video will not be available as part of the RedCast subscription service, but is available on March Madness on Demand at no charge on the NCAASports.com web site.

Cornell is a veteran squad looking for its biggest NCAA upset yet. Senior Ryan Wittman, the Ivy League Player of the Year, paces the team in scoring (17.8 ppg.) and joins fellow first-team All-Ivy selections Jeff Foote (12.4 ppg., 8.1 rpg.) in the post and Louis Dale (12.6 ppg., 4.8 apg.) on the perimeter. Cornell will be attempting to become the first Ivy League team to advance to the Elite Eight since Penn in 1979.

Big Red head coach Steve Donahue, the District Coach of the Year, after playing two of the top defenses in the country in wins over No. 5 seed Temple and No. 4 Wisconsin, will meet yet another outstanding defense in a Kentucky team that surrenders just .379 field goal shooting.

A potential upset of Kentucky would match the Big Red up with either No. 2 seed West Virginia or No. 11 seed Washington for a trip to the Final Four.

ABOUT THE KENTUCKY WILDCATS:
Record: 34-2 (14-2)
Conference: Southeastern Conference
Head Coach: John Calipari (Clarion '82), first season
NCAA Bid: SEC Automatic Bid (Tournament Champion)
No. 2 Kentucky is a dominant 34-2 and won the Southeastern Conference regular season and tournament championship this season. One of the most storied programs in the history of college basketball, the Wildcats own the most wins and highest winning percentage in college basketball history. Though the faces have changed on the court and the sidelines over its seven national title runs. Trying to lead Kentucky to its 32nd Elite Eight appearance is SEC Player and Newcomer of the Year, freshman John Wall. The 6-4 guard is averaging 16.9 points, 6.5 assistsm 4.2 rebounds and 1.8 steals while shooting better than 46 percent from the floor. He is surrounded by a powerful frontcourt of 6-11 freshman DeMarcus Cousins (15.1 ppg., 10.0 rpg., .551 FG percentage) and junior Patrick Patterson (14.6 ppg., 7.2 rpg.), as well as young backcourt mate Eric Bledsoe (11.4 ppg., 3.1 apg.). UK, known more for its offensive prowess, ranks fourth nationally in field goal percentage defense, allowing opponents to shoot just .379 from the field. The team blocks shots (fourth nationally, 7.3 bpg.) and rebounds (sixth nationally, +7.8). John Calipari has been one of the most successful college head coaches in history and has posted a combined record of 171-16 in his last five seasons, including four directing the Memphis program.

CORNELL VS. THE SEC: Cornell is 3-8 all-time against current members of the Southeastern Conference, including 1-0 against Kentucky and 1-0 this year (71-67 win at Alabama on Nov. 14). The Big Red has also faced the Crimson Tide (1-1), Arkansas (1-0), Georgia (0-1), Louisiana State (0-3), South Carolina (0-1) and Vanderbilt (0-2). Cornell has never squared off with Auburn, Florida, Mississippi, Mississippi State or Tennessee. Prior to this year's win over the Crimson Tide, the Big Red's last victory over an SEC squad came when it knocked off Arkansas 78-77 in the first round of the 1972 Razorback Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark. 

CORNELL VS. RANKED OPPONENTS: When Cornell faces No. 2 Kentucky, the Big Red will have a chance to knock off its third consecutive ranked opponent. After dispatching of No. 12/13 Temple in the first round and No. 16/19 Wisconsin in the second round, the Big Red would match its total of wins over ranked teams in its first 110 years of basketball combined with a win  over the Wildcats. Entering the tournament, the Big Red was 3-63 record (does not include one forfeit win) all-time against AP Top 25 teams and snapped an 18-game losing streak in such games with the win over the Owls. The Big Red's last win was a 74-54 triumph over then-No. 19 California, at the 1992 Seton Hall/Meadowlands Tournament. That team featured Jason Kidd (who sat out the game) and former NBA player Lamond Murray. The Big Red's other wins came against then-No. 17 Syracuse in 1957 (60-54), then-No. 3 Princeton in 1967 (62-56) and a win by forfeit against No. 15 Minnesota in a game vacated by the Gophers after using an ineligible player in 1976. A win over Kentucky would also signify a victory over its highest ranked opponent ever at No. 2.

BEEN THERE, DONE THAT: The Big Red won the only meeting between itself and Kentucky, topping the defending national runner-up Wildcats 92-77 on Dec. 28, 1966 in Lexington, Ky. Greggory Morris, a 6-0 junior, scored 37 points on 16-of-21 shooting for the Big Red and grabbed 11 rebounds, while Walt Esdaile scored 18. Kentucky's team featured Louie Dampier (18 points) and Basketball Hall of Famer Pat Riley (24 points, 11 rebounds). Cornell shot 58 percent from the floor in the victory.

Quotes from the game:
“I remember landing at Lexington and observing a sign at the airport, “Lexington, Kentucky, The Basketball Capital of the World.” Well, to the Cornellians that meant nothing more than the feeling that we had an opportunity to prove what kind of men we were.”
-- Cornell head coach Sam MacNeil --

“When (Greggory Morris) left the game with just seconds to play, he was given an appreciative round of applause by the knowledgeable Kentucky crowd.” 
-- Cornell head coach Sam MacNeil --

“It's a game I'll always remember. We went on to win our next 13 games, and even though we didn't get the Ivy title that year, the Kentucky game is a memory that we'll never take away from us.” 
-- Cornell forward Hank South --

“In my 37 years, seldom have I seen a Kentucky team play worse than we did tonight. After we threw the ball away the first four times in the second half I said 'we are beat.'” 
-- Kentucky head coach Adolph Rupp --

A FIRST FOR EVERYTHING: Cornell head coach Steve Donahue was on the sidelines for his first game as a Division I assistant coach when Penn visited Kentucky's Rupp Arena on Nov. 24, 1990. The Wildcats won that game 85-62.

TOP SEEDS NOT NEW: This will be the third game in 2009-10 that the Big Red has played against No. 1 seeds in this season's tournament (Kansas, Syracuse). Though Cornell lost both games, it showed well. Against Syracuse on Nov. 24 in the Carrier Dome, Wittman scored 19 points and Chris Wroblewski made six 3-pointers en route to 20 points, but the SU defense held Cornell to 39 percent shooting in the second half as the Orange took home an 88-73 victory. At No. 1 Kansas, Cornell controlled the game throughout and led inside of a minute to play, but the visitors missed a pair of late shots and the Jayhakws swung momentum with a three-point play by All-American guard Sherron Collins to go on for a 71-66 victory on Jan. 6. Wittman scored 24 points in the loss.

SURVIVE AND ADVANCE: The Big Red became the first Ivy League team to win an NCAA tournament game since No. 5 seed Princeton defeated No. 12 UNLV in 1988 when it dropped Temple 78-65 in the first round. It became the first Ivy squad to reach the Sweet 16 in the 64-team tournament era, and the first overall since Penn went to the Final Four in 1979.  

PERFECT AGAINST THE CATS: Cornell is one of just eight schools that have a perfect record all-time against Kentucky, joining Connecticut (1-0), Gardner Webb (1-0), Georgetown (2-0), Memphis (1-0), Middle Tennessee State (1-0), San Diego (1-0), USC (3-0) and UTEP (1-0). 

MOVE ALONG: Cornell senior Mark Coury played two seasons for the University of Kentucky, including starting for a majority of the 2007-08 squad. He averaged 2.0 points and 1.7 rebounds for an 18-13 NCAA tournament team, starting 29 of the team's 31 games and earning ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District honors. He has been a key member of the squad as a reserve this season for the Big Red, playing all 33 games and averaging 2.5 points and 2.4 rebounds. He also has a 20-10 assist:turnover ratio. 

ANOTHER FIRST: Cornell's 78-65 win over Temple on March 19 was its first-ever NCAA tournament victory and its first postseason win of any kind (The Ivy league does not conduct a postseason tournament). 

OFFENSIVE SPECIALISTS: The Big Red took two of the nation's top defenses and ran through them in a pair of double figure wins over higher seeds. Against a Temple squad that won the Atlantic 10 regular season and tournament championships and was allowing opponents to just 56.1 points on .379 shooting from the floor and .281 from 3-point range, the Big Red rang up 78 points (only No. 1 Kansas scored more against the Owls all season - 84 points). Cornell shot 56 percent from the floor and 39 percent from 3-point range. Two days later, Wisconsin entered the game surrendering 56.0 points on .418 shooting from the field and .336 from beyond the arc, but the Big Red offense was too much for it. Cornell scored 87 points (the most all season in regulation) while shooting .611 from the field and .533 from 3-point range. 

A RED EXPLOSION: In its two NCAA tournament games this season, the Big Red is shooting 59 percent from the floor and 45 percent from 3-point range while scoring 82.5 points. 

REBOUNDING, REALLY REBOUNDING: Cornell has outrebounded its two opponents by an average of 9.0 per game, including holding a 30-20 edge on the backboards against Wisconsin. 

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS: The Big Red won its fourth Ivy League title in school history and its seventh conference title of any kind with a 95-76 win at Brown on March 5. 

FIRST TO THE DANCE: For the second straight year, the Cornell men's basketball team is the first Division I team, men's or women's, to earn a bid to the NCAA tournament. Cornell's 83-59 victory over Penn on March 6, coupled with Princeton's 58-44 loss at Columbia, secured Cornell's automatic bid to the “Big Dance.”

AND YET ANOTHER FIRST: The Cornell basketball team is the first team besides Penn or Princeton to win outright Ivy League championships in three consecutive years.

FOUR-TIME WINNERS: In fact, only nine teams outside of perennial champions Penn and Princeton have won outright championships in the 55 years of Ivy basketball, with Cornell capturing the crown four times (1987-88, 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10). Other non-P champions include the 1955-56 Dartmouth, 1956-57 Yale, 1957-58 Dartmouth, 1961-62 Yale and 1985-86 Brown squads.

20-20 VISION: The Big Red enters the NCAA tournament's second weekend with a 29-4 record, joining the 1950-51 (20-5), 2007-08 (22-6) and 2008-09 (21-10) teams as the lone Cornell squads to post 20-win seasons.

FIRST TO 20-20: Cornell's 74-60 home win over Brown gave the Big Red its fourth 20-win season in program history, and three straight 20-win seasons for the first time in 111 years of Big Red basketball.

SEASON HIGHLIGHTS — THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE BIG RED:
• The 2009-10 Ivy League champion (automatic bid).
• School and Ivy record 29 wins.
• Earned its first two postseason wins in school history, topping higher seeded Temple (No. 5, 78-65) and Wisconsin (No. 4, 87-69) to become the first Ivy school to reach the Sweet 16 since 1979.
• Its 16 non-conference wins was an Ivy record for a season.
• Its 18 wins away from home (13-3 road, 5-0 neutral) is the most in the country.
• Cornell's 12 non-league victories away from home (7-2 road, 5-0 neutral) are the most of any Division I school.
• First team in Ivy League history other than Penn or Princeton to win three consecutive outright conference crowns.
• The first team, men's or women's, to clinch an NCAA tournament bid for the third straight year when it earned its bid on March 5.
• Fifth NCAA tournament appearance in school history.
• Cornell has set team records for points (2,500), field goals made (897), 3-pointers (321), blocked shots (124) and games played (33).
• The Big Red won the 2009-10 Madison Square Garden Holiday Festival tournament title and finished 4-0 at the Legends Classic, joining Florida (4-0) as the only teams to go unbeaten in the 16-team event.
• Cornell learned its first win over a Big East team since 1969 (St. John's) and its first victory over an SEC team since 1972 (Alabama).
• Cornell finished first or second in the Ivy League in 16 of 22 team statistical categories and led the conference in 10.
• Senior Ryan Wittman was named Ivy League Player of the Year, joining Louis Dale (2007-08) as the only active teammates who have won their league Player of the Year awards.
• Wittman was joined on the All-Ivy first team by classmates Louis Dale and Jeff Foote, becoming the seventh trio of teammates to earn first-team All-Ivy accolades in the same season.
• Foote captured his second straight Defensive Player of the Year nod, making him the only player to ever earn the award (started in 2008-09).
• Sophomore guard Chris Wroblewski was an honorable mention All-Ivy pick.

PERFECT 10: Cornell's home victory over Princeton helped the Big Red claim its third consecutive 10-win season in Ivy League play, something it hadn't done since posting at least 10 conference victories three straight years, from 1964-65 to the 1966-67 seasons. 

A WIN IS A WIN: Cornell has guaranteed itself a fourth consecutive winning season overall, posting a 29-4 mark. The Big Red went 21-10 a season ago, 22-6 in 2007-08 and 16-12 in 2006-07, giving the team four consecutive winning campaigns for the first time since 1984-85 (14-12), 1985-86 (14-12), 1986-87 (15-11) and 1987-88 (17-10).

BIGGER, FASTER, STRONGER: Head coach Steve Donahue has methodically built a program at Cornell, improving both the talent level and the results in each successive season beginning with his first recruiting class, which came in during his second season. Here is how each season has seen improvement. Cornell matched or improve its win totals overall and in league play in seven consecutive years prior to 2008-09. 

THE STREAKS
• The Big Red has won 17 of its last 18 contests overall and is 27-2 since Thanksgiving.
• Cornell is 38-4 in Ivy play over the last three seasons and 47-9 over the last four.
• The Big Red is 9-1 on the road in its last 10 contests away from Newman Arena.
• Cornell is 88-32 over the last four years, making the Big Red seniors the winningest class in school history.
• The Big Red has won 22 straight conference contests at home and is 26-2 in league play at home over the last four seasons.
• Cornell has won 11 straight games at Newman Arena overall.
• Cornell is 37-2 in its last 39 games at Newman Arena.

SENIOR CLASS: Since the Ivy League allowed freshmen eligibility in men's basketball in 1978, only three senior classes have more than the Big Red's 88 victories. Below is the list of schools 

Ivy League Senior Classes with 88+ Wins
Princeton (1995-99)      95-21
Princeton (1996-2000)  92-25
Princeton (1994-98)      89-23
Cornell (2006-10)          88-32

TRIPLE THREAT: Cornell ranks in the top three nationally in 3-point field goals made and 3-point percentage. The Big Red is tops in Division I while hitting .434 from beyond the arc, while its 9.7 treys per game sits third among all teams. Cornell has hit at least 10 treys in 17 different games this season, a school record. 

GETTING UP THERE: Cornell head coach Steve Donahue entered the 2009-10 campaign with the second-longest tenure at the helm of their current team in the Ivy League. Only James Jones at Yale (11th year) has been at his current school longer than Donahue has directed the Big Red.

MOVING ON UP: Head coach Steve Donahue is in 10th place on the all-time Ivy League coaching wins list with 78 victories. He ranks first among all Cornell coaches, surpassing Sam MacNeil's 77 wins from 1959-68.

WITTMAN INVITED TO SENIOR ALL-STAR GAME, 3-POINT SHOOTOUT: Senior Ryan Wittman has been invited to compete in the Reese's College All-Star Game and the ESPN 3-Point Shootout during Final Four weekend and will participate if Cornell is not already at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Ind. as participants.
• The Reese's College All-Star game on April 2 will be broadcast on CBS College Sports at 4:30 p.m. Two teams comprised of some of the top senior student-athletes in the country will be invited to play and there is no admission to the contest.
• It is the 22nd annual event, with the slam dunk contest and 3-point shootouts televised live on ESPN on April 1 from 9-11 p.m. Past participants and champions in the shootout include Aaron Brooks, Steve Nash and Kyle Korver. Wittman will be one of eight seniors selected to participate in the 3-point competition.

WITTMAN REACHES TWO GRAND: Senior Ryan Wittman became the fifth Ivy League player to reach 2,000 career points during his 24-point effort in the win over Wisconsin and ended the night with 2,018 points. Princeton's Bill Bradley '65 with 2,503 points easily leads the chase, with Dartmouth's Jim Barton '89 second with 2,158. Yale's Butch Graves '84 (2,090) and Brown's Earl Hunt '03 (2,041) have also hit for more than 2,000 points. In all, 465 Division I players have surpassed that milestone, including Luke Harangody (Notre Dame), Scottie Reynolds (Villanova), Greivis Vasquez (Maryland), Devan Downey (South Carolina), James Florence (Mercer) and now Wittman this year.

UP THE NCAA CHARTS: Senior Ryan Wittman already holds the Ivy League career record with 375 3-pointers, good for 15th all-time in NCAA history.

DALE OVER TO WITTMAN ... FOR 3: Seniors Louis Dale and Ryan Wittman have had a distinct connection in their four seasons, with Dale finding Wittman for a 3-pointer 117 times over their four years. That number was consistently at least 25 each season and accounts for 31 percent of Wittman's school-record 375 treys and 25 percent of Dale's school-record 468 assists. Ironically, their final play of their Senior Day victory over Penn was Dale finding Wittman for a 3-pointer with less than a minute to play before both were lifted to a sold-out Newman Arena serenade. Nine times in their career, Dale has found Wittman three times in a single game for a trey, but they connected four times for the first time ever in the NCAA tournament first round win over Temple.

BIG DIFFERENCE: Senior Ryan Wittman's 375 career 3-pointers is not only an Ivy League record, but is 94 more than the previous record-holder, Brian Earl of Princeton (281). To put that in perspective, it is more than the difference between Earl and the No. 19 player on the list, Garrett Kreitz '98 of Penn (199). The difference of 94 between the two is equivalent to the fifth-most treys in a season ever by an Ivy Leaguer. Wittman has three of the six top single-season marks in Ancient Eight history, including a conference-record 107 so far this season.

CELEBRATED SENIORS: Cornell's group of eight seniors, who have been the core of three Ivy League championship teams, will be making their third consecutive NCAA tournament appearance. The class includes Louis Dale, Jeff Foote, Jon Jaques, Geoff Reeves, Pete Reynolds, Alex Tyler, Andre Wilkins and Ryan Wittman. This Big Red group is the winningest class in school history and has accumulated an 88-32 record over four seasons and a 47-9 record in Ivy play. Cornell's seniors feature the school's all-time leading scorer and Ivy League leader in 3-point field goals (Ryan Wittman), the school's career assist leader (Louis Dale), the inaugural two-time Ivy League Defensive Player of the Year (Jeff Foote),  a three-year starter (Alex Tyler), and a one-year starter and two-year sixth man (Geoff Reeves), as well as another one-year starter (Jon Jaques). Combined, the class has accounted for two Associated Press All-American, four NABC all-district, seven first-team All-Ivy, three second-team All-Ivy and an honorable mention All-Ivy selection, two Ivy League Player and Defensive Players of the Year, an Ivy Rookie of the Year, 18 Ivy League Player of the Week citations and an ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District honoree. The eight players have combined for 723 games played, 408 starts, 5,973 points, 2,214 rebounds, 1,086 assists, 431 steals, 306 blocked shots and 703 3-point field goals.

RECORD WINS: Cornell has won a school and Ivy record 29 games this season. Cornell's best win total of 22-6 came during the 2007-08 campaign, while the Ivy record stood at 28 games with the 28-1 Penn squad from 1970-71. Cornell's .879 winning percentage (29-4) is the best by an Ivy League team since Princeton went 27-2 (.931) in 1997-98. Since the beginning of official Ivy League play in 1955-56, only two conference teams have won at least 27 games in a season. The 1997-98 Princeton team went 27-2, while the 1970-71 Penn Quakers were 28-1. Cornell surpassed the 1967-68 Columbia team (23-5) for the most wins by a non-P team since the inception of the Ivy League and its 14 regular season non-conference wins set an Ivy record, surpassing the 13 non-league wins by the 2001-02 Penn squad.

RARE COMPANY: Senior Louis Dale was the fourth player in Ivy League history and is now just one of five to reach 1,400 points, 400 rebounds, 400 assists and 100 steals in a career. Dale has scored 1,435 points, grabbed 428 rebounds, dished 468 assists and collected 126 steals to join Penn stars Michael Jordan (1602, 443, 469, 146) and Jerome Allen (1488, 482, 505, 166), Brown's Jason Forte (1597, 401, 514, 192) and Harvard's Jeremy Lin (1456, 485, 400, 222) in the selective group.

MVP TALK: Senior Louis Dale was named Ivy League Player of the Year as a sophomore in 2007-08, and he put up equivalent numbers against this season as a senior. While his scoring and rebounding numbers are down slightly in Ivy play, his percentages are way up, while his assist:turnover ratio is significantly better. 

NCAA TEAM LEADERS: Cornell enters the second weekend of the NCAA tournament leading the nation in 3-point field goal percentage at .434, and if it stays atop the charts, it would be the second time the Big Red led the nation in a statistical category. Cornell led the nation in rebounding during the 1961-62 campaign, averaging an astounding 58.5 rebounds per contest.

PLAYER NUGGETS
• Late game fouling against the Big Red? Hope it doesn't end up in the hands of the top four players in the backcourt, seniors Louis Dale, Geoff Reeves, Ryan Wittman and sophomore Chris Wroblewski. The quartet have made 192-224 free throws this season (.857), including 53-of-59 in the final three minutes of games within 10 points (.898). As a team, Cornell has made 84 percent from the line in the final three minutes and overtime of games decided by 10 points or less.
• Senior Ryan Wittman has reached double figure in 31 straight games.
• Foote has 15 career double-doubles, good for third place all-time at Cornell (Bernard Jackson '91 - 18, Mike Davis '80 -18, Justin Treadwell '94 - 15).
• Foote has made 66-of-93 field goals in the last 13 games (.710) and is 40-of-53 from the floor in the last nine contests (.755).
• Foote has multiple blocked shots in 11 of his last 14 games.
• In Ivy play, Louis Dale has 55 assists and 24 turnovers while shooting .507 from the floor.
• Dale and Chris Wroblewski have 90 assists and 38 turnovers combined in 12 home games.
• Senior Geoff Reeves has 26 assists and just 11 turnovers in the team's last 24 contests.
• Senior Jon Jaques has made 64 of his last 117 shots (.547), including 39-of-78 from beyond the arc (.500).
• In the five games junior guard Max Groebe has played at least 10 minutes, he averages 11.0 points and 3.4 3-pointers per game while shooting percent (17-of-28) from beyond the arc.
• Six different players have made at least 20 3-pointers this season with five hitting at least 39.
• All five starters (Dale, Foote, Jaques, Wittman, Wroblewski) have at least one game this season with 20+ points. Senior Geoff Reeves also has a 20-point contest in his career, while Alex Tyler, Mark Coury, Anthony Gatlin, Max Groebe, Errick Peck and Adam Wire each have a game with at least 13 points.

TEAM NOTES
• Cornell opponents are shooting .401 from the floor (.330 from 3-point range) and averaging 59.2 points in the last 23 games after shooting .456 (.387 from 3-point range) and allowing 73.0 points in the first 10 contests.
• Cornell has a negative assist:turnover ratio in just five games all season.
• Cornell has only trailed at the half twice in the last 28 games and five times this season.
• The Big Red's 321 3-pointers are a school and Ivy League record for a season.
• Cornell has made at least 10 3-pointers in 17 contests this season, a new school record. Additionally, the Big Red has hit nine in four other games.
• Opponents have made double figure 3-pointers five times in 2009-10, but Cornell is 4-1 in those games (only loss to Penn, 11).
• The Big Red has hit eight or more 3-pointers in 22 of its last 25 contests.
• Cornell was held below 40 percent shooting for the first time all season against Princeton (.351) at home, but has limited opponents to 40 percent shooting or below 15 times this year.

WITTMAN NAMED ALL-DISTRICT BY USBWA: Senior Ryan Wittman has been named to the USBWA All-District 2 first-team. He was also a first-team all-district pick by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association in 2007-08.

BIG THREE ARE NABC ALL-DISTRICT PICKS: Seniors Ryan Wittman and Jeff Foote were named to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) District 13 first-team picks, while Louis Dale earned a second-team nod. It is the third straight year for Wittman on the first team, while Dale and Foote were second-team selections in 2009.

DONAHUE RECOGNIZED IN 2009-10: Head coach Steve Donahue has received numerous accolades after directing the Big Red to a record-setting 2009-10 campaign. Donahue was named the 2009-10 collegeinsider.com Hugh Durham mid-season award winner as the mid-major coach of the year and is a finalist to the Durham Award, while also being on the list for the Jim Phelan Award as national coach of the year. He was also named NABC District Coach of the Year for the second time in three seasons (2007-08 and 2009-10) and was the Sporting News Ivy League Coach of the Year.

HEAD ABOVE WATER: With the win over Brown on Feb. 6, head coach Steve Donahue surpassed the .500 mark for the first time as a collegiate head coach (currently 146-137). With 146 victories, Donahue ranks eighth among all Ivy coaches since the league's official formation in 1956. He has now posted an 88-32 (.733) record in his last four seasons, including consecutive Ivy League titles.  He had a 58-105 mark after six years (.356). Donahue's teams matched or surpassed its win totals overall and in league play in six straight seasons (only school in the country from 2002-03 to 2007-08) and have now finished in the top three in the final Ivy League standings for six straight years.

DONAHUE SPENDS TIME WITH U.S. U-18 NATIONAL TEAM: Head coach Steve Donahue spent a week in July 2008 as a court coach for the U.S. Under-18 national team tryouts in Washington, D.C. The team, under the direction of Davidson's head coach Bob McKillop, also featured Alabama's Anthony Grant and Georgetown's John Thompson III as assistant coaches. The team won the silver medal at the 2008 FIBA U18 championship in Formosa, Argentina, falling to the host team 77-64 in the gold medal game. He has met both Grant and McKillop this season on the court, with the Big Red knocking off both Alabama and Davidson.

TALL IVY: Over the last three seasons, Cornell's 47-9 record is the best among Ivy League teams in conference action. Penn, who claimed the 2006-07 title, is second at 33-22, followed by Yale (31-25), Columbia (26-30) and Brown (25-31). Other Ivy teams include  Harvard (24-32), Princeton (24-32) and Dartmouth (15-41).

250 AND COUNTING: Cornell head coach Steve Donahue will be on the sidelines for his 284th career game during the NCAA Regional Semifinal, third on the school's all-time list. Donahue coached in his 200th career game when the Big Red defeated Stony Brook 66-50 on Dec. 29, 2007 and registered his 100th coaching win in a 67-54 triumph over Eastern Michigan on Nov. 25, 2008.

UNPRECEDENTED NON-LEAGUE SUCCESS: The Big Red posted its fourth consecutive non-conference season with at least a .500 record with a 16-3 mark, a school and Ivy League record for wins outside of conference action. The last time the Big Red at least broke even in non-league play in more consecutive years was the 1959-60 to the 1967-68 campaign, a span of nine straight years. The Big Red is now 34-16 in non-conference play over the last three years.

NON-CONFERENCE DOUBLE: The Big Red won  at least10 non-conference contests in one season for the fifth time in program history and for just the second time since the 1950-51 season with its 16-3 record this year. The Big Red won 11 games out of the league in 1949-50 and also took home 10 decisions in the 1919-20, 1950-51 and 2008-09 campaigns.

WITTMAN A WORTHY MVP: In the 16 games Cornell has played that have been decided by 10 points or less or against ranked opponents (13-3), 14 of which have been away from home, senior Ryan Wittman has played All-America basketball. He is averaging 20.8 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.0 steals and 0.4 blocks while shooting 48 percent from the floor and 42 percent from 3-point range while making 3.5 treys per contest in those games. Wittman has scored at least 20 points in nine of the games and has 25 points or more in four. He played at least 35 minutes in each of the 16 contests and averaged 37.3 minutes in those games. The Ivy League Player of the Year hit the game-winning 35-footer at the overtime buzzer to drop Davidson, scored seven points in the final two minutes to knock off Princeton on the road and scored a career-best 34 points against La Salle in a three-point victory. He has averaged 22.0 points in the team's two NCAA tournament wins this season.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN: Cornell have an 18-3 away from home, the most road/neutral wins in the country. Unlike those teams, however, the Big Red didn't have a conference tournament to add to its totals. The Big Red's 10 wins away from home were the most by any Division I team in non-league play. Only five other schools have as many as 15 road/neutral wins: Morgan State (16), Murray State (16), Temple (16), Vermont (15) and Wofford (15). Included among Cornell's road wins are victories over teams from the Big Ten (Wisconsin), SEC (Alabama), the Big East (St. John's), the Atlantic 10 (Massachusetts, La Salle and Temple), as well as mid-major powers Bucknell, Davidson, Harvard and Vermont. Cornell's 16 road/neutral wins is already a new school record, surpassing the 10 of  the 2007-08 Ivy League championship squad.

DYNAMIC DUO: Seniors Ryan Wittman and Louis Dale are the highest scoring classmates in Cornell history — and it isn't close. Here is where the duo ranks:

Points  Teammates                                                                Year
3,453   Ryan Wittman (2,018) and Louis Dale (1,435)    2010
2,243   Cody Toppert (1,232) and Eric Taylor (1,011)      2005
2,180   Ray Mercedes (1,429) and Kevin Cuttica (751)    2001
2,050   Shawn Maharaj (1,258) and Rich Medina (792)  1992

GAMES WITHOUT FRONTIERS: Six Cornell players have played in each game this season, breaking the school record with 33 appearances. The previous mark of 31 was set last season and was broken in the first round of the NCAA tournament by Mark Coury, Jeff Foote, Geoff Reeves, Adam Wire, Ryan Wittman and Chris Wroblewski, all of whom have played in each game.

CORNELL BEYOND THE ARC: Entering the NCAA tournament East Regional semifinal, the Big Red has hit at least one 3-pointer in 597 straight games. Cornell surpassed the 500-game plateau when the Big Red connected on six treys at Princeton on Feb. 16, 2007. The last time Cornell did not hit a 3-pointer was 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, Cornell has hit at least one shot behind the arc in 647 of 651 games, connecting on 3,946 treys, an average of 6.06 per game. The Big Red has hit a 3-pointer in all 283 games coached by Steve Donahue. Cornell has set records for treys in a season in each of the last three years, going from 228 in 2007-08 to 241 in 2008-09 and now a school-record 321 and counting this year. Cornell, which  has ranked fourth nationally in 3-point field goal percentage each of the last two years (2007-08 (.409) and 2008-09 (.411) leads the country this year at .434. Cornell has hit for double figures in 3-pointers 18 times already this season, including an Ivy League single-game record 20 vs. Brown.

BIG RED IN THE TOP 25: The Cornell men's basketball team earned its first national ranking in 59 seasons when it jumped into the USA Today/ESPN Top 25 Coaches' poll at No. 25 on Feb. 1, then moved to No. 22 the following week before dropping out after its loss at Penn. It was Cornell's first-ever appearance in the coaches' poll. Since 1948, Cornell has spent three weeks in the Associated Press Top 25 poll. During the 1950-51 season, the Big Red climbed as high as No. 14 on Jan. 3,1951. The two previous weeks the team was ranked No. 19 (12/19/1950) and No. 18 (12/26/1950). Prior to this season, the had most recently received votes in the AP poll in 2007-08 campaign, peaking with three votes heading into the NCAA tournament loss to Stanford.

FOOTE, WITTMAN INVITED TO PORTSMOUTH NBA PRE-DRAFT CAMP: Seniors Jeff Foote and Ryan Wittman have accepted invitations to compete in the 2010 Portsmouth Invitational Tournament NBA pre-draft camp. The duo will be among 64 professional hopefuls who will compete in front of approximately 200 NBA general managers, scouts and international scouts from April 7-10 at Churchland HS in Portsmouth, Va. Foote and Wittman will join fellow Ivy League hopeful Jeremy Lin of Harvard at the camp. The four-day, 12-game tournament began in 1953 and has spearheaded the rise to prominence of players such as John Stockton, Dennis Rodman, Tim Hardaway and Scottie Pippen. Six players that participated in last season's Portsmouth tournament were selected in the 2009 NBA Draft and 57 alums are presently on NBA rosters.

CORNELL IN THE COMMUNITY: As usual, Cornell has been very active in the community during the 2009-10 season. LeChase Construction Services, the Special Olympics and Cornell basketball have teamed up for the 2009-10 season. For each 3-point shot the Big Red men's and women's basketball teams convert during the campaign, LeChase will donate $5 to the Special Olympics. So far this season, the men's team has hit 321 treys and the women's team has made 170 for a total of 491. So far, LeChase will be donating $2,455. The Big Red basketball teams offered a free youth clinic on Dec. 12 that included a free-throw shooting contest to benefit the United Way of Tompkins County.

NEWMAN NOTES: Cornell closed out the 2009-10 season with an 11-game home win streak, the second-longest  in school history. The Big Red had closed the 2008-09 season with a 21-game win streak at Newman Arena, ranking as the third-longest in Division I. That streak was snapped in its 2009-10 season opener, an 89-79 loss to Seton Hall. The Big Red still holds a 22-game conference home win streak after posting its third straight undefeated home slate in Ivy play. All-time, the Big Red is 156-102 (.605) in Newman Arena since the building opened in 1990 and 37-2 in its last 39 home contests overall.

THE CAPTAINS: Three members of Cornell's vaunted senior class will serve as tri-captains for the 2009-10 season. Seniors Jeff Foote, Jon Jaques and Alex Tyler will share leadership duties for the season. It is the first year as team captain for each player.

UP NEXT: The Big Red will continue in the single-elimination NCAA tournament until it loses, then returns in October when it will attempt to capture an unprecedented fourth-straight Ivy title.