By Danielle Daniels

GAME NOTES

https://cornellbigred.com/documents/2024/3/18/30_NIT_First_Round_23242.pdf

ITHACA, N.Y. — The Cornell men’s basketball team makes its first-ever appearance in the postseason NIT when the Big Red visits No. 2 seed Ohio State in the first round on Tuesday, March 19 at 7 p.m. at Value City Arena. The contest will be broadcast on ESPN2 with Tom Hart (pxp) and Randolph Childress (color) on the call.

• The Big Red enters postseason with a 22-7 record after finishing tied for second in the Ivy League and falling to eventual tournament champion Yale in the semifinals.
• Head coach Brian Earl, the 2024 NABC District Coach of the Year, has built a team that plays at one of the fastest paces in the nation.
• The Big Red is averaging 82.1 points on 49 percent shooting overall, while connecting on 10.2 3-pointers and assisting on 17.9 buckets per game this season.
• In the three years since the Ivy League opted out of playing due to the COVID 19 pandemic, the Big Red has a 54-29 record (.651) and three appearances in the four-team Ivy League Tournament (34-52 in the prior three seasons).
• Cornell has been one of the top road teams in the country all season, as its 10 true road wins (t-4th) ranks among the nation’s best.
• The Big Red will be looking for its first win over the Buckeyes on the hardwood since the 1967-68 season, more than 56 years ago..

GAME INFORMATION
Cornell at (2) Ohio State
DATE & TIME: Tuesday, March 19 at 7:00 p.m.
SITE: Value City Arena – Columbus, Ohio
RECORDS: Cornell (22-7, 11-3 Ivy League), Ohio State (20-13, 9-11 Big Ten)
SERIES RECORD: Ohio State leads 5-3
TELEVISION: ESPN2
BROADCAST: ESPN+
STATS: OhioStateBuckeyes.com
DIGITAL PROGRAM: CornellBigRed.com

THE SERIES
104 Years • 467 Miles • 8 Meetings
Overall: Ohio State leads 5-3
In Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State leads 4-3
Current Streak: Ohio State, 1 game
Last Meeting: Ohio State won 96-78, 1/24/69 in Columbus, Ohio
Earl vs. Ohio State: First Meeting

SERIES NOTES
Ohio State leads the all-time series 5-3, with seven of the eight meetings coming in Columbus • the two teams haven’t met since 1969 • Cornell’s last win came in a 76-64 victory during the 1967-68 campaign • three of the eight previous meetings between the programs have been decided by a single point • the last Big Red win over a Big Ten opponent came in a victory over Wisconsin in the second round of the 2010 NCAA Tournament, 87-69, on March 21 — nearly 14 years ago.

A WIN OVER OHIO STATE WOULD
• push Cornell’s record to 23-7 overall (11-3 Ivy).
• advance Cornell to the NIT second round to face the winner of the Richmond-Virginia Tech.
• give the Big Red 23 wins, the second-most in a season in school history behind the 2009-10 NCAA Sweet 16 team (Ivy record 29-5).
• make Cornell 55-29 overall (.655) since the beginning of the 2021-22 season.
• be the first over a Big Ten opponent since dropping Wisconsin 87-69 in the second round of the 2010 NCAA Tournament on March 21, 2010 in Jacksonville, Fla. — also Cornell’s last postseason win.
• be the 1,349th in program history (1,348-1,499-2 in 123 seasons, .473).

LAST TIME VS. OHIO STATE
•  Cornell led by as many as 15 in the first half, but the 12th-ranked Buckeyes came storming back and finished the game on a 28-10 run over the final five minutes to collect a 96-78 victory on Jan. 24, 1969 in Cleveland.
• Dave Sorenson scored 33 points and grabbed 17 rebounds to lead the home team.
• Cornell’s Hank South posted 33 points with 16 rebounds in defeat.
• The game was tied at 68-68 with just over five minutes to play before a Sorenson layup triggered the game-ending run for the Buckeyes.
• The prior year, Cornell knocked off an Ohio State team that would eventually place third at the NCAA Championships by a 76-64 margin.
• That time the Big Red closed strong, putting a 14-2 run in the final 3:46 for the victory.
• South scored 25 points, including 11 of the Big Red’s final 14, and Gregg Morris added 21 in the victory.
• Jody Finney led the Buckeyes with 19 points, all coming in the second half.

LAST TIME OUT
•  Cornell’s high-octane offense couldn’t ignite and Yale took full advantage, knocking off the Big Red 69-57 at Levien Gymnasium.
• The Big Red shot just 33 percent from the floor and 29 percent from beyond the 3-point arc (10-of-34) while getting outrebounded 44-34.
• Cornell cut a 19-point second half deficit to six with 5:44 remaining, but couldn’t get closer as Yale pulled away again late.
• Senior Chris Manon scored 10 points with four rebounds, two assists and a steal for the Big Red, while Jake Fiegen notched 10.
• Cooper Noard netted nine points, while Nazir Williams had seven rebounds and three assists, both team highs.
• Cornell assisted on 15 buckets against just seven turnovers.
• Danny Wolf led Yale with 19 points and 10 rebounds, while August Mahoney had 16, including hitting 5-of-9 from beyond the arc.
• Matt Knowling chipped in 12 points with seven boards and John Poulakidas rounded out four double figure scorers with 11 points, four assists and three board.

PLAYER NOTES TO KNOW
• Cornell enters Saturday with two double figure scorers, six with at least 8.8 ppg. and eight regulars averaging at least 5.6 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 54 percent better from the floor with six at 48 percent or above.
• The Big Red’s four leading 3-point shooters (Cooper Noard, Keller Boothby, Nazir Williams and Guy Ragland) have combined to shoot .390 (176-451) from beyond the arc.
• Junior Nazir Williams leads the team in minutes played at 24.9 and is among 11 regulars averaging at least 9.0 minutes per game.
• Senior Chris Manon, a two-time Ivy League Player of the Week this season (Jan. 2, Jan. 29), is averaging 13.7 points, 4.2 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 2.3 steals and 0.8 blocks over his past 19 contests while shooting .571 from the floor (104-of-182).
• Manon entered the weekend atop the Ancient Eight in steals per game (2.2 spg.) and in the top five in field goal percentage (fifth, .564). In Ivy play, he ranked in the top 10 in steals (first, 2.3 spg.), field goal percentage (third, .577), blocked shots (sixth, 0.9 bpg.), assists (10th, 3.2 apg.) and scoring (10th, 14.1 ppg.).
• Senior Isaiah Gray is shooting .669 from inside the 3-point arc this season (85-of-127).
• 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 17.8 points, 8.7 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.8 blocks in 38.5 minutes per game while shooting 52 percent from the floor and 39 percent from 3-point range.
• Boothby’s 2.46 career assist-turnover ratio is the highest in program history for a non-guard (64 assists/26 turnovers).
• Boothby has committed just 26 career turnovers in 1615 minutes, or one every 62.1 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 (69-of-123). 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 13 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 54-29 record (.651), a mark that is 54-21 when removing guarantee games (.720).
• 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 22 wins are tied for second-most in a season, matching the 2007-08 Ivy League champion squad.
• Six of Cornell’s seven losses have come away from home against nationally-ranked Baylor (No. 15 in NET, 22-10), Princeton (No. 55 in NET, 24-4), Yale twice (No. 83 in NET, 22-9),  Syracuse (No. 84 in NET, 20-12) and George Mason (No. 93 in NET, 20-12), five teams that each have 20 wins this season, have combined to go 108-43 and are all ranked in the top 100 in the NCAA’s NET rankings.
• Over the past three seasons, the Big Red is averaging 17.6 assists per game and hitting 10.2 3-pointers per game while averaging 81.0 points per game. Over that stretch, Cornell is shooting .590 from two-point range.
• Entering the week, the Big Red leads Division I in bench scoring (36.1 ppg.) and ranks in the top 20 in effective field goal percentage (eighth, .572), assists per game (eighth, 17.9 apg.), 3-pointers (10th, 10.3), scoring offense (17th, 82.1) and field goal percentage (19th, .487).
• In 14 Ivy games this season, Cornell has assisted on 241 baskets with 153 turnovers (1.58 assist-turnover ratio).
• The Big Red is 18-2 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 12 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 968 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 1,013 of 1,017 games (6,946 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
• The winner of this contest will face the winner of Atlantic 10 regular season champion Richmond and No. 3 seed Virginia Tech on March 23 or 24 at a time and site to be determined.
• Looking further down the road, the NIT quarterfinals would take place on March 26-27 at campus sites, with the semifinals (April 2) and Championship game (April 4) at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Ind.

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