VESTAL, N.Y. - Binghamton men's basketball opens the curtain on its 2019-20 season Tuesday night when it continues its rivalry with geographic neighbor Cornell. The teams will tip-off for the ninth consecutive November when they meet at 7 p.m. at Newman Arena in Ithaca. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+. 

Under eighth-year head coach Tommy Dempsey, the Bearcats feature a revamped roster of nine newcomers and just two returning scholarship lettermen. Nine of the team's 13 players are underclassmen and the roster combines to total just five years of Division I playing experience, with three of those years belonging to one player (graduate transfer Pierre Sarr). 

Sophomore guard Sam Sessoms leads the way after an outstanding inaugural collegiate season. Sessoms was America East Rookie of the Year and a Freshman All-American after averaging 17.8 points (fifth-highest freshman average in nation). Set to join him in the starting backcourt is freshman Brenton Mills, a Texas recruit who led his Allen High School team to a state title last winter. Mills is a strong 6-foot-3 guard who is one of the team's best defenders. Another freshman ready to make his collegiate debut in the starting lineup is swingman George Tinsley, who averaged 19.2 points and 8.0 rebounds just across the state border for Abington Heights High (Pa.) last season. Tinsley is the next in a successful line of hometown recruits in Dempsey's Northeast Pennsylvania pipeline and follows in the footsteps of fellow Abington alum and graduated BU star J.C. Show.

In the frontcourt, graduate transfer Pierre Sarr brings much-needed veteran leadership to the floor for the Bearcats, who will lean on his 79 collegiate games to steady a young team out of the gate. Sarr is a mobile 6-foot-8 and a physical presence on the floor. Joining him at center is seven-footer Yarden Willis, who has impressed the coaches in the preseason after transferring from Seward CC in Kansas. Originally from Georgia, Willis is the program's first seven-footer since Nick Billings (2001-05) controlled the paint during his standout career. 

Cornell returns two starters and five lettermen from a 15-16 team that finished fourth in the Ivy League and earned a postseason bid to the College Basketball Insider Tournament (CBI). The team loses its all-time leading scorer and the No. 2 scorer in Ivy League history in Matt Morgan (2,333 pts.), who is now with the Toronto Raptors G League team. The Big Red return junior Jimmy Boeheim (11.8 ppg.) and senior Josh Warren (9.7 ppg., 2.6 apg.). 

The Big Red lead the all-time series with Binghamton, 10-4 and have won four of the last five meetings. Last season, Morgan poured in 38 points to pace the visiting Big Red in an 86-75 win in the season opener at the Events Center. Morgan scored 26 of his points in the decisive second half when the teams dueled back and forth with 12 lead changes. The loss overshadowed an exceptional collegiate debut for Sessoms, who tallied a team-high 27 points with four assists in 33 minutes.

NOTES
In the head-to-head series, the home team has won three of the last four games and 10 of the 14 overall ... Binghamton is 6-17 all-time against teams from the Ivy League. The Bearcats will also play Ivy League member Columbia next Wednesday with a Nov. 10 matchup against No. 1 Michigan State looming in-between ... Binghamton is 7-11 in its 18 years of Division I season openers and has won two of the last three. BU is 1-7 in road openers.