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CINCINNATI, Ohio - The IUPUI basketball team will hit the big stage on Tuesday night (Dec. 9) when the Jaguars face Xavier (6-2) in a nationally televised game on Fox Sports 1. Tip-off is slated for 7:00 p.m. at the Cintas Center (10,250).

Joe Davis (pxp) and Jim Jackson (analyst) will be on the television call while Will Flemming (pxp) will describe the action on WNDE 1260 AM. 

IUPUI (2-5) is looking to snap a three-game skid and comes in 0-4 all-time against Xavier. The teams first met during the 1973-74 season and have not played since Nov. 25, 1994. XU won the most recent meeting 104-67 at Cincinnati Gardens early in the 1994-95 campaign.

Head Coach Jason Gardner's squad is coming off an 89-62 loss at Evansville in a game in which the Jags fell in an early hole and never climbed out. IUPUI went in front 9-8 in the early stages, but yielded a 19-0 run, largely aided by 15 first half turnovers. Ultimately, Evansville shot 56 percent from the floor and scored 23 points off 19 IUPUI miscues in the win. 

Redshirt freshman Leo Svete scored a career-high 17 points in the loss and Mason Archie added 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting. Senior DavRon Williams had eight points on 4-of-4 shooting off the bench and five boards in just 18 minutes. Williams was one of just three IUPUI players featured in a recent IBJ story by acclaimed writer Mike LoPresti.

IUPUI came in ranked 13th nationally in free throw shooting, but shot an uncharacteristically low 57 percent in Saturday's loss. 

IUPUI is now 1-3 away from home this season. 

QUICK HITTERS
- IUPUI comes in on a season-long three-game losing skid following Saturday's 89-62 loss at Evansville
- IUPUI has had nine different leading scorers this year (includes ties) through just seven games. Marcellus Barksdale and Leo Svete are the only Jags to have led the team in scoring in more than one game. 
- IUPUI basketball at the newly renamed Indiana Farmers Coliseum is easily the best value in town. After three home games at the Coliseum, the Jaguars have played overtime twice and a third game that came down to potential game-tying three on the final possession.  
- Nearly 46 percent of IUPUI's points have come from the bench this season, including a season-high 44-point effort at Purdue. All total, IUPUI has nine players averaging between 4-10 points per game.  
- Tonight's game is the fifth meeting all-time between Xavier and IUPUI and the first since 1994. Xavier won the prior four meetings by an average of 32.8 points per game. 
- Tonight is IUPUI's 2nd nationally televised game of the season. IUPUI previously played Purdue on Big Ten Network. 
- This marks the 43rd season of IUPUI basketball, beginning with the 1972 campaign.
- IUPUI will play every home game at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum this season in year one of a five-year pact. IUPUI last played home games at the Coliseum from 1975-79. The building was home to the Indiana Pacers from 1967-74.  
- More than half of IUPUI's 13-man roster is newcomers this year. All total, the Jaguars welcome seven new faces this year with four Division I transfers and three true freshmen.  

FIVE COUNT - QUICK TIDBITS FROM THE LAST GAME
Evansville 89, IUPUI 62 - Dec. 6, 2014 - Evansville, Ind. (Ford Center)
EARLY RUN BURIES JAGS
    After an early 9-8 lead, IUPUI yielded a 19-0 Evansville run and never truly challenged the Purple Aces in Saturday's 89-62 loss. The Jaguars committed 15 first half turnovers and trailed 40-16 at the break in the 27-point defeat.
    Evansville scored 23 points off IUPUI's 19 turnovers in Saturday's loss. 

LEE FOR 3
    Redshirt freshman Leo Svete matched his career-high with four treys and pumped in a career-best 17 points in Saturday's loss. The Granger, Ind.-native has now hit a team-high 11 threes through seven games. 

PAINT AND BENCH
    The Jaguars allowed Evansville to score 48 points in the paint - the most by an IUPUI foe this season. In addition, Evansville's bench outscored the Jaguars' 39-31, marking the first time IUPUI's reserves have been outscored this year. 

LOW FROM THE LINE
    IUPUI shot a season-low 57.1 percent from the free throw line in the loss at Evansville, hitting just 12-of-21 attempts. The Jaguars came in ranked 13th in the country at 77 percent, but had six different players miss at least one freebie on Saturday.  

0-FOR-VALLEY
    Saturday's loss dropped the Jaguars to 0-3 against the Missouri Valley Conference this season. The Jags opened the year with a 79-66 overtime loss to Indiana State and later dropped a 73-60 decision at Drake. 

UNCOMMON BALANCE
    Nine different IUPUI players are averaging between four and 10 points per game through seven games, led by Marcellus Barksdale's 10.0 points per game. IUPUI has already had nine different leading scorers (including ties). P.J. Boutte, Marcellus Barksdale, Leo Svete, D.J. McCall, DavRon Williams, Jalen McCallum, Elijah Ray, Mason Archie and Aaron Brennan have each led the squad in scoring in a game thus far. 
    IUPUI has nine players averaging at least 16 minutes per game as well. 

LOW LEADER
    Barksdale's 10.0 points per game scoring average would easily be the lowest total to lead the Jaguars in a single-season in program history. The lowest scoring output to lead the Jaguars in a season is 12.4 points per game by Charles Price in 2001-02. 

CELLUS THE THIEF
    For the second time in three games, junior guard Marcellus Barksdale turned in four steals. Over IUPUI's last three contests, Barksdale has 10 steals and now tied for the team lead with 14 pilfers. 

GUARD PLAY
    Two things Head Coach Jason Gardner has instilled in his team are the importance of making free throws and creating turnovers. 
    The Jaguars are among the league leaders in free throw percentage (73.9%) and steals (7.9 spg). IUPUI has three key players shooting better than 80 percent from the line in D.J. McCall (9-of-10), Khufu Najee (5-of-6) and Mason Archie, II (9-of-11).

MR. INDISPENSABLE
    While Gardner has shown a deep and versatile bench, the one constant for the Jaguars this season is junior guard Marcellus Barksdale. The 6-foot-5 veteran is playing 34 minutes per game, ranking among the league's top players. Barksdale leads the team in scoring (10.0 ppg) and second in rebounding (4.4 rpg), assists (2.6 apg) and is tied for the team-high steals (2.0 spg).

BENCH PRODUCTION
    Through seven games, IUPUI's bench has scored 206 of the team's 449 points, equivalent to 45.9 percent of the team's scoring. The IUPUI bench has outscored the opposition in six of the season's first seven games.

WHISTLES UNKIND
    Whistles have piled up on the Jaguars in the season's first seven games as IUPUI has been called for 179 fouls, while drawing just 132 fouls (6.7 foul differential/game). All total, IUPUI has been outscored 150-99 at the charity stripe (7.3 points per game). IUPUI has yielded 207 free throw attempts, while receiving just 134 freebies, a difference of 10.4 attempts per game.  

FUTURE HOST
    Good news piled up for Indianapolis and the IUPUI program in November as Indy was awarded the 2021 Men's Final Four and 2017 First/Second Round games.
    IUPUI will co-host this year's Final Four at Lucas Oil Stadium, along side partners from the Horizon League and Indiana Sports Corp. In 2017, games will be played at Bankers Life Fieldhouse and the Men's Final Four returns to Indy and LOS in 2021.  

NEW LOOK
    IUPUI made a change at the top at the conclusion of last season, bringing former Indiana Mr. Basketball Jason Gardner to replace Todd Howard as Head Coach. 
    Gardner was on staff at Memphis after previously coaching at Loyola for two seasons. 
    Gardner retained two of the three-man signing class and added six newcomers, including five Division I transfers. Gardner also retained Matt Crenshaw from last year's coaching staff and later hired Jon-Michael Nickerson and Scott Gillespie to round out his coaching staff. Both Nickerson and Gillespie were graduate managers at Memphis during Gardner's year with the Tigers. 

NEW DIGS
    This year marks year one as the Jaguars re-open the Indiana Farmers Coliseum, bringing basketball back to the historic facility. The venue seats 6,800 for basketball and has been fully renovated, including distinctive branding, brand new concourses, a state-of-the art sound system and a center hung double ribbon scoreboard. 
    The Jaguars opened with a 79-66 overtime loss to Indiana State in front of a crowd of 3,159. 
 
BETWEEN THE LINES
    The Jaguars return six letterwinners from last year's team, most notably senior guard Khufu Najee and junior Marcellus Barksdale. 
    Najee earned Summit League All-Newcomer honors last season after averaging 10.8 points and shooting 47.4 percent overall in 14 league games. Meanwhile, Barksdale ranked among The Summit League leaders in rebounding (6.8 rpg), assists (117) and steals (35), while averaging a career-high 8.6 points per game. 
    The other four returners are all sophomores - Elijah Ray (5.1 ppg, 2.6 rpg), Justus Stanback (3.3 ppg, 2.2 rpg), Jalen McCallum (2.5 ppg) and Josh James (2.0 ppg, 68.0 FG%). 

PLAYING PERCENTAGES
    Below are the percentages returning of IUPUI's major statistical categories in 2014-15. 
    POINTS:     39.3% returns (836/2126)
    REBOUNDS:     48.3% returns (445/921)
    ASSISTS:     59.2% returns (197/333)
    MINUTES:     46.7% returns (3,003/6,425)
    3's MADE:     25.7% returns (36/140)
    BLOCKS:     37.8% returns (37/98)
    STEALS:     52.8% returns (85/161)

LEADING STATISTICS RETURNERS
    Below is a listing of IUPUI's top returners in selected statistical categories:
    PPG: Najee (9.9), Barksdale (8.6)
    RPG: Barksdale (6.8), Najee (2.7)
    MPG: Barksdale (33.6), Najee (33.0)
    Assists: Barksdale (117), Najee (62)
    Blocks: Barksdale (24), Najee/Stanback (6)
    Steals: Barksdale (35), Najee (29)
    3's Made: Najee (16), Barksdale/Ray (7)
    FT Made: Barksdale (103), Najee (61)

JAGS ON THE TUBE
    All but one of IUPUI's home games will be televised this season on Hometown Sports & News (HTSN / RTV6.2). Greg Rakestraw and IUPUI Hall of Famer Bob Lovell will be on the call and most games will be simulcast on ESPN3. 
    
BACK ON 1260
    For the fourth straight year, IUPUI games will be broadcast on WNDE 1260 AM and on the free iHeartRadio app, available on smartphones. 
    Nearly every game will be heard over the AM airwaves in Indianapolis while every broadcast will be on iHeartRadio.
    Veteran broadcaster Will Flemming will be on the call for the second straight season. 

SCHEDULE NOTES
    IUPUI will host 13 regular season home games this season, while also hitting the road to take on teams from the Big Ten (at Purdue; Nov. 16), BIG EAST (at Xavier; Dec. 9). The home slate includes games against Indiana State (Nov. 14), Ball State (Nov. 22), Georgia State (Nov. 29), Eastern Kentucky (Dec. 13) and South Alabama (Dec. 20). 
    The home slate marks some notable opponents with in-state games against ISU and Ball State. The Nov. 29 game with Georgia State marks the return of longtime Head Coach Ron Hunter, while EKU is coming off an NCAA Tournament appearance. The South Alabama also has an Indiana tie as the Jaguars are coached by former Butler standout Matthew Graves. 
    The game against Purdue marks the first-ever meeting between the Jaguars and Boilermakers. In doing so, the Jaguars will now have played all nine Division I in-state teams.
    Other road games include return games at Milwaukee (Nov. 19), Drake (Nov. 25), Evansville (Dec. 6) and 2014 NCAA Tournament participant North Carolina Central (Dec. 29).  

GOTHAM CLASSIC
    IUPUI will play four games as part of this year's Gotham Classic, sponsored by the Gazelle Group. Three of the four games will be road games, in addition to the Dec. 20 home game against South Alabama. 
    The Classic will begin at Howard (Dec. 15) before the home game with South Alabama (Dec. 20). From there, IUPUI will play at Richmond (Dec. 23) and Pepperdine (Dec. 27). The Jaguars will then head back east to play at NC Central (Dec. 29). 
    Including the game at NC Central, the Jaguars will travel more than 6,500 air miles during that five-game stretch, including a 2,250 mile trip from Malibu, Calif., to Durham, N.C..  

DI'S ELIGIBLE
    This year's roster includes three DI transfers who practiced with the team a season ago. Detroit-transfer P.J. Boutte leads that group, having played 66 games in two years for the Titans. 
    Boutte finished as the state's career leader in assists while at Indianapolis Howe High School and was the Indianapolis Student-Athlete of the Year in 2011. 
    Senior forward DavRon Williams played in 21 games (five starts) at North Carolina Central in 2012-13 before sitting out last season and Mason Archie, II played 26 games in two years at Davidson College before joining the Jaguars. 

CLEAR FOR TAKEOFF
    The IUPUI program got a double dose of good news during the month of October, learning that both Mason Archie, II and Leo Svete would be eligible at the start of the season. 
    Archie, a Davidson-transfer, didn't enroll at IUPUI until last spring, but the NCAA deemed it would be in his best interest to be immediately eligible at the start of the season, as opposed to waiting until second semester. Academically, Archie is on pace to graduate this spring, but has two years left of eligibility. 
    Svete, a Western Michigan-transfer, missed the past two years due to separate knee injuries, but was ruled immediately eligible by the NCAA. The 6-foot-5 guard missed his senior year of high school to an injury before then missing last year at WMU to a second mishap. Svete was cleared in October and will retain all four years of his playing eligibility. He was the first player to commit to the IUPUI program after Gardner took over. 

FRESHIES
    Two true freshmen were signed by the previous coaching staff and retained by Gardner. 
    Rookie forward Aaron Brennan was a three-year starter at Guerin Catholic, where he finished as the program's all-time leader in points and rebounds. Brennan averaged 16.4 points, 8.1 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.3 blocks per game, earning a spot on the Indy Star's Super Team Second Team.
    A second freshman, D.J. McCall was named to the prestigious Indiana All-Star Team after averaging 18.9 points, 8.7 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game at Fort Wayne Concordia Lutheran High School. The 6-foot-5 guard helped Concordia Lutheran to an IHSAA Class 3A state runner-up finish in 2013, including scoring 17 points in the state championship game. 
    A third true freshman, swingman John Hubler, was later added by the current staff. Hubler averaged 15.5 points per game, earning First Team All-District 3 honors a season ago. 

FOUR DOWN
    IUPUI practices should be intense this year with four Division I transfers sitting out, including a trio of Loyola-transfers. 
    The Jaguars have backcourt depth on the way in Darell Combs (Eastern Michigan) and Jordan Pickett (Loyola). Up front, former Loyola big men Matt O'Leary and Nick Osborne will also sit out this season. O'Leary and Osborne roomed together while at Loyola.
    Of the four, three played high school basketball in the Hoosier State and Combs prepped at Thornwood High School in Chicago. 
    Combs, a 6-foot-2 guard, averaged 7.5 points and 1.4 assists per game at Eastern Michigan. Combs made six starts for the Eagles and shot 32.7 percent from three-point range while scoring in double-digits 11 times. 
    Pickett, a 6-foot guard, was limited to just five games at Loyola last season, totaling four points and five assists for the season. 
    O'Leary, a 6-foot-8 forward, played in 61 games and made five starts in two years at Loyola. Last season, the Terre Haute-native averaged 4.2 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game while shooting 43.5 percent from the floor.   
    Osborne, a 6-foot-8 forward, played in 59 games and made 26 starts in two years at Loyola. The Muncie-native netted 5.4 points and 4.0 boards per game last season while shooting 50.4 percent.

STAFF PRODUCTION
    Few coaching staffs can match the production of the IUPUI staff during their respective playing days. All total, IUPUI's four coaches combined to score 5,588 points in their four-year careers, led by Gardner's 1,984 points at Arizona. Gardner later had his No. 22 jersey retired at Arizona. 
    Scott Gillespie scored 1,871 points in his four years at Ripon College while Associate Head Coach Matt Crenshaw tallied 938 points in four seasons with the Jaguars. 
    Lastly, Jon-Michael Nickerson scored 795 points in his four-year career at Kennesaw State. Nickerson took a circuitous path to the hardwood, originally playing professional baseball after being drafted by the Florida Marlins in the 16th round of the 2003 MLB Amateur Draft. Nickerson played rookie and Single-A ball before retiring just prior to the 2006 season.