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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The IUPUI basketball team will face a tall task, both literally and figuratively, as the Jaguars will take on No. 11/11 Purdue (8-0) inside Mackey Arena on Monday night (Dec. 7) in a game televised on ESPNU as Adam Amin (pxp) and Craig Robinson (analyst) will be on the call. IUPUI is coming off an impressive 78-64 win over Miami on Saturday whereas Purdue boasts the nation's second-longest winning streak, having opened the season with eight straight victories.
IUPUI (3-6) got 20 points from junior guard
Darell Combs in Saturday's win while senior
Marcellus Barksdale added 11 points and five caroms. Sophomore
Aaron Brennan chimed in with a season-high 10 points and six boards off the bench as IUPUI outrebounded the RedHawks 40-27 overall. The Jaguars defense was stingy, allowing Miami to shoot just 38 percent overall and 4-of-16 from downtown.
The Jaguars' four-man rotation of Brennan,
Evan Hall,
Nick Osborne and
Matt O'Leary helped IUPUI control the paint and the quartet combined on 32 points and 27 rebounds and held Miami to just eight second chance points. The group will face a much more formidable frontline on Monday as Purdue boasts a massive front court of 7-foot-2 Isaac Haas and senior standout A.J. Hammons, who's come off the bench so far this season.
Combs has been the Jaguars' catalyst of late, scoring 20-or-more points in each of the past two games, including a career-high 22 points at Ball State last week. The Eastern Michigan-transfer leads the team in scoring at 15.3 points per game. Behind him, sophomore
Jordan Pickett checks in at 10.2 points per game.
Osborne leads the team with 7.0 rebounds per game and is scoring 8.7 points per game while O'Leary sits at 8.6 points and 5.6 caroms per game.
IUPUI faced Purdue last season and fell 77-57 in West Lafayette. Brennan had six points and five boards in that game in his collegiate debut and
Marcellus Barksdale added five points and four boards. PU's Vince Edwards had a game-high 26 points (11-16 FG) and eight boards for the victors.
IUPUI enters Monday's game 0-13 all-time against ranked opponents and has just one win all-time against the Big Ten, having beaten Northwestern in 2002.
JAGUAR TIDBITS0-FOR-RANKEDÂ Â Â IUPUI has never defeated a ranked opponent, going 0-13 versus the ranked in the program's Division I era. Below is a listing of those 13 results, nine of which were true road games.
   The Jaguars' average margin of defeat is 18.4 points per game in the 13 total losses:
   12/13/99 at #2 Arizona L, 41-70
   12/15/01 #20 Ball State L, 81-103
   3/21/03 vs. #2 Kentucky L, 64-95 // NCAA - Nashville, Tenn.
   12/13/03 at #25 Dayton L, 59-61
   12/18/04 at #18 Louisville L, 60-80
   11/10/07 at #11 Marquette L, 68-78
   12/14/08 vs. #20 Arizona St. L, 58-59 (ot) Phoenix, Ariz.
   11/14/10 at #12 Gonzaga L, 56-86
   11/21/10 vs. #25 San Diego State L, 46-61 Oxford, Ohio
   12/9/10 at #2 Ohio State L, 64-75
   12/22/10 vs. #7 San Diego State L, 54-56 Las Vegas, Nev.
   12/7/11 at #5 Louisville L, 60-90
   11/12/12 at #5 Michigan L, 54-91
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VERSUS B10Â Â Â IUPUI's only win over a Big Ten foe came at Northwestern during the 2002-03 season. The Jags capped a four-day, three-game road trip with a 56-53 win in Evanston that season.
SVETE SAYS ADIEUÂ Â Â Sophomore Leo Svete left the program on Dec. 4 and intends on transferring. Svete, a 6-foot-5 guard, appeared in 37 games over two seasons and averaged 4.4 points per game as a freshman in 2014-15. The Granger, Ind.-native scored 14 against Purdue last season in his second collegiate game.
3,000 MILESÂ Â Â Through just nine games, IUPUI has already logged more than 3,000 travel miles, most of which have been through the air. Seven of IUPUI's first nine games have come on the road, including trips to Milwaukee (Marquette), Raleigh, N.C. (NC State), Atlanta (3 games) and Muncie (Ball State).
HOT COMBSÂ Â Â Junior guard Darell Combs is riding a hot streak, having hit for 20 or more points in each of the past two outings. Combs tallied a career-high 22 at Ball State last Tuesday (Dec. 1) and followed that up with a 20-point effort in the win over Miami on Saturday (Dec. 5).
WINDEX WORKÂ Â Â IUPUI has outrebounded their past two foes (Ball State & Miami) by an average of 10.0 boards/game. Consequently, IUPUI yielded just five second chance points to Ball State - the fewest by an IUPUI foe this season.
MAKE SHOTS - WIN GAMESÂ Â Â Simple math tells you that making more shots than your opponents will win games. Those numbers hold true for IUPUI in the two seasons Jason Gardner has been at the helm.
   IUPUI is 12-5 (3-0 this season) when shooting a higher percentage from the floor than their opposition while going 1-22 (0-6 this season) when being outshot by opponents.
BENCH PRODUCTIONÂ Â Â IUPUI's bench checks in scoring 25 points per game this season. Sophomore Jordan Pickett has played a large role in that output, scoring 13.5 points per game in his four games that he's come off the bench. More recently, Aaron Brennan (4.8 ppg) and Evan Hall (4.6 ppg) have stepped up their contributions off the bench as well.
WORKING OVERTIMEÂ Â Â In just 40 career games on the IUPUI sidelines, Head Coach Jason Gardner has already taken his team to overtime eight times (2-6 overall), including twice this season.
T.J. EARNS ALL-TOURNAMENT HONORSÂ Â Â Freshman T.J. Henderson was chosen to the Legends Classic Kennesaw State subregional's All-Tournament Team and was subsequently awarded his first career start against South Alabama last Tuesday (Nov. 24) in game two of that regional. The 6-foot guard averaged 12.0 points and shot 8-of-15 from the floor in the two games at Kennesaw State. Â
72 STRAIGHTÂ Â Â Senior swingman Marcellus Barksdale has started 72 straight games for the Jaguars, dating back to the opener of the 2013-14 season. Classmate Mason Archie is second on the active roster, having made 26 career starts.
   Barksdale is the program's lone four-year senior and has quietly stacked up some impressive numbers in his IUPUI career. Barksdale, in his fifth year with the program, has accumulated 740 points, 475 boards and 238 assists.
   It's not unreasonable to think Barksdale could finish as the 23rd member of IUPUI's 1,000 Point Club, while also landing in the top 10 on the program's all-time list in rebounds and assists.
10 HAVE HITÂ Â Â Head Coach Jason Gardner knew he'd have more weaponry this season as evidenced by the sheer number of shooters on the roster. IUPUI had already had 10 different players make at least one three through just four games, coming off a season in which nine Jags made a trey a year ago.
9 IN DUBSÂ Â Â Sophomore Aaron Brennan became the ninth different Jaguar to hit for double-digits in a game this season, tallying 10 points in the win over Miami (Dec. 5). He joins Barksdale, Combs, Archie, O'Leary, Pickett, Hall, Henderson and Osborne on that list.
O'L3ARYÂ Â Â After making just eight treys for the entire 2013-14 season at Loyola, Matt O'Leary has shown he's a dependable three-point threat in an IUPUI uniform. The 6-foot-8 O'Leary has already hit nine treys this season, including four in his career-high 17-point effort at NC State.
UPSET THWARTEDÂ Â Â IUPUI had upset on the mind at Marquette (Nov. 16) before ultimately falling in overtime, 75-71. The Jaguars had a potential game-winning three blocked at the end of regulation and were outscored 6-2 in the extra frame.
   Darell Combs scored 16 of his game-high 21 points after halftime, including 12 straight at one point. The Jaguars trailed by as many as 10 in the first half, but battled back to knot the score at 36 at the break. Â
CHARITABLE EFFORTÂ Â Â IUPUI was a perfect 10-of-10 at the foul line at Marquette (Nov. 16). The last time previously IUPUI had been perfect at the line was on Feb. 6, 2014 when the Jags made all 11 in a loss at North Dakota State.
FOR OPENERSÂ Â Â IUPUI's season-opening win at Indiana State was the first season-opening victory since 2012 when the Jaguars started with a home win over Utah Valley. It was the first season-opening road win since 2009 when the Jaguars opened with an 88-82 win at Drake that season.
SEEING REDÂ Â Â Sophomore guard D.J. McCall and freshman forward Noah Thomas are expected to redshirt the 2015-16 season. Two duo be joined by Syracuse-transfer Ron Patterson in anchoring the practice squad this season.
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