INDIANAPOLIS - The IUPUI basketball team will cap this week's two-game homestand with a meeting with Denver (10-8, 2-3 Summit) on Saturday afternoon (Jan. 16) inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum. Tip-off is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. inside the Coliseum and day will be a fun filled afternoon for numerous groups. IUPUI (7-13, 3-2) will be looking to rebound after suffering its first home loss of the season on Thursday night to Oral Roberts.
As part of Youth Day, there will be face painting and balloon animals for kids in attendance and Junior Jaguar Club members will be invited on the floor for a postgame layup line and opportunity to meet selected IUPUI players. In addition, the IUPUI Hall of Fame Class of Odell Bradley, Katrina McCrory and Brittney McDuffee will be recognized on the court at halftime following their official induction earlier in the day. The Kelley School of Business is a proud sponsor of Saturday's game and will have current and future KSOB students in attendance.
On the floor, IUPUI dropped an 80-71 count to ORU on Thursday as the Golden Eagles knocked down 10-of-15 (66.7 percent) treys in the victory. Sophomore
Jordan Pickett led four Jaguars in double-digits with 15 points off the bench and
Darell Combs and
Marcellus Barksdale chipped in 13 each. ORU's Kris Martin scored a game-high 18 points and hit all four of his three-point attempts.
Saturday's game will be televised on HTSN and ESPN3 as Greg Rakestraw (pxp) and Bob Lovell (analyst) are on the call. In addition, the game will be heard in Central Indiana on 107.5 FM as Morgan Adcock (pxp) describes the action with pregame coverage beginning at 12:45 p.m..
JAGUAR TIDBITSTOP FOUR IUPUI's top four scorers this season are all Division I transfers who sat out last season. The quartet of Darell Combs, Matt O'Leary, Jordan Pickett and Nick Osborne have teamed to score 43.6 points per game - more than 60 percent of the team's output. Senior Marcellus Barksdale is the team's top returning scorer from a year ago and is scoring 7.7 points per game this year.
ROAD WARRIORS IUPUI's 14 true road games at this juncture are tied for the most in America. IUPUI trekked more than 5,400 miles in the non-conference schedule, playing 12 of 15 games away from home (includes one neutral site game). Since then, IUPUI has traveled another 3,000-plus miles to start Summit League play with games in Vermillion, S.D., Omaha and Macomb, Ill..
PERFECT AT HOME IN THE NON-CONFERENCE IUPUI finished the home portion of the non-conference slate with a perfect mark this season, going 3-0 in those contests. It marks IUPUI's first perfect non-conference slate since the 2010-11 season when the Jaguars had just two non-conference home games (IU-Northwest & IU-East).
ORU TAKEAWAYS The loss to ORU was the Jaguars' first home loss of the season... IUPUI came in tops in The Summit in three-point field goal percentage defense, but was torched by the Golden Eagles, who hit 10-of-15 (66.7 percent), including 10 of their first 12... IUPUI's 25 rebounds matched a season-low as ORU outrebounded the Jaguars 39-25... sophomore Jordan Pickett led the Jags in scoring for just the second time this season and collected a career-high three steals... ORU turned it over 17 times, 11 of which came from IUPUI steals... the loss was IUPUI's ninth straight to the Golden Eagles... the IUPUI bench contributed 35 of IUPUI's 71 points with both Pickett (15) and Nick Osborne (10 pts) hitting for double-digits... Osborne hit both of his three-point attempts.
DEFENDING THE ARC Thanks to length at virtually every position, IUPUI has done a good job of defending the three-point line all season long, allowing just 32.7 percent overall and 27.5 percent (25-of-91) in Summit League play.
83 STRAIGHT Senior swingman Marcellus Barksdale has started 83 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 32 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 830 points, 534 boards, 258 assists and 144 steals. He also surpassed the 3,000 career minute mark against Butler on Dec. 28. He ranks among IUPUI's top 15 all-time in both rebounds and assists and it's not unreasonable to think Barksdale could finish as the 23rd member of IUPUI's 1,000 Point Club.
IN LEAGUE PLAY Albeit in a modest sample size, IUPUI has been extremely balanced in the opening four Summit League games with seven players averaging better than six points per game. Combs leads the crew at 16.0 points per game, followed by Osborne (10.2 ppg) and Pickett (10.2 ppg) in double-digits. Barksdale is just off their pace at 9.6 points per game.
SLOW IT DOWN IUPUI has won three of the four meetings between the two schools, including both meetings in Indianapolis. The Jaguars have been able to win, despite not scoring more than 59 points in a game in the series.
IUPUI swept last year's series, despite averaging just 53 points per game in the two meetings.
ODELL TO THE HALL Today, former standout Odell Bradley was inducted in the IUPUI Hall of Fame. The 2004 Mid-Continent Conference Player of the Year and honorable mention All-American will be recognized at halftime of today's game.
Bradley, a Nashville, Tenn.-native, averaged 23.1 points and 8.5 boards per game his senior season, including two games of at least 41 points against Oral Roberts.
SMART CATS With fall semester grades recently posted, four Jaguars earned Academic Advisor's List with a 3.0 GPA or better - Marcellus Barksdale, Aaron Brennan, Matt O'Leary and Noah Thomas. O'Leary, a management major, topped the bunch with a 3.93 GPA during the fall.
#SCTOP10 Junior guard Darell Combs found himself on ESPN SportsCenter's Top 10 on Dec. 10 after burying a 60-footer at the end of the first half of the loss at Missouri State. Combs' play was the No. 3 play that night.
MAKE SHOTS - WIN GAMES 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 16-5 (7-0 this season) when shooting a higher percentage from the floor than their opposition while going 1-29 (0-13 this season) when being outshot by opponents.
