DENVER - Winners of four straight and six of their past seven, the IUPUI basketball team will head west to face Denver (11-11, 3-6 Summit) inside Magness Arena on Thursday night (Feb. 4) at 9:00 p.m. Eastern. IUPUI (11-13, 7-2 Summit) will be seeking a series sweep of the Pioneers, having defeated them 76-61 in Indianapolis on Jan. 16 of this year.
The Jaguars have been equal parts good and charmed over the past month, going 7-2 in January to earn a spot at the top of The Summit League. IUPUI's last three wins have come by a combined five points as the Jags sandwiched buzzer beating victories around a hard fought two-point win over Western Illinois. Senior
Marcellus Barksdale scored on a left-handed layup as time expired in a recent 84-82 win over Fort Wayne, just six days ahead of the win over WIU. In that contest, the Jags had to get a defensive stop on the final possession to stay at the top of The Summit League pack. On Sunday, sophomore
Jordan Pickett capped a career-high 20-point effort with a game-winning trey with 1.2 seconds left in the 73-72 triumph.
IUPUI's current four-game winning streak is the program's longest since February 2012 when the Jags won four straight. A win on Thursday would give the Jags their longest winning streak since Dec. 2011-Jan. 2012.
Junior
Darell Combs leads the Jaguars in scoring at 16.1 points per game while fellow Loyola-transfer
Matt O'Leary is second on the team in scoring (10.3 ppg), rebounds (5.6 rpg) and leads the squad in assists (46). Pickett rounds out IUPUI's double-digit scorers at 10.1 points per game. In Summit League play, the Jaguars boast five double-digit scorers as both
Nick Osborne and Barksdale are averaging double-digits.
In the first meeting between the two schools, IUPUI shot a near school record 69.2 percent from the floor, including hitting 8-of-12 attempts from three-point range. Barksdale led the Jaguars with 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting and Combs tossed in 16, including a perfect 3-of-3 from three. O'Leary (11) and Pickett (10) also closed in double-figures. The win improved IUPUI to 4-1 all-time against the Pioneers as the Jaguars have won the last four meetings in the series.
JAGUAR TIDBITSSEE YOU AT THE TOP Winners of six of their past seven, IUPUI has climbed to the top of the standings at 7-2 against league foes. Following Sunday's win, IUPUI was locked in a four-way tie at 7-2, along with Fort Wayne, Omaha and South Dakota State. IUPUI is a collective 2-1 against those three schools, having beaten IPFW and SDSU and lost at Omaha.
The seven wins are the most since the 2011-12 season.
STREAKING IUPUI's current four-game winning streak is the longest since winning four straight games in February 2012 (wins over Southern Utah, South Dakota, Nicholls State and North Dakota State).
It's IUPUI's first four-game winning streak in league play since winning four consecutive from Jan. 22-Feb. 5, 2011 when the Jags defeated Southern Utah, Western Illinois, IPFW and Oakland in succession.
SNEAKING BY IUPUI's last three wins have come by a combined five points, two coming on last second buzzer beaters. The Jags won at Fort Wayne (84-82) when Marcellus Barksdale scored on left-handed layup as the final horn sounded.
The Jags then needed a defensive stop on the final play to beat Western Illinois (69-67) and picked off North Dakota State (73-72) on Jordan Pickett's trey with 1.2 seconds remaining.
IUPUI is now 4-0 this season in games decided by two points or less, having beaten Indiana State 72-70 in the season opener.
WITH A WIN A win tonight would give IUPUI it's first five-game winning streak since winning six straight from Dec. 10, 2011-Jan. 3, 2012.
CAREER DAYS Two Jags had career days last week, beginning with junior Matt O'Leary turning in a career-high 20 points (9-9 FG), 10 rebounds and three assists in the Friday's 69-67 win over Western Illinois. O'Leary was a perfect 9-of-9 from the floor was one attempt away from qualifying for an IUPUI single-game record for field goal percentage.
Only twice in school history has an individual gone 10-of-10 from the field - Jon Avery versus Oral Roberts in 2010 and George Hill versus UMKC in 2006.
Two days later, Jordan Pickett had a career-high 20 points (16 in second half) off the bench in the 73-72 win over North Dakota State. Pickett hit 8-of-11 shots, including the game-winning trey with 1.2 seconds to play.
OVER .500 With Sunday's win, IUPUI Head Coach Jason Gardner is now 13-12 in Summit League games as head coach. He was 6-10 this year and is five-games-over this season at 7-2.
TOP 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 45.1 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 8.5 points per game this year.
STEADY CLIMBING IUPUI has won six of its past seven games and are 3-1 on the road in league play with the lone loss coming at league leader Omaha.
Not only has the Jags' record continued to rise, but the RPI has climbed to the 150's after sitting in the high 200's for much of the season.
BUZZER BEATERS IUPUI now has three buzzer beater winners in the Gardner-era as sophomore Jordan Pickett is the most recent Jaguar to knock one in, draining a three with 1.2 seconds left to send the Jags to a 73-72 win over North Dakota State.
Senior Marcellus Barksdale was the star of stars at Fort Wayne on Jan. 23 with a game-winning layup as the horn sounded.
Last season, P.J. Boutte beat Ball State in overtime with a runner at the horn to give the Jags a 71-69 on Nov. 22, 2014.
GOOD IN JANUARY IUPUI has been notoriously good in January under Head Coach Jason Gardner. IUPUI went 7-2 this January and 11-6 in the year's first month since Gardner took over last season.
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 19-5 (10-0 this season) when shooting a higher percentage from the floor than their opposition while going just 2-29 (1-13 this season) when being outshot by opponents.
87 STRAIGHT Senior swingman Marcellus Barksdale has started 87 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 36 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 880 points, 548 boards (11th on all-time list), 262 assists (13th on all-time list) and 150 steals.
It's not unreasonable to think Barksdale could finish as the 23rd member of IUPUI's 1,000 Point Club.
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).
IN LEAGUE PLAY IUPUI has been extremely balanced in the opening nine Summit League games with five players averaging double figures. Combs leads the crew at 16.8 points per game, followed by Pickett (11.0), Barksdale (10.9), O'Leary (10.8) and Osborne (10.0).
IUPUI is shooting at efficient 49 percent overall and 38.4 percent from three in league play.
