ROCHESTER, Mich. - The IUPUI basketball team will face a quick turnaround on Sunday (Feb. 4) when the Jaguars cap a two-game trip at Oakland University at noon. The game will be aired on ESPN3 and heard on Fox Sports 97.5 FM and the iHeartRadio app as Morgan Adcock (pxp) is on the call. IUPUI (7-15, 4-7 HL) will renew its series with the Golden Grizzlies, which dates back to 1975. The two schools were conference foes for 16 years before both moved to the Horizon League more recently. 

The Jaguars' arduous five-game stretch of road games has proven to be all that and more as IUPUI enters amidst a current four-game skid. The winning drought hit fever pitch on Friday night as IUPUI dropped a 74-60 decision against an undermanned Detroit Mercy squad inside Calihan Hall. IUPUI fell in a deep hole early and didn't seriously threaten until late when freshman Jaylen Minnett tried to single-handedly shoot the Jaguars back in the game. Minnett hit four second half treys and had the Jags within seven late before IUPUI faded away. 

Minnett scored a team-high 12 points off the bench and Ron Patterson contributed 11 points. Junior Evan Hall just missed a double-double with 10 points and a game-high nine boards in the loss. Patterson is shooting 60 percent from three-point range the past three games and IUPUI boasts three players shooting better than 40 percent from deep in league play in Patterson, Minnett and Aaron Brennan. 

QUOTABLE
"We just continue to get behind big and we haven't been able to climb out, especially on the road. They came out and punched us in the mouth and I still didn't think we responded right away. Even after we called a timeout, I thought we were sluggish and (Detroit) was the hungrier basketball team. It's disappointing because we had a good week of practice leading up to the game and seemed locked in," Gardner said after Friday's loss at Detroit Mercy. 

SCOUTING OAKLAND
Oakland is 14-10 overall and 6-5 in Horizon League play this season. Head coach Greg Kampe's squad is 8-3 at home this season, but all three home losses have come in Horizon League play. The Golden Grizzlies come in having dropped two straight to Wright State and UIC. 
    PROBABLE STARTERS:
    G- #1 Kendrick Nunn (6-3, Sr.) 26.0 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 4.0 apg, 42.9 FG%
    G- #11 Brailen Neely (5-9, Soph.) 4.0 ppg, 1.8 rpg, 5.5 apg, 42.6 FG%
    G- #35 Martez Walker (6-6, Sr.) 18.0 ppg, 4.1 rpg, 1.6 apg, 46.6 FG%
    F- #4 Jalen Hayes (6-7, Sr.) 19.1 ppg, 8.2 rpg, 1.9 apg, 51.5 FG%
    F- #10 Isaiah Brock (6-8, Soph.) 4.7 ppg, 7.6 rpg, 0.7 apg, 69.6 FG%
 
INSIDE THE SERIES
Oakland leads the all-time series, 26-15. The series began in 1975 and the two schools met 36 times from 1998-2013 as Mid-Continent Conference/Summit League foes. IUPUI is just 3-16 in Rochester and hasn't won inside the O'rena since 2006.

UP NEXT
IUPUI will open a quick two-game homestand against Cleveland State on Thursday, Feb. 8 at 7:00 p.m. inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum.

GAME NOTES (click here for PDF of the full games notes)
LAST TIME OUT
The Jaguars' losing skid hit four as IUPUI fell at Detroit Mercy, 74-60. IUPUI fell into a quick double-digit hole and never recovered as the host Titans led wire-to-wire in the 14-point victory. All five UDM starters hit for double-digits and accounted for all 74 points  while the IUPUI bench scored 23 of the team's 60 points in the loss. The Jags closed within seven late in the game and had chances to get within five on three different occasions, but came up empty on three straight attempts.
Freshman Jaylen Minnett scored all 12 of his team-high points in the second half and Ron Patterson added 11 points and five boards. Junior Evan Hall just missed a double-double with 10 points and nine boards. 

THE BUSS IS HOT
Senior Ron "Buss" Patterson has been hot of late, shooting 60 percent (12-of-20) from three-point range the past three games. Included in that stretch was an 18-point (6-of-10 3's) effort at UIC. 

NO. 1 FOR 6TH
Junior T.J. Henderson is making a compelling case for Horizon League Sixth Man of the Year honors, ranking third in the league in scoring among those who have yet to start a game in league play. Wright State's Jaylon Hall (9.2 ppg) leads the group and NKU's Tyler Sharpe is next at 8.1 ppg. Henderson comes in averaging 8.0 ppg in league play. 

THEFT ALERT
Junior D.J. McCall currently leads the Horizon League (59th nationally) with 1.90 steals per game. After not collecting a steal in the season's opening two games, McCall has 40 steals in 19 games (2.11 spg).
By comparison, McCall had just 22 steals all of last season and 41 in his 63-game career entering this season. 

ROSTER CHANGES
The IUPUI program had a few roster changes at the turn of the semester as one player departed the program and two others joined the Jaguars. Little used sophomore Noah Thomas left the program after having appeared in just two games in the first semester. Thomas, a 6-foot-9 center, totaled four points and four rebounds in eight total minutes.
On the flip side, the Jaguars brought in a pair of transfers as Mike Sagay (Boston College) and Trevor Johnson (Mesa [Ariz.] C.C.) joined the program. Sagay, a 6-foot-7 forward, comes to IUPUI with two-and-a-half years of eligibility, after having played 15 games at Boston College last season. A 3-star recruit, Sagay was ranked among Connecticut's top players as a senior at St. Thomas More High School.
Johnson, a 6-foot-2 guard, comes to IUPUI with two years of eligibility remaining. Johnson was an All-State performer while at Flagstaff [Ariz.] High School before attending Mesa Community College.
Both are able to begin practice with the team immediately.   

STARTER NOTES
In the early portion of the non-league slate, head coach Jason Gardner continued to tweak the Jaguars' starting five, using six different quintets. For the year, senior Aaron Brennan is the lone Jag to have started all 22 games and Ron Patterson and Evan Hall have each started 21 times. Eight different players have at least one start this season.
That said, the group of Brennan, Patterson, Hall, D.J. McCall and Nick Rogers have started IUPUI's last 15 games (5-10). 

BENCH NOTES
The IUPUI bench has been especially strong, averaging 23.3 points per game, including a season-high 42 on two different occasions. The past four years, the IUPUI bench has outscored opponents in 78 of 117 (66.7 percent) of its games, going 38-40 in those contests. 

BENCH NOTES, PART II
IUPUI's top scorer has been a reserve seven times this season. Four different players have contributed to those seven occasions.
Patterson (1): at Ball State (14 pts)
Kirby (1): at Purdue (16 pts)
Minnett (2): at Wright St. (11 pts), at UDM (12 pts)
Henderson (3): at Gonzaga (18 pts), IUK (19 pts), at GB (13 pts)

WIN/LOSS SPLITS
In IUPUI's seven wins, the Jags have shot 46.1 percent from the field and held foes to 39.6 percent overall and 28.4 percent from deep. In addition, the Jags have outrebounded opponents by 5.1 boards per game in the seven wins.
In the Jaguars' 15 losses, IUPUI has shot just 40.3 percent overall and allowed opponents to shoot a robust 52.3 percent from the field and 41.1 percent from beyond the arc. In addition, IUPUI has been outrebounded by 4.3 boards per game in the 15 losses. 

IN LEAGUE PLAY...
IUPUI has defended the three well in Horizon League play, yielding 32.5 percent from deep in 11 games. On the flip side, IUPUI is shooting 37.4 percent from deep in league play, led by Brennan (42.4), Minnett (40.8) and Patterson (40.0).
IUPUI has made as many or more threes than their opponents in 10 of 11 league games thus far. 

MAKE SHOTS, WIN GAMES
The most telling number of outcomes of games under head coach Jason Gardner has simply been field goal percentages.
IUPUI is 40-8 (.833) in games in which the Jaguars have shot a better percentage than opponents and just 4-65 (.058) when being outshot.
The Jan. 10 Milwaukee win is the only time this season IUPUI has been outshot and won the game. 

GETTING LOOKS
Two areas where IUPUI has excelled this season are offensive rebounding (69th nationally - 11.9 rpg) and forcing turnovers (36th nationally - 15.6 to/g).
Because of those numbers, IUPUI has attempted 112 more shots than their foes for the year, good for 5.1 shot attempts per game. 

GRADE CHECK
Ten members of the IUPUI basketball team earned at least a 3.0 grade point average during the fall semester - Evan Borgman, Aaron Brennan, Elyjah Goss, Evan Hall, T.J. Henderson, Chad Hudson, Ahmed Ismail, Maurice Kirby, D.J. McCall and Noah Thomas.