CHICAGO - The IUPUI basketball team will look to extend its current winning streak to three-in-a-row on Wednesday night (Nov. 20) when the Jaguars take on Loyola (2-2) as part of the Cayman Islands Classic. The game is slated to tip-off at 7:00 p.m. Central (8 Eastern) inside Gentile Arena and will be broadcast on NBC Sports Chicago+ and ESPN+ as Jordan Bernfield (pxp) and Jeff Dickerson (analyst) will be on the call. The Jags (2-2) come in a week removed from an emphatic 70-53 win at South Florida, which helped earn junior Marcus Burk weekly awards at both the league and national level. 

Burk tallied a season-high 26 points and nine boards while the Jaguars closed the game on a 21-5 run to blow past the Bulls in Tampa. Jaylen Minnett chipped in with 17 points and a career-high seven assists and four steals in the win. Following the victory, Burk was named the CollegeInsider.com Lou Henson Award Player of the Week, Horizon League Player of the Week and CollegeSportsMadness.com Horizon League Player of the Week. Freshman Mike DePersia was also named the league's Freshman of the Week. 

The Jaguars defense has been the story of late, limiting the last two foes to a combined 34.4 percent shooting and 19.1 percent from three-point range. At the other end, IUPUI has shot a respectable 46.2 percent from the floor and 40 percent from beyond the arc in the most recent two victories. 

Following Wednesday's game, the Jags will next head to Omaha for the close of the Cayman Islands Classic, taking on Loyola (Md.) in Omaha on Monday (Nov. 25) and either Omaha or Southern on Tuesday (Nov. 26). 

QUOTABLE
"We played great team basketball. Jaylen was on fire in the first half and we really fed off his energy. My teammates did a great job of finding me in the right spots for backdoor cuts and threes," Burk said following last Wednesday's win at South Florida. 

PROBABLE STARTERS
G- Jaylen Minnett (6-1, Jr.) - 14.5 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 41.2 3FG%
G- Mike DePersia (5-11, Fr.) - 2.5 ppg, 3.5 rpg
G- Marcus Burk (6-3, Jr.) - 20.8 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 36.7 FG%
F- Isaiah Williams (6-8, Jr.) - 7.0 ppg, 4.5 rpg
F- Zo Tyson (6-9, Gr.) - 3.0 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 60.0 FG%

KEY RESERVES
G/F- Jamil Jackson Jr. (6-6, Jr.) - 3.0 ppg, 2.0 rpg
G- Grant Weatherford (6-2, Jr.) - 4.8 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 2.5 apg
F- Elyjah Goss (6-7, Jr.) - 6.0 ppg, 6.3 rpg

SERIES NOTES: Wednesday's game is just the second all-time meeting between the two schools. Loyola defeated the Jaguars 77-73 back in 2006 in Columbus, Ohio, as part of the BCA Classic.  

PRESEASON PICKS: IUPUI was picked to finish ninth in the Horizon League Preseason Polls, just ahead of Cleveland State. Wright State was a near unanimous pick for the league title while Northern Kentucky was picked second. Detroit Mercy sophomore guard Antoine Davis was pegged the league's Preseason Player of the Year and joined on the first team by Jalen Tate (NKU), Xavier Hill-Mais (Oakland), Tarkus Ferguson (UIC) and Loudon Love (Wright State). 

    AWARDS
    Junior Marcus Burk and freshman Mike DePersia both collected weekly honors after leading the Jaguars to an undefeated week last week with victories over Anderson (Nov. 11 - 72-55) and at South Florida (Nov. 13 - 70-53). 
    Burk was named Horizon League Player of the Week, CollegeInsider.com Lou Henson Award Player of the Week and CollegeSportsMadness.com Horizon League Player of the Week. Burk averaged 25.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game while shooting 61 percent from the floor and 57 percent from three point range. 
    DePersia was named Horizon League Freshman of the Week after moving into the starting five and averaging 4.0 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game while playing 31.5 minutes per contest. 

    TRAMPLE TAMPA
    The Jags went to South Florida last Wednesday (Nov. 13) and spun an emphatic 70-53 win over the Bulls for the program's first-ever win over an AAC foe. The Jags closed the game on a 22-4 run and limited USF to just one field goal over the game's final 11+ minutes. The Jags held USF to just 37 percent shooting for the game and 17 second half points. 
    Marcus Burk (26 pts, 9 reb, 10-14 FG, 4-5 3's) and Jaylen Minnett (17 pts, 4-9 3's, 7 ast, 4 stl) fueled the win as Burk's 26 points were a season-high and his nine boards were a career-high. Minnett's seven assists and four steals were both new career highs. 

    SPLASH BROTHERS
    IUPUI's version of the Splash Brothers - Marcus Burk and Jaylen Minnett - has been impressive to start the season, both ranking among the Horizon League's top five in both threes made and three-point percentage. 
    Minnett leads the league in threes made (3.5/game) and ranks second in the league in three-point percentage (41.2%) while Burk is third in the league in threes made (2.8/game) and fourth in three-point percentage (36.7%). 

    TOP GUNS
    Burk and Minnett are accounting for the bulk of the Jaguars' offense through the season's first four games, having taken 52 percent of the team's field goal attempts (118 of 228) and 71 percent of the team's three-point attempts (64-of-90). In addition, the duo has accounted for 58 percent (141 of 245) of the team's total points. 
    Burk (20.8 ppg) and Minnett (14.5 ppg) easily lead the team in scoring while Isaiah Williams is third at 7.0 ppg. 

'D' UP
During the Jaguars' current two-game winning streak, IUPUI has limited opponents to just 34.4 percent shooting (42-of-122) and 19.1 percent (9-of-47) from three-point range. 

MINNETT NOTES
    Junior Jaylen Minnett, the 2019 Horizon League Sixth Man of the Year, is unlikely to be a repeat winner of the award as he's assumed a starting job this season. The 6-foot-1 Terre Haute-native, averaged 12.0 points per game and drilled 78 3's last season, while coming off the bench in all but the season finale. 
     Some other tidbits on Minnett include: 
    -He currently owns the nation's fourth-longest streak of consecutive games with at least one made three at 40 games... Minnett made at least one trey in all 33 games last season and the final three games of the 2017-18 season... the last time Minnett went without a three in a game was against Oakland on Feb. 19, 2018 when he was held without a triple in 14 minutes. 
    -Minnett enters play ranked eighth on IUPUI's all-time list with 143 made 3's in his career...he has some work to do to move up on the list as both Leroy Nobles and Akeem Clark are tied for the No. 6 spot with 186 makes each.
    -His 78 3's made last season was the 7th-highest single-season total in IUPUI history. 
    -His 7.1 ppg scoring average as a freshman in 2017-18 was the highest by an IUPUI rookie since Alex Young average 10.8 points per game in 2008-09.
    -His 51 made 3's in 2017-18 were the most by an IUPUI freshman in the program's Division I era (1998-present).  


LARGE CLASS
IUPUI boasts an eight-man junior class eligibility wise, tying for the eighth largest class in all of college basketball. Below are the lists of largest classes.
    11 total: Navy (freshman class), Utah (freshman class)
    10 total: Air Force (freshman class), TCU (freshman class)
    9 total: Colorado (jr. class), CSU Bakersfield (jr. class), Middle Tenn. (jr. class)
    8 total: Idaho (jr. class), IUPUI (jr. class)

BASKETBALL CENTRAL: IUPUI will be a big part of the center of the college basketball universe this March as the 2020 Horizon League Championships will be played at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum on Mar. 9-10 and the department will later serve as institutional co-host of an NCAA Men's Basketball Regional at Lucas Oil Stadium on Mar. 26-28, alongside the Horizon League and Indiana Sports Corporation. Both the men's and women's Horizon League Semifinals (Mar. 9) and Championship games (Mar. 10) will be played at Indiana Farmers Coliseum as 2020 marks the first of a three-year rotation.