INDIANAPOLIS - Head coach Byron Rimm II's IUPUI squad will kickoff the 2019-2020 season on Wednesday night (Nov. 6) when the Jaguars take on crosstown foe Butler (0-0) at 6:30 p.m. inside Hinkle Fieldhouse. The game will be broadcast on FS2 as Vince Welch (pxp) and Nick Bahe (analyst) describe the action. 

A new coach and a whole lot of new faces will be on display on Wednesday night as Rimm inherits a squad that returns just five letterwinners and two starters from a team that when 16-17 overall last season. The Jags made the program's third postseason appearance during the Division I level by capturing a spot in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament, before falling in the opening round on the road at Marshall to conclude the season. 

The cupboard is far from bare though as 2019 Horizon League Sixth Man of the Year Jaylen Minnett (12.0 ppg, 78 3's) returns, along with returning starters Grant Weatherford (6.2 ppg, 3.0 rpg) and Elyjah Goss (6.8 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 52.7 FG%). The Jaguars will lean hard on a group of now eligible transfers that includes 6-foot-3 guard Marcus Burk, 6-foot-6 swingman Jamil Jackson Jr., 6-foot-8 wing Isaiah Williams and 6-foot-9 forward Zo Tyson. Burk, an Indianapolis-native, led the Jags with 31 points, seven rebounds, six steals and four assists in the Jaguars' exhibition win over Tiffin University, while Williams was also in the starting lineup and contributed six points and three boards. Jackson came off the bench to contribute nine points and three boards in just 17 minutes while Tyson, a Colorado State-transfer, missed the game due to injury. 

PROBABLE STARTERS (based on exhibition game)
G- Jaylen Minnett (6-1, Jr.)
G- Marcus Burk (6-3, Jr.)
G- Grant Weatherford (6-2, Jr.)
F- Isaiah Williams (6-8, Jr.)
F- Elyjah Goss (6-7, Jr.)

KEY RESERVES
F- Jakoby Kemp (6-8, Jr.)
G/F- Jamil Jackson Jr. (6-6, Jr.)
G- Mike DePersia (5-11, Fr.)
F- Zo Tyson (6-9, Gr.)

SERIES NOTES: IUPUI is 0-5 all-time against Butler, having dropped all five games at Hinkle Fieldhouse by an average of 24.2 points per contest. IUPUI has yet to score more than 59 points in any game of the series, which dates back to the 1997-1998 season. Below are the results from the series to date, along with the Jaguars' top scorers in each contest. 
    Dec. 10, 1997 - Butler 83-44 (J.T. Reese 11 pts, Don Carlisle 10 pts)
    Feb. 1, 1999 - Butler 80-54 (Derek Williams 12 pts, Matt Hermes 11 pts)
    Jan. 24, 2000 - Butler 70-59 (Don Carlisle 15 pts, Charles Price 13 pts)
    Dec. 5, 2012 - Butler 87-55 (Donovan Gibbs 10 pts, Mitch Patton 10 pts)
    Dec. 28, 2015 - Butler 92-54 (Darell Combs 11 pts, T.J. Henderson 10 pts)

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). 

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'll almost assuredly assume 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 36 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 ninth on IUPUI's all-time list with 129 made 3's in his career... 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 (1999-present). 

LONG LAYOFFS: IUPUI's three key transfers are all coming off long layoffs, led by the break that Jamil Jackson Jr. has experiences. Jackson's most recent game action was on Nov. 25, 2017 - nearly two years ago. Marcus Burk's most recent game action was on Mar. 22, 2018 while Zo Tyson's most recent game action came on Feb. 20, 2019.

OPENERS: IUPUI has dropped its last three season openers, all on the road, since winning a road opener at Indiana State (72-70 on Nov. 13, 2015). Since then, IUPUI has dropped three straight season openers. Since moving to the Division I level in 1998, IUPUI is 10-11 overall in season openers. Below are the Jaguars' most three recent season opening results. 
    Nov. 11, 2016 - Eastern Kentucky 97, IUPUI 87 (Richmond, Ky.)
    Nov. 11, 2017 - Bradley 68, IUPUI 53 (Peoria, Ill.)
    Nov. 6, 2018 - Xavier 82, IUPUI 69 (Cincinnati, Ohio)

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.