MOREHEAD, Ky. - The IUPUI basketball team will hit the road for the first of back-to-back road games this week when the Jaguars take on Morehead State (4-4) on Wednesday night (Dec. 4) inside MSU's Johnson Arena at 7:00 p.m.. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+. 

IUPUI (2-6) is seeking to snap a four-game skid, the last three of which have all been decided by six points or less. The Jags dropped a 70-64 decision at home to Evansville on Saturday night on the heels of back-to-back defeats in Omaha as part of The Mainland Tournament at Omaha of the Cayman Islands Classic. Junior Marcus Burk has been elite offensive early on this season, ranking No. 13 nationally at 22.9 points per game while hitting 46 percent from three-point range. Burk needs just 41 more points to hit 1,000 in his collegiate career, having scored 776 in two seasons at Campbell and 183 this season. Behind him, classmate Jaylen Minnett is tallying 12.5 points per game and knocking in nearly three threes per game. 

Collectively, the duo ranks atop the Horizon League in threes per game, combining to hit 6.6 trifectas per contest. 

Junior Isaiah Williams has been strong of late, averaging 11.7 points and 6.3 rebounds per contest in three games coming off the bench. The Dayton-native is shooting 63 percent from the floor during that stretch and also averaging 2.6 assists per game during that stretch. 

Morehead State is 3-0 at home this season with victories over Samford, Spalding (Ky.) and UMES. The Eagles opened the season at 4-0, but have since dropped four straight, all on the road. Indianapolis-native Jordan Walker (14.1 ppg, 3.5 rpg) leads the Eagles in scoring while junior forward James Baker (12.1 ppg, 4.0 rpg) is second on the team in scoring. Another Indianapolis-native, Justin Thomas, also averages in double-digits at 10.0 points per game. 

PROBABLE STARTERS
G- Jaylen Minnett (6-1, Jr.) - 12.5 ppg, 4.4 rpg, 33.3 3FG%
G- Mike DePersia (5-11, Fr.) - 2.9 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 1.9 apg
G- Marcus Burk (6-3, Jr.) - 22.9 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 45.6 3FG%
F- Zo Tyson (6-9, Gr.) - 4.0 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 70.0 FG%
F- Elyjah Goss (6-7, Jr.) - 7.3 ppg, 7.1 rpg

KEY RESERVES
F- Isaiah Williams (6-8, Jr.) - 9.0 ppg, 5.1 rpg
G- Grant Weatherford (6-2, Jr.) - 4.1 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 2.8 apg

SERIES NOTES: IUPUI is 3-1 all-time against Morehead State in a series that dates back to 2001. The Jags won the first three meetings in the series before the Eagles snapped the streak with a 74-70 win in Morehead, Ky., last season. The two teams are scheduled to play in Indianapolis next season. 

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). 

    BURK'S BEEN BALLIN'
    Junior Marcus Burk has been on a tear all season long, ranking No. 13 nationally in scoring (22.9 ppg) and No. 5 in the country in threes made per game (3.88/game).  
    Here are some more notes on Burk to start the season:
    -Burk tallied a season-high 32 points (12-of-21 FG, 7-of-10 3's) against Loyola (Md.), falling one shy of his career-high 33 from his sophomore year at Campbell. Burk's 32 was the most by an IUPUI player since Darell Combs hit the same number against South Dakota on Feb. 25, 2016. 
    -Burk is averaging 13.5 points per game in the first half of games this season, while shooting 55.4 percent (21-of-38) from three-point range. He scored 23 points before halftime in the win over Anderson and also has first half totals of 17 at Loyola (Ill.) and 16 vs. Loyola (Md.) on Monday night (Nov. 25). 
    -While Burk is off to a hot start and averaging better than 20 points per game to start the year, no IUPUI player has averaged 20 points per game for an entire season since Alex Young averaged 20.4 points per game in 2011-12. Only three players - Odell Bradley (23.1, 2003-04), George Hill (21.5, 2007-08) and Young (20.4, 2011-12) - have averaged better than 20 points per game during the Jaguars' Division I era. 
    -Burk enters tonight with 959 points in his collegiate career - 776 in two seasons at Campbell and 183 in an IUPUI uniform. 

    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. 
    Burk leads the league in three per game (3.9) while Minnett is third in the league in the category (2.8). Burk leads in three-point percentage (45.6%) and Minnett is third at 33.3 percent. By hitting a combined 6.6 threes/game, the duo is easily tops in the league for a tandem as Detroit Mercy's Antoine Davis and Willy Isiani are next in line at 5.2 threes/game.  

    TOP GUNS
    Burk and Minnett are accounting for the bulk of the Jaguars' offense through the season's first eight games, having taken 54 percent of the team's field goal attempts (246 of 458) and 78 percent of the team's three-point attempts (134-of-172). In addition, the duo has accounted for 54 percent (283 of 525) of the team's total points. 
    Burk (22.9 ppg) and Minnett (12.5 ppg) easily lead the team in scoring while Isaiah Williams is third at 9.0 ppg. 

    FINDING DUBS
    While Burk has scored in double-digits in all eight games to start the season, the remainder of the IUPUI roster has just 10 double-digit scoring games combined. Minnett has scored in double-figures five times, Elyjah Goss has done so three times and Isaiah Williams has hit double-figures twice. 

    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 44 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 151 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).  

    MR. DOUBLE-DOUBLE
    Junior Elyjah Goss notched his second double-double of the season on Monday night, notching a season-high 14 points (5-of-9 FG, 4-6 FT) and matching his career-high with 13 boards (6 offensive) against Loyola (Md.). Goss logged his fifth career double-double and is the only active IUPUI player to own a collegiate double-double. 
    Goss has quietly upped his scoring (6.8 ppg to 7.3 ppg) and rebounding (6.3 rpg to 7.1 rpg), despite his minutes per game being slightly lower this season (22.9 mpg to 22.3 mpg).

    THANKSGIVING LEFTOVERS
    Against Evansville, Isaiah Williams had a career-high 15 points (5-7 FG, 5-10 FT) and eight boards to go along with three assists... the Jaguars committed a season-low seven turnovers in the loss to the Aces and have averaged just 12 turnovers per game the past three games... IUPUI has attempted a season-high 24 free throw attempts in each of the past two games... Elyjah Goss just missed his third double-double of the season with eight points and nine boards... the past two games, Jaylen Minnett has seven assists against just one turnover.

    STORY TELLER
    In IUPUI's two wins this season, the Jags have held opponents to 34 percent shooting overall and 19 percent from three-point range. 
    In the Jaguars' six losses, foes have shot 52.2 percent overall and 39 percent from beyond the arc. 
    Four of the six opponents to have beaten the Jags have shot 50 percent or better from the floor. 
    In the Jags' two wins - IUPUI held Anderson to just 32.4 percent shooting and South Florida to 37 percent. 

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.