INDIANAPOLIS - The IUPUI basketball team will return home for a much needed homestand, beginning Tuesday (Dec. 10) when the Jaguars host IU South Bend (8-5) inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum. Tuesday's game will tip-off at 7:00 p.m. and tickets are available via TicketMaster or at the Coliseum box office during normal business hours. Fans can collect a FREE ticket to Tuesday's game by bringing a new, unwrapped toy to benefit the Ruth Lilly Women and Children's Center. Tuesday's game will be broadcast on ESPN3 as Greg Rakestraw and IUPUI Hall of Famer Bob Lovell (analyst). 

IUPUI (2-8) comes in looking to snap a six-game skid since the win at South Florida earlier this season. Four of the six losses have come by two possessions or less as head coach Byron Rimm II's squad has struggled mightily in close games. With top scorer Marcus Burk having been bottled up by opposing defenses the past two games, Grant Weatherford and Elyjah Goss have been called upon to shoulder more of the load. Weatherford is averaging 13.5 points and 4.5 rebounds in the last two games since being reinserted in the starting five, while Goss is averaging 9.2 points and 10.6 rebounds per game since starting the past five contests. 

Burk, who still ranks among the nation's top 30 in both scoring and threes made per game, has been held under 10 points in each of the Jags' past two contests. 

IUPUI is 1-1 at home this season, having played just two of the season's first 10 games at Indiana Farmers Coliseum. The Jags knocked off Anderson in the home opener before falling to Evansville on Nov. 30 in a game in which they led for nearly 30 minutes. However, the Purple Aces closed the game on a run to sneak a 56-51 victory away from the Jaguars. 

ABOUT IU SOUTH BEND
IU South Bend is 8-5 on the season and comes in averaging 83.5 points per game. Kourtlandt Martin (14.9), Dylan Allen (11.1) and Donyell Meredith (10.5) all come in averaging double-digits while Norell Smith is averaging 7.8 points and a team-high 7.2 rebounds per contest. 

PROBABLE STARTERS
G- Jaylen Minnett (6-1, Jr.) - 13.0 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 2.8 apg
G- Marcus Burk (6-3, Jr.) - 19.7 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 44.0 3FG%
G- Grant Weatherford (6-2, Jr.) - 6.0 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 2.4 apg
F- Zo Tyson (6-9, Gr.) - 3.6 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 57.7 FG%
F- Elyjah Goss (6-7, Jr.) - 7.2 ppg, 8.3 rpg

KEY RESERVES
G- Jamil Jackson Jr. (6-6, Jr.) - 2.7 ppg, 1.1 rpg
G- Mike DePersia (5-11, Fr.) - 2.3 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 1.9 apg
F- Isaiah Williams (6-8, Jr.) - 8.1 ppg, 5.0 rpg

SERIES NOTES: IUPUI is 11-1 all-time against IU South Bend and has won the last seven meetings in the series. IUPUI's last loss to IUSB was back in  February 1990. 

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). 

    BALL STATE TIDBITS
    Junior Jaylen Minnett just missed a season-high in the scoring column, closing with 17 points (6-12 FG, 4-7 3's) in 35 minutes... junior Elyjah Goss just missed a double-double with 10 points and nine boards and Grant Weatherford also finished in double-figures with 10 points and seven boards... Minnett (6-of-12) and Weatherford (4-of-8) were the only two players to hit half their shots on Saturday... IUPUI had a season-low 19 made field goals, two assists and shot a season-low 30.2 percent from the floor... conversely, IUPUI yielded a season-high 102 points, 15 threes and 23 made free throws... Ball State scored 62 of its 102 points in the second half. 

    HEALTH CHECK
    Saturday's game at Ball State was the first time all season that head coach Byron Rimm had his full roster as his disposal. Junior Jakoby Kemp missed the season's initial eight games due to injury and upon his return at Morehead State (Dec. 4), classmate Jamil Jackson was sidelined due to injury. Jackson missed two games before returning at Ball State. 

    BURK'S BEEN BALLIN'
    Junior Marcus Burk has undoubtedly been IUPUI's top offensive player all season, ranking among the nation's top 30 in scoring (19.7 ppg) and threes per game (3.30/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. 
    -While Burk is off to a hot start and averaging nearly 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 973 points in his collegiate career - 776 in two seasons at Campbell and 197 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 (3.3) while Minnett is tied for third in the league in the category (2.7). Burk leads in three-point percentage (44.0%) and Minnett is fourth at 35.0%. By hitting a combined 6.0 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 51 percent of the team's field goal attempts (295 of 581) and 76 percent of the team's three-point attempts (155-of-203). In addition, the duo has accounted for 52 percent (327 of 630) of the team's total points. 
    Burk (19.7 ppg) and Minnett (13.0 ppg) easily lead the team in scoring while Isaiah Williams is third at 8.1 ppg. 

    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 third-longest streak of consecutive games with at least one made three at 46 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 157 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).  

    GRANT AIDS
    With the offense sputtering at Morehead State, junior Grant Weatherford poured in three threes in a span on six minutes, after entering the game without a three on the season. Weatherford had just 11 career treys coming into that contest, but oddly enough, he's made eight of his 14 triples in two games. 
    vs. Green Bay (2-24-19) / 21 pts, 6-12 FG, 5-6 3's, 4-4 FT
    at Morehead State (12-4-19) / 17 pts, 7-10 FG, 3-4 3's, 0-1
    Outside of those two games, Weatherford is a combined 6-of-21 from three-point range in 41 career games. 

    MR. WINDEX
    Junior Elyjah Goss currently leads the Horizon League in rebounding at 8.3 per contest. He snared a career-high 17 at Morehead State last week, tying for the eighth-highest single game total in program history. His 17 boards were the most by an IUPUI player since Lyonell Gaines grabbed 19 against IU Northwest on Dec. 11, 2012.
    This season, he has a pair of double-doubles and  has quietly upped his scoring (6.8 ppg to 7.2 ppg) and rebounding (6.3 rpg to 8.3 rpg).
    Since returning to the starting lineup five games ago, Goss is averaging 9.2 points and 10.6 rebounds per game. 

    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' eight losses, foes have shot 50.4 percent overall and 37.4 percent from beyond the arc. 
    Five of the eight 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.