INDIANAPOLIS - The IUPUI basketball team will continue its current three-game homestand on Sunday (Jan. 12) when the Jaguars host Northern Kentucky (11-6, 3-2 HL) at 2:00 p.m. inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum. As part of Salute to Service Day, first responders can redeem two FREE tickets with valid ID at the Coliseum box office. Sunday's game will be broadcast on ESPN+ as Greg Rakestraw (pxp) and Bob Lovell (analyst) describe the action. 

IUPUI (5-13, 1-4 HL) got off to a slow start against preseason favorite Wright State on Friday night and never fully recovered as the Raiders raced to an 84-70 victory. The Raiders made eight first half threes and led 53-31 at intermission and never let the Jaguars any closer than 12 after halftime. Junior Jaylen Minnett had a team-high 24 points in the loss and Marcus Burk added 17 points before fouling out. Grant Weatherford had 12 points and five boards and Elyjah Goss finished with 14 rebounds, ending the night with his 500th career rebound. Minnett climbed to No. 5 on the program's all-time threes made list, advancing his total to 189 in his three-year career. 

Minnett enters play tied for second nationally with 60 made threes this season while Burk is also among the nation's top 20 with 50 made. Goss has moved to No. 10 nationally in rebounds per game at 11.0 per contest. 

UPCOMING PROMOTIONS
Jan. 18 vs. UIC - Cram the Coliseum
    FREE adidas IUPUI branded t-shirts (while supplies last)
    Special halftime show featuring extreme pogo stick competitors
    A chance to win a FREE pair of adidas shoes during a special on-court competition
    On-site family entertainment including glitter artists and a balloon animal artist
    Scouts in attendance are invited to come down on the court after the game for a postgame layup line
 
ABOUT NORTHERN KENTUCKY
Northern Kentucky is 11-6 overall and 3-2 to start Horizon League play. The Norse are 5-4 in road games following Friday's 68-52 victory at UIC. Dantez Walton has missed NKU's last six games, but leads the Norse in scoring (18.4 ppg) and rebounding (7.2 rpg). Tyler Sharpe checks in at 14.4 points per game with a team-high 39 made threes and Trevon Faulkner averages 12.2 points per game. Jalen Tate, who has been limited to seven games so far this season, is averaging 10.0 points and just under five assists per contest. As a team, NKU holds opponents to just 27.5 percent shooting from three-point range while shooting 32 percent. 

PROBABLE STARTERS
G- Jaylen Minnett (6-1, Jr.) - 15.9 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 3.3 apg, 60 3's
G- Marcus Burk (6-3, Jr.) - 18.7 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 40.0 3FG%, 50 3's
G- Grant Weatherford (6-2, Jr.) - 7.9 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 2.4 apg
F- Isaiah Williams (6-8, Jr.) - 7.8 ppg, 4.5 rpg
F- Elyjah Goss (6-7, Jr.) - 8.8 ppg, 11.0 rpg, 1.3 bpg

KEY RESERVES
G- Jamil Jackson Jr. (6-6, Jr.) - 3.6 ppg, 1.0 rpg
G- Mike DePersia (5-11, Fr.) - 2.9 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 2.5 apg
F- Zo Tyson (6-9, Gr.) - 3.2 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 64.1 FG%

SERIES NOTES: IUPUI is 2-7 all-time against Northern Kentucky and won the most recent meeting, 83-77 on Feb. 1, 2019 inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum. IUPUI is 2-2 in four meetings in Indianapolis and 0-5 in the five meetings in Kentucky.

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). 

    COULDA, SHOULDA, WOULDA...
    While IUPUI is 1-4 at this juncture of Horizon League play and 0-3 at home, the Jags could just as easily be sitting at 4-1 at this point. 
    The Jags dropped their Horizon League opener to Youngstown State, 83-73, on a night in which they led with five minutes to play and went 12-of-28 (42.9 percent) from the foul line. Two days later, IUPUI lost at a tip-in at the buzzer to Cleveland State, 82-80.
    At Milwaukee, the Jags had a potential game-tying layup on their final possession go long, ultimately resulting in a 78-74 defeat. 
    IUPUI is now 0-6 this season in games decided by two possessions (six points) or less.

    BETTER THAN ALL THE REST
    IUPUI's early season win at South Florida (70-53 on Nov. 13) was widely considered the best non-conference victory by a Horizon League team this season. The Jags entered play as a 17-point underdog before defeating the AAC foe by 17 points. In addition, it was IUPUI's first-ever victory over an AAC opponent in program history. 

    MR. 1,000
    Junior Marcus Burk netted his 1,000 collegiate point in the Dec. 14 win over Purdue Fort Wayne with a three-point play at the 12:57 mark of the first half. Burk, an Indianapolis-native, tallied 776 in two seasons at Campbell and now has 334 this season, giving him 1,112 in his collegiate career. 
    Here are some more tidbits on Burk:
    -Burk has been IUPUI's top offensive player all season, ranking No. 2 in the Horizon League in scoring (18.7 ppg) and third in the league in threes made (2.78/gm). He also ranks tops in the league in three-point percentage at 40 percent.   
    -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 averaging nearly 20 points per game, 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 is currently second in the Horizon League with eight 20-point scoring games, trailing only Detroit Mercy's Antoine Davis. 

    MR. WINDEX
    Junior Elyjah Goss currently leads the Horizon League and ranks No. 10 nationally in rebounding at 11.0 per contest, more than a full rebound ahead of second place Naz Bohannon (YSU). He owns the two of the four highest single-game totals in the Horizon League this season, grabbing a school record 21 against IUSB (Dec. 10), 18 against Youngstown State (Dec. 28) and 17 at Morehead State (Dec. 4). His 21 boards against IUSB is the third-highest single-game total in NCAA Division I this season. 
    All total, Goss has led the Jaguars in rebounds in 15 of the team's 18 games. 
    Five games into this season, he was averaging 6.0 rebounds per game, but has since grabbed at least 10 boards in nine of the Jaguars' 13 games.  
    In five league games, Goss leads the league in rebounding (15.2 rpg) and defensive boards (9.8 rpg) while ranking second in offensive rebounds (5.4 rpg). He has three double-doubles in five games and grabbed double-digit boards in every league contest. 
    Goss now has nine career double-doubles and has led the Jags in rebounding in each of the past 11 games.   

    HEALTH CHECK
    The Dec. 7 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. The Jags have played just six games at full strength as Isaiah Williams missed the game with Cleveland State and Jackson missed the game at Milwaukee.

    SPLASH BROTHERS
    IUPUI's version of the Splash Brothers - Marcus Burk and Jaylen Minnett - has been impressive, both ranking among the nation's top 20 in threes made. 
    Burk leads the league in percentage (40%) and is third in threes made at 2.78/game. Minnett is second in both threes made (3.33/game) and three-point percentage (37.7%). By hitting a combined 6.1 threes/game, the duo is tops in the league for a tandem as Northern Kentucky's Dantez Walton and Tyler Sharpe are next in line. 
    Burk is fifth among active juniors (45th among all players) in college basketball with 208 career treys and Minnett is ninth on that list (68th overall) with 189 makes. 

    TOP GUNS
    Burk and Minnett are accounting for the bulk of the Jaguars' offense, having taken 50 percent of the team's field goal attempts (531 of 1058) and 73 percent of the team's three-point attempts (284 of 388). In addition, the duo has accounted for more than 50 percent (623 of 1238) of the team's total points. 
    Burk (18.7 ppg) and Minnett (15.9 ppg) easily lead the team in scoring while Elyjah Goss is third at 8.8 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's currently amidst a career-best 11 straight games in double-figures, averaging nearly 18.9 points per game during that span. 
    -He currently owns the nation's third-longest streak of consecutive games with at least one made three at 54 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 sixth on IUPUI's all-time list with 189 made 3's in his career... he's seven triples away from fifth-place Gary Patterson's 196 career triples.
    -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).  

    WARM WEATHERFORD
    Junior Grant Weatherford is making a claim to join Burk and Minnett as an elite three-point shooter. After starting the season 0-of-6 from deep in the season's first eight games, Weatherford is 12-of-25 (48%) from beyond the arc in the Jaguars' last 10 games, coinciding with his return to the starting lineup. 
    Since rejoining the starting unit, Weatherford has tallied in double-digits six times. During the nine games, Weatherford is averaging 10.9 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.9 steals per game while shooting 50.6 percent (40-of-79) from the field and three. 

    STORY TELLER
    In IUPUI's five wins this season, the Jags have held opponents to 37.5 percent shooting overall and 26.1 percent from three-point range. 
    In the Jaguars' 13 losses, foes have shot 49 percent overall and 39 percent from beyond the arc. 
    Seven of the 13 opponents to have beaten the Jags have shot 50 percent or better from the floor. 

    FREEBIES
    IUPUI enters play ranked 331st of 350 teams in free throw percentage at 63.1 percent, which is well on pace to be the lowest mark in the program's Division I era. The current low mark was a 65.4 percentage for the 2008-09 season. The lowest single-season mark on record in program history was a 62.7 percentage in the 1976-77 campaign. 

    ...HOWEVER
    Since the Youngstown State loss in which IUPUI made just 12-of-28 (42.9 percent) at the foul line, IUPUI has been efficient in the four most recent games. Since then, IUPUI is a combined 73-of-97 (75.3 percent) in the last four games. 

    FULL 40
    Junior Jaylen Minnett's 40-minute effort at Green Bay on Jan. 5 was the first full 40 posted by an IUPUI player in a non-overtime game since Marcellus Barksdale played all 40 minutes at Western Illinois on Mar. 1, 2014. 

    STARTERS DOING IT ALL
    Head coach Byron Rimm has shown a reluctance to delve too deeply into his bench as IUPUI reserves accounted for just 11.6 points per game this season. IUPUI is getting just 10 percent of its points from reserves and has had seven games in which the bench has provided fewer than 10 points. The Jags' bench has scored a season-high 19 points on three different occasions. 

    GRADE CHECKS
    Six different Jaguars posted a grade point average of 3.0 or better during the fall - Mike DePersia, Elyjah Goss, Brandon Kenyon, Sawyer Stoltz, Grant Weatherford and Taveion White. Weatherford, who is pursuing his Master's degree in Organizational Leadership, had the team's top GPA for the fall at 3.67. 
 
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.