CLEVELAND, Ohio - Coming off a thrilling road win at Oakland last week, the IUPUI basketball team will open the second half of Horizon League play on Thursday (Jan. 30) when the Jaguars take on Cleveland State (8-14, 4-5 HL) at 7:00 p.m. inside CSU's Wolstein Center. IUPUI upended Oakland inside OU's O'rena last Saturday in overtime, 89-85, fueled by a 69 combined points from Marcus Burk and Jaylen Minnett. 

Burk, who was later named Horizon League Player of the Week, tallied a career-high 39 points, including eight treys, in the win at Oakland. Minnett chipped in with 30 points and hit six treys in the win. The Jags dominated OU on the glass, outrebounding the Golden Grizzlies 54-38, keyed by Elyjah Goss' 18 rebounds and Grant Weatherford's career-high 13 caroms. 

IUPUI (6-16, 2-7 HL) boasts the nation's top three-point duo as Minnett and Burk have combined to lead the country with 139 made threes this season. Minnett ranks No. 7 nationally with 72 trifectas while Burk is 13th nationally with 67 marks. The duo is five ahead of the Syracuse duo of Buddy Boeheim and Elijah Hughes, who have made 134. 

Also among the national leaders is junior forward Elyjah Goss, who ranks No. 6 nationally in rebounding at 11.5 rebounds per game. His 254 total rebounds rank No. 3 in the country as the Illinois-native has led IUPUI in rebounds in 19 of 22 games. 

At Oakland, the Jags got key contributions from sophomore Brandon Kenyon, who made his first career start. The 6-foot-10 Candian closed with seven points and played a career-high 20 minutes in that contest, including sinking a layup late in overtime to make it a two-possession game. 

ABOUT CLEVELAND STATE
Cleveland State is 8-14 overall and 4-5 in Horizon League play, including an earlier 82-80 win over the Jaguars inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum back on Dec. 30. The Vikings are 5-5 at home this season and 3-2 in home league games. Algevon Eichelberger leads CSU in scoring (13.5 ppg) and rebounding (6.5 rpg) while Torrey Patton is second on the team in scoring at 10.3 points per game. Craig Beaudion also averages double-digits at 10.0 points per game. The Vikings recently snapped a four-game skid with a convincing 70-53 home win over Milwaukee. 

PROBABLE STARTERS
G- Jaylen Minnett (6-1, Jr.) - 16.0 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 3.5 apg, 72 3's
G- Marcus Burk (6-3, Jr.) - 20.1 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 40.1 3FG%, 67 3's
G- Grant Weatherford (6-2, Jr.) - 8.4 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 2.5 apg
F- Brandon Kenyon (6-10, Soph.) - 2.1 ppg, 1.0 rpg
F- Elyjah Goss (6-7, Jr.) - 8.9 ppg, 11.5 rpg, 1.3 bpg

KEY RESERVES
G- Jamil Jackson Jr. (6-6, Jr.) - 3.5 ppg, 1.3 rpg
G- Mike DePersia (5-11, Fr.) - 2.5 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 2.5 apg
F- Isaiah Williams (6-8, Jr.) - 8.0 ppg, 4.4 rpg
F- Zo Tyson (6-9, Gr.) - 3.2 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 60.9 FG%

SERIES NOTES: IUPUI is 4-3 all-time against Cleveland State, but has lost the last two meetings between the two schools. CSU won in Indianapolis earlier this season, 82-80, on Dec. 30, 2019 on a tip-in as the final horn sounded. IUPUI is 1-2 all-time in the three meetings in Cleveland. 

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). 

    SEEING 30-30
    The IUPUI duo of Marcus Burk and Jaylen Minnett pulled off a rare feat in the Jaguars' win at Oakland on Saturday (Jan. 25), each tallying more than 30 points. Burk hit for a career-high 39 points (12-24 FG, 8-15 3's, 7-10 FT) and Minnett just missed his career-high with 30 points (10-24 FG, 6-14 3's, 4-5 FT). The feat has only been achieved by one another Division I team this season as Austin Peay's Terry Taylor and Jordyn Adams both scored 37 points in the Govs' win over Tennessee State on Jan. 23.
    It marked the first time in the program's Division I era (1998-present) that two IUPUI players tallied 30 or better in the same game. 

    BURK HONORED
    Not unexpectedly, Burk earned his second Nike #HLMBB Player of the Week award on Monday after averaging 32 points, 6.5 rebounds and 3 assists per game and connecting on 13 threes in two contests last week. Burk's 39 points at Oakland were the most by a Horizon League player this season and it came on the heels of his first career double-double at Detroit Mercy on Thursday, when he totaled 25 points and 10 boards. 

    DUELING DOUBLE-DUBS
    Two IUPUI players, Marcus Burk (25 pts, 10 reb) and Elyjah Goss (15 pts, 12 reb), had double-doubles last Thursday night (Jan. 23) in the loss at Detroit Mercy. It marked the first time two IUPUI players had a double-double in the same game since Jan. 2, 2014 when Donovan Gibbs (32 pts, 11 reb) and Khufu Najee (11 pts, 11 reb) both had double-doubles in a win over Judson. 

    OTHER OAKLAND TIDBITS
    While Burk and Minnett's combined 69 points stole the show at Oakland on Saturday, it was far from the only storyline to come from the Jaguars' first win in Rochester since 2006. The win snapped the Jaguars' current four-game skid and stopped a streak of nine straight road losses at OU. Below are a couple other tidbits to fall from last Saturday's road win. 
    -Sophomore Brandon Kenyon was awarded his first career start and responded with 7 points (2-4 FG, 1-2 3's, 2-2 FT) in a career-high 20 minutes of action. However, it was his layup with 22 seconds left that pushed IUPUI's lead to 86-82 that made it a two possession game and helped seal the victory. 
    -Junior Grant Weatherford had seven points, four assists and a career-high 13 rebounds while Elyjah Goss grabbed 18 rebounds. The Jags outrebounded Oakland 54-38 as the +16 margin was IUPUI's second-highest of the season. 
    -IUPUI's 15 made threes tied for the third-highest single-game total in the program's Division I era. The Jags made 19-of-39 against Southern Utah on Jan. 31, 2008 and 17-of-29 at home against Urbana on Dec. 12, 2016. 
    IUPUI also made 15 inside Oakland's O'rena on Feb. 26, 2005 in a 94-89 overtime loss in which it made 15-of-32 attempts. 
    -IUPUI was whistled for 23 personal fouls, resulting in 31 OU free throw attempts - the second most by an IUPUI opponent this season. Oakland outscored IUPUI at the free throw line, 24-14 on Saturday. 

    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. 

    AT THE TURN
    At the midpoint of Horizon League play, here are some key numbers in regards to the Jaguars through nine games. 
    -Offensively, IUPUI is ranked third in the league in scoring at 75.6 points per game, but yielding a league-worst 81.9 points per game. Foes are shooting 44.9 percent against the Jags and a league-best 38.5 percent from three-point range and averaging 9.9 made threes per game.
    -Burk leads the league in scoring at 22.3 points per game while Minnett is third at 19.6 points per game. Minnett leads the league in threes made (3.78/game) and Burk is third at 2.89/game. Goss leads the league in rebounding at 14.7 rebounds per game and with five double-doubles.  
    -Freshman Mike DePersia has 32 assists against just 11 turnovers in league games and is second in the league with a 2.91 assist-to-turnover ratio.  As a team, IUPUI has 143 assists against 120 turnovers (1.19 a/to). 
    -IUPUI  has yielded 160 free throw attempts, ranking ninth in the league in fewest attempts allowed. 
    -Four IUPUI players - Minnett (2nd - 37.1), Burk (4th - 36.8), Weatherford (5th - 35.9) and Goss (12th - 34.1) - rank among the league's top 12 in minutes played since the start of league play. 

    THE BEST ABILITY...
    ...is availability. IUPUI players have struggled to stay healthy and available this season as only five players - Burk, Minnett, DePersia, Goss and Weatherford - have played all 22 games. Redshirt freshman Marlon Taylor is the only other IUPUI player who has been available for all 22 games. 

    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 443 this season, giving him 1,219 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 (20.1 ppg) and third in the league in threes made (3.05/gm). He also ranks tops in the league in three-point percentage at 40.1 percent.       -Burk has two 30-point games this season, including 39 at Oakland (12-24 FG, 8-15 3's, 7-10 FT) on Jan. 25.  
    -While Burk is averaging just over 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. 

    NEXT TO A GRAND
    Junior Jaylen Minnett is knocking on the door of becoming the 24th player in program history to achieve 1,000 career points in an IUPUI uniform. Minnett enters today's game with 959 career points and would be the 16th player to achieve the mark in three seasons or less, should he hit for 1,000 by season's end. 
    He's recently moved into fifth on the program's all-time list in threes made:
    1.) Brandon Cole        238    2002-06
    2.) Rodney Thomas    215    1996-00
    3.) Carlos Knox        208    1994-98
    4.) Alex Young        202    2008-12
    5.) Jaylen Minnett    201    2017-pres.
     
    Some other tidbits on Minnett include: 
    -He currently owns the nation's second-longest streak of consecutive games with at least one made three at 58 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.
    Here's the list of the longest streaks of threes made in NCAA Division I history:
     1.) Cory Bradford (Illinois)    ended Feb. 10, 2001    88 straight games / B10 record
    2.) Wally Lancaster (Va. Tech)    ended 1989    73 straight games / ACC record
    3.) Mack Smith (Eastern Ill.)    active streak    69 straight games / OVC record
    4.) Marshall Henderson (Ole Miss)    ended 2014    66 straight games / SEC record
    5.) Justin Jaworski (Lafayette)    ended 2020    64 straight games / Patriot record
    t-6.) Fletcher Magee (Wofford)    ended 2018    60 straight games / SoCon record
    t-6.) Pat Bradley (Arkansas)    ended 1998    60 straight games
    t-8.) Tyler Hall (Montana St.)    ended 2017    59 straight games
    t-8.) John Lucas III (Oklahoma St.)    ended 2005    59 straight games / Big 12 record
    t-8.) John Jenkins (Vanderbilt)    ended 2012    59 straight games
    11.) Jaylen Minnett (IUPUI)    active streak    58 straight games / HL record
    -- Cameron Healy (Albany)    active streak    53 straight games
    -- Antoine Davis (Detroit)    active streak    51 straight games

    -Minnett's 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. WINDEX
    Junior Elyjah Goss currently leads the Horizon League and ranks No. 6 nationally in rebounding at 11.5 per contest, more than a full rebound ahead of second place Naz Bohannon (YSU). He owns five of the seven highest single-game totals in the Horizon League this season, including grabbing a school record 21 against IUSB (Dec. 10), 18 against Youngstown State (Dec. 28) and at Oakland (Jan. 25) and 17 rebounds twice. His 21 boards against IUSB is tied for the fourth-highest single-game total in NCAA Division I this season. 
    All total, Goss has led the Jaguars in rebounds in 19 of the team's 22 games. 
    Five games into this season, he was averaging 6.0 rebounds per game, but has since grabbed at least 10 boards in 13 of the Jaguars' 17 games.  
    In league play, Goss leads the league in rebounding (14.7 rpg) and has five double-doubles in nine games and grabbed double-digit boards in every league contest. 
    Goss now has 11 career double-doubles and has led the Jags in rebounding in each of the past 15 games.   

    SPLASH BROTHERS
    IUPUI's version of the Splash Brothers - Marcus Burk and Jaylen Minnett - is on pace to reach unprecedented heights.
    Burk leads the league in percentage (40.1%) and is third in threes made at 3.05/game. Minnett is second in threes made (3.27/game) and three-point percentage (36.4%). By hitting a combined 6.32 threes/game, the duo is tops in the league and leads the country with 139 combined makes. 
    Burk is fifth among active juniors (37th among all players) in college basketball with 225 career treys and Minnett is 10th on that list (67th overall) with 201 makes. 

    TOP GUNS
    Burk and Minnett are accounting for the bulk of the Jaguars' offense, having taken 51 percent of the team's field goal attempts (668 of 1317) and 73 percent of the team's three-point attempts (365 of 498). In addition, the duo has accounted for more than half (794 of 1528) of the team's total points. 

    STORY TELLER
    In IUPUI's six wins this season, the Jags have held opponents to 37 percent shooting overall and 28 percent from three-point range while making 7.7 threes per game. 
    In the Jaguars' 16 losses, foes have shot 48.7 percent overall and 38.2 percent from beyond the arc while making 9.4 threes per game. Eight of the 16 opponents to have beaten the Jags have shot 50 percent or better from the floor. 

    FREEBIES
    IUPUI enters play ranked 325th of 350 teams in free throw percentage at 64.2 percent, which is 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 Dec. 28 Youngstown State loss in which IUPUI made just 12-of-28 (42.9 percent) at the foul line, IUPUI has been efficient at the stripe. Since then, IUPUI is a combined 128-of-177 (72.3 percent) in the last seven 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 10.5 points per game this season. IUPUI is getting just 15 percent of its points from reserves and has had 10 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. Kenyon and Weatherford were recently named to the Horizon League's Academic Honor Roll for the fall semester. 
 
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.