YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio - The IUPUI basketball team will cap a stretch of four straight road games on Saturday (Feb. 1) when the Jaguars take on Youngstown State (12-11, 5-5 HL) on Saturday night (Feb. 1) at 6:00 p.m. inside Beeghly Center. IUPUI is coming off a 72-62 loss at Cleveland State on Thursday night and is looking to cap the four-game road stretch with a 2-2 record. 

IUPUI went down by 15 midway through the second half of Thursday's game at CSU, but cut it to six late before finally succumbing to the Vikings. Junior Marcus Burk led four Jags in double-digits with 18 points and Jaylen Minnett chimed in with 12 points. Grant Weatherford had 11 points, six assists, five rebounds and tied his career-high with five steals. Junior Elyjah Goss, who leads the country with 266 rebounds and leads the Horizon League with nine double-doubles, notched his ninth with 10 points and 12 rebounds. 

The surprise of the night came in the form of freshman Taveion White, who entered play with zero points and six rebounds to his credit. However, pressed into a career-high 15 minutes of action with the Jaguars' frontcourt depleted, the Texas-native finished with seven points (3-3 FG, 1-3 FT), two rebounds, an assist, a blocked shot and a steal. Both teams struggled to make shots throughout the night as both sides were held below 40 percent from the floor. 

After Saturday's game, the Jags will return home for a quick two-game homestand, beginning with Thursday's 'Readers Become Leaders' Day as roughly 2,500 elementary school kids will attend the Jaguars' game against Green Bay at 11:00 a.m.. The homestand will conclude with a noon tipoff against Milwaukee on Saturday, Feb. 8. 

IUPUI comes in at just 1-13 all-time against YSU and will attempt to avenge an earlier loss to the Penguins in Indianapolis. 

ABOUT YOUNGSTOWN STATE
Youngstown State comes in at 12-11 overall and 5-5 in Horizon League play. Amazingly, YSU's last three games have all gone to overtime with the Penguins winning just one of those three contests. Sophomore Darius Quisenberry leads YSU in scoring (15.6 ppg), assists (89), steals (37) and free throws made (85). Naz Bohannon averages 10.6 points and 8.7 rebounds per game and is coming off a career-high 23-point effort in Thursday's 90-83 overtime loss to UIC. Michael Akuchie checks in at 9.1 points and 6.1 rebounds per game as YSU outrebounds opponents by 3.5 caroms per game. YSU is 9-3 at home this season and 3-2 inside the Beeghly Center in league play. 

PROBABLE STARTERS
G- Jaylen Minnett (6-1, Jr.) - 15.8 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 3.4 apg, 74 3's
G- Marcus Burk (6-3, Jr.) - 20.0 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 39.5 3FG%, 70 3's
G- Grant Weatherford (6-2, Jr.) - 8.5 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 2.7 apg
F- Brandon Kenyon (6-10, Soph.) - 1.9 ppg, 1.0 rpg
F- Elyjah Goss (6-7, Jr.) - 8.9 ppg, 11.6 rpg, 1.3 bpg

KEY RESERVES
G- Jamil Jackson Jr. (6-6, Jr.) - 3.6 ppg, 1.3 rpg
G- Mike DePersia (5-11, Fr.) - 2.4 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 2.6 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 just 1-13 all-time against Youngstown State and 1-7 in games played in Youngstown. YSU won the most recent meeting, 83-73 on Dec. 28, 2019, inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum. The Penguins have won seven straight games in the all-time series, dating back to Jan. 6, 2001. 

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). 

    NATIONAL LEADERS
    Entering the weekend, IUPUI boasts the nation's leaders in two different categories. 
    -Junior Elyjah Goss is tops in the nation, having collected 266 rebounds this season. He ranks No. 6 nationally (tops in the HL) with 11.6 rebounds per game. 
    -The backcourt duo of Jaylen Minnett (74) and Marcus Burk (70) have combined to make more threes than any other tandem in the country at 144. Syracuse's Buddy Boeheim and Elijah Hughes is next in line with 134 makes. 
    -In addition, Minnett owns the nation's 2nd longest active streak (t-8th all-time longest in NCAA D1 history) of games with at least one three made at 59 straight games. 

    SEEING 30-30
    The IUPUI duo of Marcus Burk and Jaylen Minnett pulled off a rare feat in the Jaguars' win at Oakland last 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
    Both Marcus Burk (25 pts, 10 reb) and Elyjah Goss (15 pts, 12 reb), had double-doubles in the Jan. 23 loss at Detroit Mercy. It marked the 1st 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. 

    CLEVELAND STATE TIP-INS
    IUPUI was swept in this year's season series to Cleveland State following Thursday's 72-62 loss inside the Wolstein Center. Here are some tidbits from that contest.
    -The Jags were undermanned, particularly in the frontcourt as Isaiah Williams, Zo Tyson and Jakoby Kemp all missed the game and junior Jamil Jackson Jr. left in the first half with an injury. Jackson had four points and a rebound in five games before leaving. 
    -Pressed into extended action, true freshman Taveion White responded with his first career points in the first half and closed with seven points, two rebounds, an assist, a steal and a blocked shot in 15 minutes. 
    -Elyjah Goss notched his league-best ninth double-double of the season with 10 points and 12 boards. 
    -Marcus Burk and Jaylen Minnett combined on just 30 points on 9-of-29 shooting and 5-of-17 from three-point range. Minnett fouled out for the first time in his collegiate career, playing 33 minutes total. Burk had a team-high 18 points and six boards and Grant Weatherford closed with 11 points, six assists, five boards and tied his career-high with five assists. 
    -The IUPUI bench outscored CSU's 11-7, marking just the second time the Jaguars' bench outscored the opponent's. 
    -IUPUI was outscored 36-22 in the paint and was outrebounded 46-32. 

    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
    Just past the midpoint of Horizon League play, here are some key numbers in regards to the Jaguars through 10 games. 
    -Offensively, IUPUI is ranked fourth in the league in scoring at 74.2 points per game, but yielding a league-worst 80.9 points per game. Foes are shooting 44.3 percent against the Jags and a league-best 39 percent from three-point range and averaging 9.4 made threes per game.
    -Burk leads the league in scoring at 21.9 points per game while Minnett is third at 18.8 points per game. Minnett leads the league in threes made (3.6/game) and Burk is third at 2.9/game. Goss leads the league in rebounding at 14.4 rebounds per game and with five double-doubles.  
    -Freshman Mike DePersia has 35 assists against just 13 turnovers in league games and is third in the league with a 2.69 assist-to-turnover ratio.  As a team, IUPUI has 158 assists against 138 turnovers for a 1.14 a/to ratio, ranking fourth best in the league.  
    -Four IUPUI players - Burk (2nd - 37.1), Minnett (4th - 36.5), Weatherford (5th - 36.4) and Goss (9th - 34.7) - rank among the league's top 10 in minutes played in 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 23 games. Redshirt freshman Marlon Taylor is the only other IUPUI player who has been available for all 23 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 461 this season, giving him 1,237 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 (20.0 ppg) and third in the league in threes made (3.04/gm). He also ranks tops in the league in three-point percentage at 39.5 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 971 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 also recently moved into fourth 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.) Jaylen Minnett    203    2017-pres.
    5.) Alex Young        202    2008-12
     
    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 59 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.) Jaylen Minnett (IUPUI)    active streak    58 straight games / HL record
    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
    
    -Minnett's 78 3's made last season was the 7th-highest single-season total in IUPUI history. He's made 74 this season, quickly approaching last season's total. 
    -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 11.6 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 20 of the team's 23 games. 
    Five games into this season, he was averaging 6.0 rebounds per game, but has since grabbed at least 10 boards in 14 of the Jaguars' 18 games.  
    In league play, Goss leads the league in rebounding (14.4 rpg) and has six double-doubles in 10 games and grabbed double-digit boards in every league contest. 
    Goss now has 12 career double-doubles and has led the Jags in rebounding in each of the past 16 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 (39.5%) and is third in threes made at 3.04/game. Minnett is second in threes made (3.22/game) and third in three-point percentage (36.1%). By hitting a combined 6.26 threes/game, the duo is tops in the league and leads the country with 144 combined makes. 
    Burk is fifth among active juniors (36th among all players) in college basketball with 228 career treys and Minnett is 10th on that list (65th overall) with 203 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 (697 of 1372) and 73 percent of the team's three-point attempts (382 of 522). In addition, the duo has accounted for 52 percent (824 of 1590) 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' 17 losses, foes have shot 48 percent overall and 38.5 percent from beyond the arc while making 9.2 threes per game. Eight of the 17 opponents to have beaten the Jags have shot 50 percent or better from the floor. 


    FREEBIES
    IUPUI enters play ranked 330th of 350 teams in free throw percentage at 64.1 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 143-of-201 (71.1 percent) in the last nine 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 10.6 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 IUPUI bench has outscored the opposition's just twice this season. 
    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.