INDIANAPOLIS - After starting the season with five straight games away from home, the IUPUI basketball team will make its long anticipated home debut on Tuesday night (Nov. 23) when the Jaguars host Spalding University (2-4) at 7:00 p.m. inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum. Head coach Matt Crenshaw's team is still seeking victory number one on the year after coming up just shy on multiple occasions. In its most recent outing, IUPUI had a late lead on the road at Conference USA foe UTSA before ultimately falling, 60-57. The Jaguars were down a point with the ball with nine seconds left, but committed a turnover and was unable to get a look at a potential go-ahead bucket. 

Graduate transfer B.J. Maxwell collected his first career double-double with 13 points and 10 boards and freshman center Chuks Isitua had 10 points, three boards and two blocked shots in 25 minutes off the bench. Maxwell was named to the 210 San Antonio Shootout All-Tournament Team after averaging 13.7 points and 6.0 rebounds per game while shooting 91 percent from the free throw line in three games. For the season, Maxwell averages a team-high 12.6 points per game and also leads the squad in rebounding (5.6 rpg), free throws made (16), minutes played (30.4 mpg) and blocked shots (5). 

SCOUTING SPALDING
Spalding enters play at 2-4 overall and Tuesday's game will count as an exhibition for the Eagles. The Eagles are 1-2 in three games away from home, having most recently defeated Saint Vincent, 67-63. Christian Stewart leads SU in scoring (13.5 ppg) and rebounding (6.3 rpg) and is shooting 51 percent from the floor. Collectively, Spalding is shooting 44.4 percent overall and 25.9 percent from three-point range. The Eagles outrebound their opponents by 2.5 caroms per game to help offset a turnover differential of -2.5 per contest. 

SERIES NOTES
Tuesday's game marks the first-ever meeting between the two schools. 

QUOTABLE
"I'm really proud of the young men's resiliency tonight. We have to continue to limit our turnovers and fouling our opponents. Those have both been our Achilles heel to this point in the season. There were countless things we can look back on that decided the outcome of the game tonight - not just the last three or four possessions," Crenshaw said following the UTSA loss. 

UP NEXT
IUPUI will open Horizon League play on Thursday, Dec. 2 when the Jaguars host Detroit Mercy at 7:00 p.m. inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum. 

Game Notes (click here for the full PDF packet)
    DE-DE-DE-DEFENSE
    Through five games, IUPUI is the toughest team in the Horizon League to score on, yielding just 60.8 points per contest - ranking 69th nationally in scoring defense. Of the 68 teams ahead of them, 65 are at or above .500 to start the season. 
    Opponents are shooting just 38.6 percent from the floor this season, which ranks 81st best in the country. 
    The Jaguars are also closing down possessions, grabbing better than 75 percent of the available defensive boards, ranking second in the Horizon League. 

    'OFF'ENSE
    While the IUPUI defense has been strong, the offense has been equally sour to start the year. The Jags come in averaging just 50 points per game and have yet to hit 60 in a contest this season. 
    The Jags are shooting 37.6 percent overall and 27.1 percent from three-point range, but the more concerning statistic is the turnovers. After turning it over just nine times in the season opener at Butler, IUPUI has turned it over 76 times the past four games, coming out to 19.0 turnovers per game. 
    IUPUI's young guards have been the primary culprits in committing the turnovers as KJ Pruitt (3.6/game), Bakari LaStrap (3.6/game) and Boston Stanton III (2.6/game) all have more turnovers than assists on the season. 

    MAD MAX
    Graduate transfer B.J. Maxwell has emerged as IUPUI's go-to guy in the season's first five games, leading the team in scoring (12.6 ppg) and rebounding (5.6 rpg) and easily pacing the squad in field goal attempts (63), three-point attempts (28) and free throw attempts (20). 
    His 63 shot attempts are 26 percent of the team's tries as Nathan McClure is second on the team with 28 hoists. 

    SPYING THE FIRST
    IUPUI needs a victory tonight to avoid the first-ever 0-6 start in program history. This season marks the third 0-5 start to the year in program history (1999-2000 & 1992-1993). 

    EXPERIENCE MATTERS
    Despite having eight players classified as upperclassmen, the IUPUI roster entered this season without a ton of actual Division I experience. Mike DePersia (1,241 career minutes) and B.J. Maxwell (1,156 minutes between ACU and Detroit Mercy) are the only two to have played at least 1,000 career minutes. A third, Zach Gunn, was closing in on the number having played 920 minutes in three seasons at Ball State, but will miss the entire season due to injury. 
    Six others in the IUPUI rotation entered this season having played fewer than 400 career minutes in Nathan McClure (388), Azariah Seay (376 between IUPUI and Alabama State), Bobby Harvey (255), Bakari LaStrap (234), Dimitar Pandev (62) and Jonah Carrasco (49). 

    CRAFTY VETERAN
    Maxwell is an interesting case study in today's new world of college basketball as he's entering his seventh year of college this season. After redshirting his opening season (2015-16) at Abilene Christian, he played three full seasons at ACU before transferring out for a fifth season. He played just two games at Detroit Mercy in 2019-20 before suffering a season ending injury and receiving another season of eligibility. He spent all of last season at Saint Edward's University in Austin, Texas, where he averaged 18.6 points and 5.3 boards per game while earning NABC Second Team All-District honors. 
    After all NCAA student-athletes were granted an additional year of eligibility due to COVID-19 issues, Maxwell opted to join the IUPUI program for a seventh season of schooling. He enters this season having played 94 collegiate basketball games and having scored 758 points across both NCAA Division I and II levels.     

    JERSEY MIKE
    Junior guard Mike DePersia ranked No. 3 in the country a year ago with a 3.74 assist-to-turnover ratio, delivering 71 assists against just 19 miscues. In league play, he upped that figure to 4.13. His 3.74 mark last season easily eclipsed the previous IUPUI single-season mark, which was 3.30 set by Taj Hawkins back in 2001-02.
    DePersia tied IUPUI's single-game record with 14 assists in a game in a Feb. 12 win over UIC, doing so without committing a turnover. He had a six-game span where he didn't turn the ball over once, dishing out 31 assists during that span. 
    DePersia enters his third season with the program with a 2.56 career assist-to-turnover ratio, having distributed 156 assists against just 61 turnovers in an IUPUI uniform. The IUPUI career record in the category is 2.16 as Brady Adkins had 261 assists against just 121 turnovers from 1994-1996. 
    
    HOOSIER TIES
    For the first time in program history, IUPUI will likely unveil a starting five that doesn't include an Indiana-native. In program history, 73 percent of the players have come from the state of Indiana and IUPUI has never started a game in the Division I era (1998-present) without having at least one Indiana-native included. 
    In fact, it's unlikely that IUPUI gets any contributions from any Indiana-natives this year as Zach Gunn will miss the season due to injury and non-scholarship freshmen Kaleb Edwards and Derek Petersen are expected to redshirt.