ROCHESTER, Mich. - The IUPUI basketball team will open the KEEPS Horizon League Basketball Championships on Tuesday (Mar. 1) when the Jaguars head north to take on No. 5 Oakland (19-11) at 8:00 p.m. Eastern on ESPN+. The Jaguars come in trying to reverse fortune after an arduous regular season left them with a 3-25 mark and just five healthy bodies entering the postseason. The Jaguars have played the bulk of the calendar year with just six healthy players and that number was cut to five in the regular season finale against Green Bay. 

Graduate transfer B.J. Maxwell has continued to star for the Jaguars, averaging a team-high 12.4 points per game while grabbing 5.1 rebounds per contest and leading the squad in steals (31), threes made (33) and minutes played (33.5 mpg). Senior Nathan McClure capped the regular season with a 12-point, 12-rebound double-double against Green Bay and leads the squad with 5.2 rebounds per contest. Mike DePersia continues to lead the Horizon League in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.71 a/to) and is currently on pace to break the program's all-time mark in that category. 

Beyond those three, IUPUI's rotation has been limited to freshmen Chuks Isitua and Boston Stanton III. The 6-foot-11 Isitua has emerged over the latter half of the season and averages 5.4 points and 4.3 rebounds per game while shooting 52.6 percent from the floor. He swatted a season-high four shots in the regular season finale and is tied with Jonah Carrasco for the team lead of 21 rejections. Stanton checks in at 4.4 points per game. Isitua and sophomore Bakari LaStrap are the only two players to have appeared in all 28 contests this season, but LaStrap was limited to just three minutes against Green Bay due to an injury. 

Maxwell was the lone IUPUI player to hit for double-digits in the first meeting between the two schools, finishing with 19 points (8-18 FG, 3-4 FT) and nine boards. DePersia added nine points and three assists and freshman KJ Pruitt had four points, six boards and four assists. Oakland had four players tally double-digits, paced by 15 from Jalen Moore. 

SCOUTING OAKLAND
Oakland enters as the No. 5 seed in the Horizon League Tournament and went 19-11 overall in the regular season. The Golden Grizzlies were 9-3 at home this season, capping the regular season with a 65-57 win over regular season champion Cleveland State. The Golden Grizzlies are led by the league's Co-Player of the Year Jamal Cain (20.1 ppg, 10.2 rpg, 49.2 FG%) and lead guard Jalen Moore (15.4 ppg, 7.9 apg). Four Oakland players are scoring in double-digits as Trey Townsend (13.6 ppg, 5.7 rpg) and Micah Parrish (11.9 ppg, 6.0 rpg) are also among that group. As a team, Oakland scores 74.9 points per game and limits opponents to just 68.7 points per contest. 

SERIES NOTES
IUPUI is 20-29 all-time against Oakland, but just 4-18 in 22 matchups in Rochester. Oakland won the lone meeting between the two teams this season, defeating the Jaguars 78-45 on Dec. 4 in Indianapolis. 

UP NEXT
With a win, IUPUI would take on top-seeded Cleveland State in Cleveland on Thursday, Mar. 3 at 8:00 p.m.. A loss would end the Jaguars' 2021-2022 season. 

Game Notes (click here for the full PDF packet)

QUICK HITTERS

• IUPUI enters the KEEPS Horizon League Basketball Championships as the No. 12 seed and will open the tournament on the road for a fourth consecutive season. This marks the second time IUPUI has faced Oakland in the Horizon League Tournament - the last coming at Little Caesars Arena in 2018. Tonight's game also marks the sixth time the two teams have met in conference tournament play with IUPUI owning a 3-2 advantage (2002, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2018). IUPUI won the first three of those meetings with Oakland winning the most recent two. 
• Mike DePersia was voted to the #HLMBB All-Academic Team while Nathan McClure earned honorable mention honors. It marked DePersia's second straight year earning inclusion while McClure was recognized in his first season of eligibility. DePersia has managed a 3.65 grade point average while majoring in finance while McClure owns a 3.95 GPA and is majoring in general studies. 
• Graduate transfer B.J. Maxwell had scored in double-digits in nine straight games prior to Saturday's six-point effort against Green Bay. The Austin, Texas-native tallied his 1,000th collegiate point on Feb. 10 at Purdue Fort Wayne. He has 1,095 career points, spanning four schools at the Division I and Division II levels, accumulating 385 points at Abilene Christian, 2 at Detroit Mercy, 371 at St. Edward's University and has 337 this season at IUPUI. 
• IUPUI has been limited to just six individuals in uniform for the last 11 games and played the final 37 minutes against Green Bay on Saturday (Feb. 26) with just five healthy. All total, IUPUI has had five players shutdown to season-ending injuries, one leave the team due to personal reasons and another leave the team to seek a transfer. 
• IUPUI has used 11 different players this season and amazingly, all 11 scored in double-digits at least one time. B.J. Maxwell has a team-high 18 double-digit scoring games this season and Bakari LaStrap has done so 12 times. Mike DePersia was the last of the 11 Jaguars to score in double-digits this season, doing so against Northern Kentucky on Jan. 22.
• Only two Jaguars have played all 28 games this season - Bakari LaStrap and Chuks Isitua. Every other IUPUI player has missed at least one game this season due to injury or COVID protocols.
• The IUPUI basketball team had a 3.23 grade point average for the fall with 10 of the 14 team members notching a 3.0 or better. Nathan McClure had a perfect 4.0 in the fall and Stanton had a 3.95 mark. As a team, the Jaguars currently have a cumulative 3.37 team GPA.

    SOME NUGGETS
    -Nathan McClure has hit for double-digits in three straight games for the first time in his IUPUI career, including a 12-point, 12-rebound double-double against Green Bay on Saturday. He's averaging 12.3 points and 7.3 rebounds per game during that span. 
     -McClure had made at least one three in 10 straight games and has made 19-of-49 (38.8 percent) attempts during that span. 
    -Similarly Mike DePersia has made at least one three in 14 of IUPUI's last 15 games. 
    -Freshman Chuks Isitua has grabbed 10 boards or more in four of IUPUI's last eight games. Two of those games - at Cleveland State (12 pts, 10 reb) and vs. Milwaukee (12 pts, 10 reb) - have been double-doubles.

    FANTASTIC VOYAGE
    Prior to last week's two-game homestand, IUPUI had a five-game road stretch between Feb. 10-19, logging 1,612 miles and more than 26 hours on the bus. During the stretch, IUPUI played road games at Purdue Fort Wayne (Feb. 10), Cleveland State (Feb. 12), UIC (Feb. 14), Robert Morris (Feb. 17) and Youngstown State (Feb. 19), going 1-4 on the trip. 
    The Jags spent roughly 30 hours at home in Indy following the game at UIC before trekking 350-plus miles to Moon Township, Pa., for the game at Robert Morris. 

    OUTCOMES
    With a win, IUPUI would head directly to Cleveland to face top-seeded Cleveland State on Thursday night (Mar. 3) at 8:00 p.m. in the tournament quarterfinals. 
    With a loss, IUPUI's season would come to an end at 3-26 overall. 

    SIX STRONG
    IUPUI has played its past 11 games with just six in uniform as injuries have ravaged the roster. It began in the preseason when Zach Gunn was lost to a season ending injury and four others (Jonah Carrasco, Bobby Harvey, KJ Pruitt and recently departed Azariah Seay) have since been lost for the season. Carrasco was bitten by the injury bug, suffering a season-ender against East-West on Jan. 31. In addition, senior Dimitar Pandev is no longer on campus after having returned to Macedonia at the start of the spring semester.
    Sophomore Bakari LaStrap was injured in the opening minutes of the regular season finale against Green Bay on Feb. 26 and did not return. 
    Lastly, two freshmen (Kaleb Edwards and Derek Petersen) won't suit up this season as redshirts, leaving head coach Matt Crenshaw with just six in uniform. 

    GET DEFENSIVE
    Through a combination of pace and production, IUPUI is second in the Horizon League in scoring defense, allowing 67.0 points per game. 

    DAT DUB
    IUPUI finally got the monkey off its back, capturing a road win at Robert Morris on Feb. 17, 66-56. IUPUI hit 7-of-8 from three in the second half to finish at 50 percent for the game. B.J. Maxwell and Bakari LaStrap both finished with a game-high 18 points and Mike DePersia scored 11 of his 13 points after halftime. 
    The win was IUPUI's first victory over a Division I foe this season and the Jaguars' first road win of the season. 

    JERSEY MIKE DELIVERS
    Junior Mike DePersia currently leads the Horizon League (18th nationally) with a 2.71 assist-to-turnover ratio, having delivered 76 assists against just 28 miscues. He recently moved into the top-15 in the league in assists at 3.30/game and had a season-high six assists and no turnovers against Robert Morris on Feb. 5. Included in those six assists was the 200th dime of his collegiate career.
    He's only had more turnovers than assists in a game once this year and just eight times in his 73 career games played. 
    Last season he ranked No. 3 in the country 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, 2021 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. 
    His current 2.61 career assist-to-turnover ratio (232 assists / 89 turnovers) is in line to set a new IUPUI career records. The current IUPUI career record in the category is 2.16 as Brady Adkins had 261 assists against just 121 turnovers from 1994-1996.  

    JONAH TIES THE BLOCK MARK
    Not only did Jonah Carrasco register his first career double-double against East-West on Jan. 31 with 13 points and 10 boards, he also tied the IUPUI single-game record with seven blocked shots. 
    Coming in, 6-foot-6 John Hester held the single-game record, having swatted seven shots against Indiana Tech on Jan. 21, 1997. 

    THIN BENCH
    IUPUI's bench was averaging nearly 20 points per game for the bulk of the season before injuries beset the roster. IUPUI got at least 10 bench points in each of the first 17 games of the season, but has yet to do so in nine of the team's past ten games. 
    For the season, IUPUI reserves are averaging 13.6 points per game. 

    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 entered this season having played 94 collegiate basketball games and having scored 758 points across both NCAA Division I and II levels.     

    A GRAND NIGHT
    Maxwell's journey has spanned four schools in three different states at both the Division I and Division II levels, but through it all, he's pumped in more than 1,000 collegiate points. Maxwell has 1,095 collegiate points entering play - 385 at Abilene Christian, 2 at Detroit Mercy, 371 at St. Edward's University and 336 this season at IUPUI.