INDIANAPOLIS - The IUPUI basketball team will kickoff a season longest four-game homestand on Saturday (Dec. 16) when the Jaguars host Lindenwood (4-6) inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum on ESPN+ at noon. The first 100 fans in attendance will receive a FREE red IUPUI beanie hat upon entrance to the Coliseum. 

The return home is a welcome sight for an IUPUI (3-8) team that comes in having dropped four straight. The most recent defeat was a 101-65 road loss at Minnesota on Tuesday night, despite the first career double-double from graduate transfer Qwanzi Samuels (13 pts, 10 reb) off the bench. Samuels hit 5-of-8 field goal attempts and also delivered a season-high four assists while John Egbuta also came off the bench to tally 11 points (4-5 FG, 2-3 3's). Senior Bryce Monroe registered his third 20-point game of the season, hitting 10-of-17 field goal attempts from the lead guard spot. Junior Jlynn Counter, who entered play leading the team in scoring, rebounds and assists, was limited to a season-low seven points, five assists and three boards. 

Minnesota shot a blistering 63 percent from the floor and 50 percent from three while IUPUI was held to 42.2 percent overall and 3-of-13 (23.1 percent) from beyond the arc. 

IUPUI will host Lindenwood and Defiance on Thursday to close out the non-conference slate before returning to Horizon League play to host Detroit Mercy (12/29) and Cleveland State (12/31) to close out the four-game homestand. Other upcoming giveaways include FREE foam fingers for the game on the 29th and IUPUI blankets on the 31st. 

QUOTABLE
"We just have to stay together and persevere through adversity. We look at every game as a lesson and we try to take what we learned from the last game and apply it to the next game," said Samuels following Tuesday's defeat at Minnesota. 

SCOUTING LINDENWOOD
Lindenwood enters play at 4-6 overall, but 0-4 in true road games this season. The Lions boast neutral site wins over both Omaha and William & Mary at the Air Force Classic, back in mid-November. For the year, Lindenwood shoots 41 percent from the floor and 28.4 percent from three while allowing opponents to shoot 45.5 percent overall and 36 percent from deep. Keenan Cole (17.5 ppg, 5.7 rpg) and Darius Beane (14.4 ppg, 2.0 apg) power the Lindenwood offense as the two Lions scoring in double-figures.  

INSIDE THE SERIES
Saturday's game marks the first-ever meeting between IUPUI and Lindenwood. 

UP NEXT
IUPUI will continue its homestand against Defiance on Thursday, Dec. 21 at 7:00 p.m. inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum.  

Notes and Tidbits (click here to download the full IUPUI Game Notes)
    MR. DO-IT-ALL
    In his second season with the program, junior guard Jlynn Counter has become the Jaguars' Mr. Do It All, leading the team in scoring (15.4 ppg),assists (2.6 apg) and field goal percentage (52.3%) while ranking second on the team in  rebounding (4.7 rpg). He's tops in the Horizon League in field goal percentage and ranks among the top-10 in scoring. 
    Counter, a preseason Second Team All-Horizon League pick, tallied his 500th career point against Elon on Nov. 17 and enters today with 620 points in his two-year career. 

    QWANZ SEES DOUBLE
    Graduate transfer Qwanzi Samuels is coming off his first collegiate double-double at Minnesota, having finished with a career-high 13 points (5-8 FG, 3-3 FT), 10 rebounds and four assists in 30 minutes off the Jaguars' bench. 
    It marked his first-ever double-digit scoring game (in his 96th career game) and his second career game with 10-or-more rebounds. 

    FOR STARTERS
    Cooper Dewitt became the seventh different player to start a game this season against Northern Kentucky, replacing Qwanzi Samuels in the starting five and then Vincent Brady II replaced Kidtrell Blocker at EIU last week to become the eighth different starter. 
    Jlynn Counter and Bryce Monroe have started all 11 games this season while Blocker and Yves Nkomba have started 10 each.
    All total, IUPUI has used four different starting units this season with Counter-Monroe-Blocker-Samuels-Nkomba being the most frequent five, having started together eight times (2-6 overall).  

    TEN MAN ROTATION
    Ten different Jaguars are playing at least 10 minutes per game, led by Jlynn Counter (29.3 mpg) down to Cooper Dewitt (10.4 mpg). 
    Eight of the 10 have scored in double-digits at least once this year.

    ONLY THE LONELY    
    Only five of the Jaguars' 15 players have appeared in all 11 games so far this season as 10 different players have missed at least one game due to injury or illness. Most recently, both Vincent Brady II (illness) and Abdou Samb (injury) were among those to miss the game at Minnesota on Tuesday. 

    SEEING RED
    It's likely that both Amhad and Armon Jarrard will redshirt this season. Amhad missed the entire summer and preseason after suffering an injury last season and Armon was limited to just three games this season while playing through an injury. He was shutdown after trying to play at Indiana State on Nov. 14. 
    The Jarrards are one of 21 sets of brothers playing for the same team this season and one of nine sets of twins in Division I basketball. 

    FIRST TO TIP
    IUPUI was the first team in the country to tip-off the 2023-24 season, starting at 11:00 a.m. on Nov. 6 in front of a crowd of 4,867 on the annual NCAA 'Readers Become Leaders' Day at Indiana Farmers Coliseum. 
    The 4,867 represented a new home attendance record for the Jaguars, eclipsing the previous mark of 4,114 from last year's similar event. 

    ROAD KILL 
    The road win at Valpo was a welcome event, marking IUPUI's first road win since winning at Robert Morris on Feb. 17, 2022. It was the first road non-conference victory since winning at South Florida on Nov. 13, 2019 at the Cayman Islands Classic. 

    BENCH WORK
    IUPUI is averaging 26.4 points per game from its reserves this season and has gotten at least 21 bench points in all 11 games (including four games of 30+). Sophomore DJ Jackson (8.3 ppg) has yet to start a game this season, but ranks third on the team in scoring. At Minnesota, the Jaguars got 30 points off the bench, including double-digit efforts from both Qwanzi Samuels (13 pts) and John Egbuta (11 pts). 

    FIRST MAN OFF
    Sophomore Abdou Samb (5.7 ppg, 2.8 rpg) has been IUPUI's first man off the bench in seven of his nine appearances this season, including seven straight before Jackson was the first reserve against NKU on Saturday. 

    ARC ISSUES
    IUPUI has struggled with the three-point line this season, both offensively and defensively. 
    Offensively, IUPUI ranks 359th (of 361) in the country in three-point percentage at 23.6 percent. The Jaguars' 3.5 made/game rank 358th nationally. 
    Defensively, IUPUI is No. 345 nationally in allowing opponents to shoot 38.2 percent from beyond the arc. 

    DEEPER DIVE
    In IUPUI's three wins, opponents are shooting just 19.0 percent from three and making just 2.7 triples per game. 
    In IUPUI's eight losses, foes are shooting 42.3 percent from deep and making 8.9 triples per game. 

    RETURNING CREW
    The IUPUI roster enjoyed considerable continuity from a season ago, bringing back 10 letterwinners from a season ago, including three primary starters in Jlynn Counter, Vincent Brady II and DJ Jackson. 
    Counter was a 3rd Team All-Horizon League selection while Brady and Jackson were voted to the Horizon League's All-Freshman Team. 
    Other key returners include John Egbuta, Armon Jarrard and Amhad Jarrard.  

    NO FRESHIES
    IUPUI was responsible for nine Horizon League Freshman of the Week Awards a season ago as Vincent Brady II (4x), DJ Jackson (3x) and Armon Jarrard (2x) had a stranglehold on the award. However, this season, it was be a complete stunner if an IUPUI player received the award as redshirt walk-on Braden Allen is the lone rookie on the roster. Head Coach Matt Crenshaw has no true freshmen on this year's roster and no players younger than 20 years old.