INDIANAPOLIS - The IUPUI basketball team will host Oakland University inside Indiana Farmers Coliseum on Saturday afternoon (Jan. 13) at 2:00 p.m. on ESPN+. The first 75 fans in attendance will receive a FREE IUPUI pint glass for their attendance and Saturday's game is presented by IU Health. 

On the court, the Jaguars are coming off a tough 68-58 home loss to Green Bay, which moved atop the Horizon League standings with the win. Oakland (10-8, 5-2 HL) comes in tied atop the Horizon League standings nearly one-third of the way through the schedule. 

Sophomore Vincent Brady II had a team-high 15 points on 5-of-10 shooting and was recently named IUPUI's 92C Partners Male Athlete of the Week. Junior Jlynn Counter added 14 points in the loss. 

IUPUI built a quick 22-10 lead midway through the opening half, aided by Qwanzi Samuels' play off the bench. Samuels finished with eight points and six rebounds, making 4-of-5 from the field. 

SCOUTING OAKLAND 
Oakland enters play at 10-8 overall and 5-2 to start Horizon League play. The Golden Grizzlies are 6-6 away from home this season, going 4-5 in true road games with wins at Xavier, Detroit Mercy, Eastern Michigan and Youngstown State. The Golden Grizzlies have won four straight heading into Saturday's contest. Trey Townsend (17.4 ppg, 7.7 rpg) leads a balanced OU attack that also features double-digit scorers Blake Lampman (12.2 ppg), Chris Conway (10.3 ppg) and Jack Gohlke (10.3 ppg). Townsend also leads the Golden Grizzlies in assists (58), steals (27) and free throws made (79). 

INSIDE THE SERIES
IUPUI is 20-32 against Oakland in a series that dates back to 1975. The two teams were foes in the Mid-Continent Conference, Summit League and now Horizon League. IUPUI is 13-10 in 23 meetings in Indianapolis and comes in having lost the last four meetings in the series. 

UP NEXT
IUPUI will face Purdue Fort Wayne on Wednesday night (Jan. 17) at 7:00 p.m. in Fort Wayne. That game will be aired on ESPN+. 

Notes and Tidbits (click here to download the full IUPUI Game Notes)
BRADY BUNCH (OF NOTES)
The past five games, sophomore Vincent Brady II is averaging 15.6 points and 5.0 rebounds per game while shooting 45.3 percent overall and 11-of-29 (37.9 percent) from three and 19-of-26 (73.1 percent) from the foul line. He's scored in double figures in all five of those games.
At Youngstown State last Sunday, Brady hit for a season-high 18 points (5-10 FG, 4-6 3's, 4-4 FT), including a season-high four treys (most by an IUPUI player this season).
In Horizon League play, Brady is leading the team in scoring (12.3 ppg) and threes made (11) and is second on the team in rebounding (4.4 rpg).

HOT QWANZ
The past three games, forward Qwanzi Samuels is a combined 10-of-12 from the field and is now shooting 49 percent from the floor this season.

#SCTOP10
IUPUI players were featured on ESPN's SportsCenter Top 10 Plays twice in three days on Dec. 29 and Dec. 31 with a pair of dunks. Against Detroit Mercy on Dec. 29, Kidtrell Blocker's one-handed dunk from the right side was the No. 8 play on SportsCenter. Two days later, Vincent Brady II's one-handed dunk from the left baseline was chosen as the No. 4 play in the country that evening.

ONLY THE LONELY 
Only two Jaguars (John Egbuta and Qwanzi Samuels) have appeared in all 18 games so far this season as 13 different players have missed at least one game due to injury or illness. The most recent to have been sidelined is Kidtrell Blocker, who missed Wednesday's game against Green Bay due to illness.

FOR STARTERS
With the glut of injuries and sickness, head coach Matt Crenshaw has found himself shuffling his starting lineup. After relying on the starting group of Jlynn Counter, Bryce Monroe, Kidtrell Blocker, Qwanzi Samuels and Yves Nkomba to start the season (7 games, 2-5 overall), Crenshaw has tried some alternatives of late. Cooper Dewitt has started 10 straight games in place of Samuels and both Vincent Brady II and DJ Jackson have recently earned seven starts. Most recently, sophomore Abdou Samb moved into the starting five, replacing Nkomba ahead of the Dec. 21 game with Defiance.

SAMB, FOR STARTERS
In six games in the IUPUI starting lineup (2-4 overall), sophomore Abdou Samb is averaging 6.5 points and 3.8 rebounds, going 16-of-22 from the field (72.7 percent). Samb's field goal percentage has risen from 55.5 percent to 63.3 percent since he moved into the starting five.

ACTION JACKSON
Sophomore DJ Jackson has started the past seven games, scoring double-digits in five of those contests. During that span, Jackson is averaging 10.3 ppg, 3.4 rpg and 1.5 steals/game while shooting 26-of-55 (47.3%) from the floor and 18-of-22 (81.8%) from the foul line. Jackson had scored in double-digits just two times in the season's first 11 games.

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 (14.5 ppg; 10th in HL) and assists (46) while ranking second on the team in rebounding (4.3 rpg). Counter, a preseason Second Team All-Horizon League pick, led the team in scoring (14.5 ppg) and assists (3.3 apg) last season.

COUNTER COUNT
Counter tallied his 500th career point against Elon on Nov. 17 and enters today with 698 career points.
...He's scored in double-digits 34 times in 48 career games
...He's hit for 20-or-more points 13 times in 48 career games

QWANZ SEES DOUBLE
Graduate transfer Qwanzi Samuels recorded his first collegiate double-double at Minnesota (Dec. 16), 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.

BENCH WORK
IUPUI is averaging 25.2 points per game from its reserves this season and has gotten at least 21 bench points in 15 of 18 games (including five games of 30+).

NINE MAN ROTATION
Nine different Jaguars are playing at least 12 minutes per game, led by Jlynn Counter (29.4 mpg) down to Cooper Dewitt (12.4 mpg).

IN THE CLASSROOM
Seven members of the squad topped a 3.0 grade point average for the fall semester, paced by John Egbuta (3.62) and Amhad Jarrard (3.51). Others included Vincent Brady II (3.48), Yves Nkomba (3.46), Derek Petersen (3.29), Qwanzi Samuels (3.12) and Bryce Monroe (3.00).

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.

ARC ISSUES
IUPUI has struggled with the three-point line this season, both offensively and defensively. Offensively, IUPUI ranks 357th (of 362) in the country in three-point percentage at 25.6 percent. The Jaguars' 3.9 made/game rank 361st nationally. Defensively, IUPUI is No. 332 nationally in allowing opponents to shoot 36.3 percent from beyond the arc. The Jaguars threes made differential (3.6 fewer than their opponents) is No. 352 in the country and the three-point percentage differential (10.7% worse than opponents) is No. 358 in the nation.