PHILADELPHIA, Pa. -- No. 16/16 Wichita State (17-4, 7-2) travels to Philadelphia for an American Athletic Conference matchup at Temple (11-10, 3-6).
 
The 6 p.m. CT (7 p.m. ET) tipoff airs on ESPN2 with Kevin Brown and John Thompson III.
 
The Voice of the Shockers, Mike Kennedy, describes the action on Shocker Radio (KEYN 103.7 FM in Wichita and online at GoShockers.com/Listen).
 
The Shockers won back-to-back home games last week by 19-points each. Shaquille Morris scored 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting, and WSU became just the second team to top 80 points against the UCF, which came in ranked fifth nationally in scoring defense. Sunday against Tulsa, Austin Reaves (career-high 23 points) buried his first seven three-point attempts to set a school record for threes in a half. Morris added 20.
 
This is the fourth meeting all-time with Temple. WSU is still in search of its first series win. The teams last met in November, 2011 at the Puerto Rico Tipoff – a 78-74 Temple victory in overtime.


 

GAME 22

Philadelphia, Pa.

Liacouras Center (10,206)

Game Notes: WSU | TEM

MATCHUP

#16/16 Wichita State (17-4, 7-2 American) at Temple (11-10, 3-6 American)

Thursday, Feb. 1

6:00 P.M. CT

ESPN2 (WatchESPN)

KEYN 103.7 FM

GoShockers.com

GoShockers.com

SOCIAL

@GoShockersMBB | #watchus

@goshockers | #watchus

Go Shockers

THE STARTING FIVE:
 
1 --- LONGBOARDING:
WSU ranks fourth nationally in rebound margin (+10.5)... WSU has been beaten on the glass just once in 21 games this year and has finished with double-digit margins on 12 occasions... The Shockers' +7.86 margin over the last six seasons leads the nation – edging out Michigan State (7.85), Arizona (7.79), New Mexico State (7.73) and North Carolina (7.72).
 
2 --- WATCHING THE DISHES:
In the month of January, no team has averaged more assists than WSU (21.0)... For the year, the Shockers are putting up 19.1 per game (third on the NCAA list)... Landry Shamet has a pair of point-assist double-doubles... WSU has dished 25+ assists on five occasions, second only to Mich. St.
 
3 --- ROAD WORK:
Gregg Marshall looks to notch his 80^th true road win in 11 seasons at WSU. He's 79-50 in enemy territory. Since the start of the 2010-11 season, the Shockers lead the nation in road wins (71) and percentage (.826). A loss at Houston on Jan. 20 ended an 11-game road winning streak that ranked as the nation's longest. It was just the seventh Shocker road loss in five seasons.
 
4 --- MILESTONES:
Shaquille Morris (980 career points) needs just 20 more to become the 46^th member of WSU's 1,000-point club. He would be the eighth Marshall Era player to join... Rashard Kelly is the first Shocker since Garrett Stutz (Feb. 2012) to string together three-straight double-figure rebounding games. Jamie Arnold was the last to reach four-in-a-row (Dec. 1996)... WSU has hit 10+ threes on 12 occasions -- one shy of the school record, set last year.
 
5 --- A REGULAR IN THE RANKINGS:
WSU is one of 10 schools that have been ranked in every AP Poll this year, and its run of 17-straight AP Polls (since Feb. 2017) is the NCAA's eighth-longest.
 
###
 
Shocker Road Show: Get Your Tickets Now!
Wichita State has brought out the best in opposing crowds this year. Each of the Shockers' first five road opponents have set a season attendance high… Opponents are averaging more than 4,000 additional fans for WSU games (9,092) than they are for their other home dates (4,820).
 
The Series with Temple:
This is the fourth meeting between the teams all-time. Temple won the first three… The teams (and current coaches) squared off in the 2011 Puerto Rico Tipoff. The Owls won 78-74 in overtime behind 23 points from Ramone Moore. Toure' Murry scored a game-high 24 for the Shockers, who went on to win 25 of their 27 games en route to their first NCAA Tournament bid under Marshall… The teams met twice in the 1980s in Wichita. In the first, junior Xavier McDaniel played all 40 minutes and tallied 24 points and 18 rebounds, but Temple survived, 78-73. Two seasons later, the Owls squeezed out a 62-60 win at the finals of the Pizza Hut Shoot Out. The Shockers held 51-42 with 8:56 remaiming, but Tim Perry's three-foot jumper at the buzzer capped a furious Temple comeback… The Shockers have never played at Temple but did play a stretch of three games in Philadelphia in December, 1964 at the Quaker City Invitational. The Shockers -- ranked No. 2 nationally at the time – defeated Pittsburgh and Villanova before falling to St. Joseph's in the finals. Three months later that Shocker team reached the Final Four.
 
Matchup Mashup:
Markis McDuffie's sister, Sierra McDuffie, is in her second season as a graduate manager on the Temple men's basketball staff. She played Division II basketball at Felician University in Rutherford, N.J… Temple redshirt senior Josh Brown (Class of 2013) and WSU junior Markis McDuffie (Class of 2015) are both St. Anthony's High graduates. The two played together for a handful of games late in the 2012-13 season after McDuffie earned a varsity call-up… Wichita State's 11-game road schedule includes first-time visits to eight different venues, including Temple's Liacouras Center. The only exceptions: Oklahoma State's Gallagher-Iba Arena (last trip, 2001), SMU's Moody Coliseum (1995) and Tulsa's Reynolds Center (Nov. 2015).
 
More Morris:
*Shaquille Morris has blocked a shot in each of the last seven games. He's come up empty just three times in 21 contests this season… Morris has 18 dunks in nine conference games. Eight of them came last week… Morris leads the team in plus/minus. Per 40 minutes, the Shockers are outscoring opponents by an average of 19.0 points with Morris on the floor. Austin Reaves (17.6) ranks second… Morris averaged a team-high 14.4 points in eight January games while shooting 63%.
 
Also Trending: 
Sunday against Tulsa, Rashard Kelly moved into 10^th on WSU's all-time games played list (127)… Austin Reaves had 27 assists with just five turnovers in eight January games (5.4 ratio)… WSU has been 7-2 (or better) at the midway point of its conference schedule in each of the last eight seasons…
 
New Faces:
The Shockers faced seven of the 11 American schools during the first-half of the schedule but will see some fresh faces over the next three weeks: Temple (Feb. 1), Memphis (Feb. 6), Cincinnati (Feb. 18) and Tulane (Feb. 21). The Shockers and first-place Bearcats meet twice in the last five regular season games.
 
Make It – Take It:
Over the last two seasons, WSU is 45-1 when outshooting its opponent from the field (and 3-8 when outshot).
 
RPI in the Sky:
As of Friday, WSU owns eight Quadrant 1 or 2 wins -- tops in The American and tied for ninth nationally.  The Shockers are 1-2 in Q1 games and 7-2 in Q2. A road win over Temple (currently No. 44 in the RPI) would give WSU another all-important Q1 win… Beginning with the Temple game, WSU plays seven of the final nine games against teams ranked in the RPI's top-100. Games at Memphis (113) and at home against Tulane (126) are the only exceptions… A year ago, the Shockers played just six of their 31 regular season games against top-100 RPI teams.
 
Slump Busting:
Landry Shamet has missed his last 16 threes (the longest streak of his career) and is 1-for-18 from deep over the last three games. Prior to the streak, he was the NCAA leader in three-point percentage at nearly 53 percent. For perspective, the odds of a 50-percent three-point shooter missing 16-straight are similar to the odds of flipping tails 16 times in a row (less than .0015%).
 
A Shooting Star:
Conner Frankamp has hit all 20 of his free throw attempts this year. That's the most by any D-I player this year without a miss. The next closest player is 13-for-13… Going back 25 years, no Division I player has been perfect from the line over a full season on more than 25 attempts. Just five players have finished perfect on more than 20 attempts… Frankamp has hit 21-in-a-row going back to last season , and his .863 career percentage ranks third on the school's all-time list.
 
On The Leaderboard (as of 1/30):
Wichita State leads the American in scoring offense (83.4), field goal percentage (.482), rebound margin (+10.5), assists (19.1), assist-to-turnover ratio (1.6), defensive rebound percentage (.774) and three-pointers per game (9.3)… Landry Shamet leads the league in assists (5.2) and assist-to-turnover ratio (2.7). He's third in threes-per-game (2.5), fourth in three-point percentage (.448), and ninth in scoring (14.6)… Rashard Kelly ranks second in offensive rebounds per game (3.4) and third in total boards per game (7.7)… Shaquille Morris leads in total blocked shots (37).
 
Accident-Free Workplace:
WSU's three primary ball handlers have combined for a 3.92 assist-to-turnover ratio in conference play… Conner Frankamp has committed just 2 turnovers in 9 American games and only 7 for the year… Landry Shamet is averaging a league-best 6.0 assists per games in conference play with a 3.00 ratio… Austin Reaves has been nearly as as good, dishing 29 assists with just five turnovers (5.80).
 
A Shocker Win Would…
… improve their record to 18-4 (8-2 American).
… extend their winning streak to three games.
… make them 6-1 on the road this year and 16-2 over the last two seasons.
… be Gregg Marshall's 80^th true road win in 11 seasons at Wichita State (80-50, .615).
… give them their first series win over Temple and make them 1-0 against the Owls in Philadelphia.
 
A Shocker Loss Would…
… drop their record to 17-5 (7-3 American).
… be their third loss in five games.
… give them three conference losses for the first time since a 12-6 MVC finish in 2013.
… give Temple a 4-0 lead in the all-time series.
… drop them to 5-2 on the road this year and 15-3 over the last two seasons.
… be less good than a win.
 
Up Next:
The Shockers take a five-day break before hitting the road again for Memphis. Tuesday night's 8 p.m. CT tip airs on CBSSN.