Opening Tips // Wichita State (5-2) kicks off the back half of its non-conference schedule, Tuesday evening against Division II Southern Nazarene (2-3)... The Shockers are coming off of a six-day journey to the Bahamas and a fourth-place finish at the Battle 4 Atlantis that featured a 35-point win over LSU and losses to No. 10 Louisville and No. 24 Michigan State... This is WSU's first home action in nine days. The team is 4-0 at Charles Koch Arena and has won seven-straight at home dating back to last February...
TV Reminder // The next two Cox Shocker broadcasts will move up the dial from their usual home on Cox Channel Kansas. Due to programming conflicts, Tuesday night's WSU-SNU game and the Dec. 6 home game against Saint Louis will instead air on Cox Channel Extra (Cox HD 2122). All other Cox Shocker games this year will be on Cox HD 2022.
Atlantis Review // WSU suffered back-to-back losses for the first time since last November when it dropped three-straight to USC, Alabama and Iowa at the AdvoCare Invitational (Nov. 26, 27, 29). It's just the second time since February, 2013 that the Shockers have lost consecutive games...
Markis McDuffie led the scoring for WSU in its three games in the Bahamas at 11.7 points to earn all-tournament honors. No other Shocker averaged in double-figures... WSU shot 37.8 % and held opponents to 37.5 %, helped by LSU's 28 % effort in the opener...
Conner Frankamp had five steals and dished out nine assists with just one turnover... No Shocker averaged more than 28 minutes and 11 players saw time in all three games..
600th Game // Gregg Marshall will coach his 600th career game on Tuesday night... Just over half (323) of those 600 have come at WSU, where he's second only to Ralph Miller (353, 1951-64) in total games coached... Marshall's is WSU's all-time wins leader (235) and holds the same distinction at Winthrop (194), where he logged 277 games in nine years.
Nurger Surges // In his third season,
Rauno Nurger has emerged as a bonafide post threat for the Shockers. It's still November, but Nurger (53 points through seven games) has already eclipsed his entire 2015-16 scoring total (44 points in 28 contests)… Against Louisville on Thursday, Nurger finished as leading rebounder for the first time as a Shocker. The following afternoon, he scored 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting against No. 24 Michigan State… Nurger redshirted the first five games of his sophomore seasons before injuries forced a change of plans. He made his 2015-16 season debut on Nov. 29. Comparing his first seven games played in that season versus this year shows that the junior has more than doubled his minutes and nearly quadrupled his scoring output.
Bench Ruling // WSU enters the week ranked second nationally in bench scoring at 48.5 points per game. The Citadel leads Division I with a 50.5 point average through six games… WSU's 57 bench points vs. No. 24 Michigan State was the most against a nationally-ranked opponent this year.
Play Date // WSU and Southern Nazarene – which recently transitioned from NAIA to NCAA Division II – have never met on the hardwood but share a common thread in WSU grad and current SNU assistant Ryan Mahoney, who served as a Shocker manager from 2006-10 while working on his undergrad.
Enough about us, what about SNU? // Based in the Oklahoma City suburb of Bethany, SNU was an NAIA power in both men's and women's basketball before beginning its transition to the NCAA in 2011. The men's team appeared in 17 NAIA National Tournaments with a national championship in 1981. The women were seven-time champs and at one point appeared in 12-consecutive NAIA Final Fours… SNU went 13-16 last year, including 12-10 mark in conference play that earned them a sixth-place finish. The Crimson Storm were picked sixth again in the GAC preseason poll…
Nickname Game // The Crimson Storm are members of the 12-team Great American Conference - home to some of the most unique names in college athletics. In addition to SNU's Crimson Storm, Southeastern Oklahoma State is known as the "Savage Storm." Arkansas Tech teams are the "Wonderboys" and "Golden Suns." Arkansas-Monticello features the "Boll Weevils" and "Cotton Blossoms." Henderson State teams are known as the "Reddies."
Picking on Little Guys // NCAA rules permit teams include one non-Division I as a countable opponent on their schedule... The results and stastistics will count for WSU but not for SNU, which will treat the game as an exhibition...This is the seventh Division II regular season opponent that WSU has faced under
Gregg Marshall... The Shockers are 9-0 against non-Division I foes since 2000, with all nine wins coming by 21-or-more points...
Oklahoma Border Battles // Four of the Shockers' 13 non-conference opponents are from Oklahoma, including Tulsa, SNU, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. WSU also played its closed door scrimmage against Oral Roberts... Two Shockers are from the OKC area: senior
John Robert Simon is a Putnam City North graduate, and junior
Shaquille Morris attended Edmond Memorial HS.
Louid Noises // Charles Koch Arena has played host to
185-consecutive regular season crowds of 10,000+, dating back to December of 2004… The Shockers have sold out
45-consecutive campus home games since Senior Day, 2013. The moral support has gone a long way. WSU is
105-9 (.921) over its last eight seasons at "The Roundhouse" and
111-9 (.925) overall in Wichita since the start of the 2010-11 campaign… WSU is
58-1 at home in regular season, non-conference games since November of 2008, with the only loss coming to a Final Four bound VCU in a 2011 Bracket Busters matchup… Including postseason NIT games, the Shockers have won
40 non-conference home games in a row (the nation's second-longest streak behind Duke).
Next Stop // The Shockers play their first true road game of the season on Saturday at Colorado State as part of the MVC-Mountain West Challenge Series. The 4 p.m. CT tip will air on CBS Sports Network.
