Game Notes: Wichita State (PDF) | Illinois State (PDF)

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#21/22 WICHITA STATE (17-5, 11-0 MVC) at ILLINOIS STATE (13-11, 7-4 MVC)
Saturday, Feb. 6, 2016  | 9 p.m. CT
Normal, Ill. / Redbird Arena

Telecast --
On Air: ESPN2
Streaming: WatchESPN/ESPN3* (Link)
Announcers: Rich Hollenberg & Mark Adams
* - ESPN2 subscribers only

Radio --
On Air: KEYN 103.7 FM
Online: goshockers.com/watch
Announcers: Mike Kennedy & Bob Hull

Social Media ---
Twitter: @GoShockers, @GoShockersLive
Facebook: facebook.com/WichitaStateUniversityAthletics
Instagram: instagram.com/goshockers
Exposure: goshockers.exposure.co
 

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OPENING TIPS

Scene Setter // One of the hottest teams in the country, No. 21/22 Wichita State (17-5, 11-0 MVC) looks to build on a 12-game winning streak when it travels to Illinois State (13-11, 7-4 MVC) Saturday night on ESPN2.
 
Last Week // Over a span of four days, WSU finished out season sweeps of its closest challengers, Evansville (78-65) and Southern Illinois (76-55) to build up a four-game lead in the conference standings with seven to play. Three-time MVC Player of the Week, Fred VanVleet scored 32 points in Sunday's win at UE and followed it up with a double-double against SIU, tallying 12 points while matching his career-high with 11 assists.
 
Logjam // ILS has won four of its last five games to move into a massive four-way tie for second place behind the Shockers. The Redbirds are in the best position to makeup ground, with Saturday night's game plus one other head-to-head matchup with WSU still to be played.
 
Series Snapshot // The Shockers have won 11-straight regular season games against the ILS, with five-straight regular season sweeps, but the Redbirds have the most recent bragging rights after defeating WSU in the semifinals of last year's MVC Tournament, 68-62...
 
AbNormal // WSU has won five-straight at Redbird Arena equaling its win total from the 22 previous years combined (5-17 from 1989-2010)
 
Road Killers //  From Word War II  through the end of the 2012-13 season, no MVC team managed to win 10-or-more consecutive conference games on the road. WSU - winners of nine-straight MVC road contests - is now a win away from its second double-digit streak in the last three years. The 2013-14 and 2014-15 teams combined to set the modern conference record of 13 before a loss at No. 18 UNI on Jan. 31, 2015. Since that date, the Shockers have built up another. (22-1, .957 over last three seasons)
 
Hundred Helpers //  With his big game against SIU, VanVleet - the two-time Valley assist champion - regained the top spot on the MVC assists chart (5.6) and upped his season total to 101. He joins Toure' Murry (2009-12) and Warren Armstrong (1966-69) as the only Shockers to post three-consecutive 100-assists seasons.
 
Finishing Strong // Over the last three seasons, WSU is 17-0 in February.
 
Great at Greedy // The Shockers rank second-nationally in turnover margin (+5.6) and are even better in MVC play (+5.8).
 
Evan Almighty // Evan Wessel, who became the 4^th Shocker to reach 100 career wins Wednesday, joining VanVleet -- is Division I's winningest senior by percentage and also has the highest mark in the last 20 years (among those with 50⁺ career starts). Wessel has won at a .909 clip, besting a trio from Memphis's 2008 national runner-up squad, and Duke's Shane Battier, the 2001 national player of the year.
 
Highest Career Winning Percentage
(Last 20 years, Division I, 50+ Games Started)
.909 -- Evan Wessel     (Wichita St.) 100-10
.908 -- Chris-Douglas Roberts (Memphis) 99-10
.907 – Antonio Anderson (Memphis) 136-14
.905 – Robert Dozier (Memphis) 134-14
.897 – Shane Battier (Duke) 131-15
 
Homecoming King // VanVleet, a native of Rockford, Ill., is a remarkable 30-2 against his home state in four seasons with the Shockers. He's been especially good on his home soil, going 10-0 as a starter and 12-1 overall (the lone blemish coming during his freshman season at Southern Illinois).
 
Mind the Gap // WSU holds a four-game lead in the standings with seven to play. Only three MVC teams since 1986 have won the league by 4+ games. The undefeated 2013-14 Shockers matched the Valley record with a six-game margin.
 
SERIES NOTES
• WSU leads the all-time series 40-38 and has closed the gap at Redbird Arena. The Shockers trail 22-13 but have won five-straight in Normal for the first time in program history.
• WSU has won 15 of the last 17 in Wichita, including a run of seven-straight.
• The Shockers are 13-3 against Illinois State over the past six seasons and have won 23 of the last 30 overall...
• The Shockers have taken 13 of the last 14 in Wichita, with ISU's lone triumph coming in 2008 - Marshall's first season at WSU (49-46)...
• ISU's last regular season winover the Shockers came in the 2009-10 MVC opener (a 72-52 Redbird win in Normal)...
• The Redbirds escaped a double-figure first half deficit to knock the Shockers out of last year's MVC Tournament with a 65-62 semifinal victory, snapping a seven-game Shocker winning streak in the series.
• WSU is 7-1 all-time against Dan Muller.
 
SCOUTING THE REDBIRDS
• Dan Muller (Illinois State, 1998) is in his fourth season as the head coach at Illinois State (70-55). Muller is the first-ever ISU coach to beat three Top-25 teams in his first three years, leading ISU to the 2015 NIT.
• Picked to finish fourth (out of 10 teams) in the Missouri Valley Conference ...
• The Redbirds return three of five starters and six of 13 letterwinners from last year's team, which went 22-13 overall, advancing to the second round of the National Invitation Tournament (NIT) and tied for third place in the 2014-15 MVC standings (11-7).
• MVC preseason first team selection DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell averages 14.8 points, Deontae Hawkins paces the team at 5.8 rebounds, and Paris Lee (3.7) is the team's assists leader.
• ILS is urrently in a four-way tie for second place in the MVC standings.
 
LITTLE START UP COMPANY
• The Shockers are the 21st team in MVC history to open 10-0 or better, but only the sixth since 1960.
• WSU's 2013-14 team logged the only 18-0 finish of the Valley's modern era (1927-28 Oklahoma also did it)... Southern Illinois helped put a stop to Drake's 13-0 start in 2007-08, and the Salukis made it all the way to 17-0 in 2003-04 before losing their regular season finale at UNI... 1985-86 Bradley (led by Hersey Hawkins) and 1978-79 Indiana State (paced by Larry Bird) each finished 16-0...
• All five of those teams went on to win the regular season title. Drake cleared Illinois State in the standings by two games. The other four teams won the league by five-or-more games.
 
WSU-ILS ROUND 2 TAGGED FOR NATIONAL AIR
The MVC announced Friday that ESPN has selected the WSU-Illinois State regular season finale for air on either ESPN or ESPN2. Start time will be announced at a later date. The Shockers will appear 13 times this year on ESPN-produced broadcasts and are also locked in for three CBS Sports Network appearances. In addition, WSU played a nationally televised game on FOX in late December.
 
WINNER'S CYCLE
WSU enters its 12th MVC game of the year on an 12-game winning streak -- the second-longest in the Marshall Era and tied for the fourth-longest in school history. The Shockers' streak is tied with VCU for the nation's second-longest active streak behind Stony Brook of the America East Conference (14).
 
All-Time Longest Shocker Winning Streaks
35 --- Nov. 9, 2013 // March 23, 2014        
14 --- Dec. 27, 1953 // Jan. 23, 1954  
13 --- Nov. 30, 1982 // Jan. 20, 1983 
12 --- Feb. 12, 1983 // Dec. 8, 1983   
12 --- Dec. 22, 2015 // Present        
 
VALLEY ROAD WARRIORS
The Shockers' 43-7 conference road mark (.860) over the last six seasons is better than any other MVC team's conference home record during that span. (UNI's 40-11, .784 home mark is the closest).
 
BEST BY A WIDE MARGIN
• Wichita State (11-0) has outscored opponents by an average of 20.4 points in league play so far – one of the 10 best marks in the NCAA over the past 20 years.  Duke's 16-0 ACC team in 1999 set the standard, winning by an average of 24.3 in conference play that year, en route to the NCAA Tournament final.
• The Shockers' 20.4-point gap continues another impressive trend. If it holds up, they'll own five of the top six MVC scoring margins over the most recent 20-year stretch.
 
CLEAN SLATE CLUB
WSU enters the weekend as the only team in the nation with 11 league wins and is one of eight unbeatens, spanning seven conferences.
 
Remaining Unbeatens in Conference Play
11-0 --- Wichita State (Missouri Valley)
10-0 --- San Diego State (Mountain West)
9-0 --- VCU (Atlantic 10)
9-0 --- Stony Brook (America East)
9-0 --- Texas Southern (Southwestern)
8-0 --- Stephen F. Austin (Southland)
4-0 --- Yale (Ivy League)
4-0 --- Columbia (Ivy League)
 
GIVE & TAKE
16.3 --- Turnovers Forced by WSU (top-15 nationally)
10.6 --- WSU turnovers/game (19th fewest nationally)
+5.6 --- Turnover Margin (2nd-best nationally)
24.3% --- Turnover % - WSU opponents turn the ball over on nearly a quarter of their possessions, according to Ken Pomeroy's advanced statistics (4th-highest nationally).
6.5 --- VanVleet's MVC-leading assist average through 11 games (almost two full assists higher than any other player)
2.4 --- VanVleet's league-leading steals average through 11 MVC games (26 total).
1.7 --- Number of steals averaged by Baker during MVC play - second only to VanVleet (19 total).
1.48 --- Baker and VanVleet's combined steals-to-assist ratio during the month of January. (37 stl, 25 TO)
205 --- Career steals for VanVleet -15th on the MVC's all-time list. He needs two more to tie Bradley's Daniel Ruffin for 14th.
17 --- Steals needed by VanVleet to match Jason Perez's Shocker record.
6 --- MVC players in history with the career combo of 200 steals and 500 assists. VanVleet is one of them.
6.4 --- VanVleet's Assist-to-Turnover Ratio over his last five games (32A, 5 TO)
1 --- Steals needed by Baker (147 career steals) to tie Aubrey Sherrod and P.J. Couisnard for 6th on WSU list.
 
THE STAKES
A Shocker Win Would...
...be WSU's 13th-straight victory, tied with the 1982-83 Shockers for the third-longest in school history.
... be the 1,501st win in program history.
...give Ron Baker 99 career victories.
... extend WSU's MVC road winning streak to 10-games (second-longest by a Valley school since 1950) and its overall road streak to six.
... extend their MVC winning streak to 20.
... be their sixth-in-a-row at Redbird Arena - a program best.
...be their 12th straight regular season win against the Redbirds and their 13th win in the last 15 against ILS overall.
 
A Shocker Loss Would...
...snap a 12-game winning streak.
... be their first setback since Dec. 19 at Seton Hall
... end an 19-game MVC winning streak
... be their first regular season MVC loss since Jan. 31, 2015.
... snap a five-game Redbird Arena winning streak
...be just their second loss in the last three MVC seasons.
...snap an 11-game regular season winning streak vs. ILS.
... be less good than a win.
 
UP NEXT
The Shockers play their second road game in four days with a trek to Des Moines on Tuesday evening to take on Drake. That game can be seen on Cox Channel Kansas.