WICHITA, Kan. -- First place is on the line when Wichita State (15-3, 5-0 MVC) travels to Illinois State (13-4, 5-0) for a battle of Missouri Valley Conference unbeaten at 7 p.m. CT, Saturday on ESPN2 with Mike Couzens (pbp) and Mark Adams (analyst).
 
Catch every Shocker game, home and away, on FM 103.7 KEYN and online at goshockers.com/listen. Mike Kennedy -- now in his 37th year as Voice of the Shockers -- will call his 1,195th consecutive game, alongside Bob Hull. Pregame begins at 5 p.m.
 

MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE PLAY

Wichita State (15-3, 5-0 MVC)  Illinois State (13-4, 5-0 MVC)

Saturday, Jan. 14

7:00 P.M. CT

Normal, Ill.

Redbird Arena

Game Notes: WSU | ILST

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SERIES HISTORY

All-Time: WSU leads 41-39

In Normal: ILST leads 23-13

Last Meeting: Feb. 27, 2016 (WSU 74-58)

MVC STANDINGS

Team MVC OVR Wichita State 5-0 15-3 Illinois State 5-0 13-4 Missouri State 3-2 12-6 Southern Illinois 3-2 10-8 Bradley 3-2 8-10 Drake 3-2 5-12 Loyola 2-3 12-6 Evansville 1-4 10-8 Indiana State 0-5 6-11 Northern Iowa 0-5 5-11

FIVE NOTES ABOUT 5-0:
 
1 ----- In the past 72 seasons, 48 MVC teams have opened at 5-0 or better. This is only the seventh year in which the Valley race has produced multiple 5-0's and just the fourth time that they've gone head-to-head. The home team won all the previous matchups:
2003 | Omaha | #13 Creighton^{^} (5-0) def. So. Illinois* (5-0), 85-76           
2008 | Des Moines | Drake^{*^} (6-0) def. Illinois St. (6-0), 79-73       
2014 | Wichita | #5 Wichita St.^{*^} (5-0) def. Indiana St. (5-0), 68-48
 
2 ----- Since 1945, the Shockers and Redbirds top the list of Valley programs with the most 5-0 starts. WSU has done it a league-best seven times. This is the sixth 5-0 start for Illinois State, which ties for second with SIU. WSU and Southern Illinois (2002-03 to 2005-06) are the only schools that have produced 5-0 starts in four consecutive years.
 
3 ----- The Shockers are looking to become the first team in modern (post World War II) MVC history to reach 6-0 in four straight seasons. The Shockers followed up their 18-0 season with a 9-0 start in 2014-15 and went 11-0 to open the 2015-16 campaign. 
 
4 ----- A loss would drop WSU out of first-place for the first time since March 2, 2013 when it lost a winner-take-all finale at Creighton. Beginning with the 18-0 run in 2013-14, the Shockers have been atop the standings continuously for over three years. 
 
5 ----- In five MVC games, WSU is shooting over 50%, has outscored its opponents by an average of 18.6 points (ILS ranks second at +12.6) and is outrebounding foes by a league-best margin of 9.4... Sophomore Markis McDuffie is averaging a team-high 15.8 points in 5.6 rebounds in league play, helped by a career-high 26 points in Wednesday's win over Loyola. McDuffie is logging less than 25 minutes per league game, but Ken Pomeroy rates him as the conference's most efficient offensive player... Second on that list is redshirt freshman Landry Shamet (5.20 A-TO ratio against Valley foes), the reigning MVC Newcomer of the Week.
 
THE SERIES:
*WSU leads the all-time series 41-39. 
*WSU is 14-4 against Illinois State over the past seven seasons and has won 24 of the last 32 overall.
*Prior to its win in Normal last February, ISU's last regular season win over WSU had come in the 2009-10 MVC opener (a 72-52 Redbird win in Normal).
*Illinois State leads 23-13 in Normal after snapping a five-game WSU winning streak at Redbird Arena in early February.
*The Shockers have taken 14 of the last 15 in Wichita, with ISU's lone triumph coming in 2008 -Marshall's first season at WSU (49-46).
*The Redbirds escaped a double-figure first half deficit to knock the Shockers out of the 2015 MVC Tournament with a 65-62 semifinal victory, snapping a seven-game Shocker winning streak in the series.
*WSU is 8-2 all-time against Dan Muller.
 
LAST  YEAR vs. ILLINOIS STATE:
The teams split two games last year. Illinois State won in Normal, and WSU won the rematch in Wichita three weeks later.
 
>> Feb. 6, 2016 | Normal | ISU 58, #21 WSU 53
After an 11-0 MVC start, WSU suffered its first conference loss of the year... The defeat also ended a 12-game winning streak and a 19-game MVC winning streak... Ron Baker and Shaquille Morris scored 10 points each for WSU... Conner Frankamp added eight points, and Fred VanVleet tallied seven points and seven assists. ... Paris Lee led all scorers, piling up 19 points for ILS, which defeated a nationally-ranked Valley opponent at Redbird Arena for the first time in the building's 27-year history... Deontae Hawkins had a double-double, scoring 14 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell had 12 points, nine rebounds, and four assists... Illinois State missed 20 of its first 22 attempts from the field... WSU led by 12 at the break and by 16 at the 18:48-mark of the second half, but after Baker's jumper stretched the lead to 37-21 with 18:48 to go, WSU went just 5-of-25 the rest of the way... Nick Banyard tied the game with a backdoor cut for a dunk, and Hawkins gave the Redbirds their first lead, 44-41, with a three-pointer at the 9:33 mark... Prior to that, WSU had not trailed after halftime at any point in Valley play... ILS went up 54-50 with under 4:00 to go on Hawkins' three-point play... Frankamp's three-pointer pulled the Shockers to within a point at the 3:07 mark, but WSU went scoreless the rest of the evening.
 
>> Feb. 27, 2016 | Wichita | WSU 74, ISU 58
A sellout crowd helped turn a tight game into a party. ..Up 26-24 at the 7:11-mark of the first half, the Shockers launched a 17-0 run to take control on Senior Day... Wichita State sent its five seniors -- including the legendary class of Ron Baker, Fred VanVleet and Evan Wessel -- out on an impressive note and, afterward, celebrated its third consecutive MVC crown by cutting down the nets...  Each of the top three scorers for WSU seniors. VanVleet and Anton Grady scored 16 each, and Baker chipped in 10 points... VanVleet posted nine assists to move into the top-5 on the MVCs career assists chart... DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell led the Redbirds with 15 points and MiKyle McIntosh chipped in 14 before fouling out... The Redbirds scored their first 15 points off of three-pointers, connecting on 5-of-6 to start the game, but after cooling down, they struggled to keep pace... During its big run WSU hit 7-of-8 shots, and the Redbirds turned the ball over six times in nine possessions... WSU posted a double-digit differential, forcing 17 Redbird turnovers with just six giveaways of its own (+11)... As a result, WSU outscored ILS 24-3 in points off of turnovers... WSU also reversed its rebounding fortunes. After being outrebounded by 11 in Normal, the Shockers grabbed 16 offensive boards in the rematch and won 40-33 on the glass.
 
ALL THE ROAD RAGE
*Saturday's game takes the Shockers back to their scene of their most recent road setback: Redbird Arena in Normal, where they dropped a 58-53 decision last February.
*The Shockers have the nation's second-longest active road winning streak (7), trailing only Kansas (8). 
*Against all opponents, the Shockers are 35-5 (.875) in true road games since the start of the '13-14 season and 61-13 (.824) going back to '10-11. Both marks lead the nation.
 
VALLEY ROAD WARRIORS
*Since 2013-14, WSU has more conference road wins than any two teams combined, going 27-2 (.931).
*The Shockers have more double-figure road wins in league play than any other school has total road wins. UNI is the closest with 14.
*Since the start of the 2010-11 season, the Shockers' MVC road winning percentage (49-7, .875) is higher than any other Valley schools' home percentage.
*The Shockers only MVC road losses in the last four seasons came at UNI (Jan. 31, 2015) and at Illinois State (Feb. 6, 2016).
 
MATCHUP MASHUP:
*Illinois State's pace is slower than any other team in the Valley. Ken Pomeroy charts the Redbirds at 64.4 possessions per game (10th in the MVC) in conference play, compared to WSU's 71.9.
*Illinois State's MiKyle McIntosh and WSU's Darral Willis and Markis McDuffie are three of the league's best at initiating contact. KenPom estimates that Willis draws roughly 7.2 fouls per 40 minutes (32nd nationally). In conference play, McIntosh is averaging 7.1 (second only to UNI's Bennett Koch at 8.2). Willis (6.1) and McDuffie (5.6) also rank in the top-10 in MVC games.
*Just 41 Division teams are allowing less than 65 points per game. Three of them are MVC teams, with ILS (24th, 63.0) and WSU (33rd, 64.3) joined by Evansville (30th, 64.0).
*The Shockers and Redbirds keep opponent point totals down by keeping the ball out of the basket (simple, right?). ILS has held each of its last 10 opponents to less than 42 percent from the field, and its 37.7 percent season average ranks sixth nationally. WSU is 12th nationally in field goal percentage defense (.382). 
*Last year in Normal, the teams combined to shoot just 31.2 percent.
 
FIGURE 80's:
*At 83.4 points per game, Wichita State is on track to post the Valley's highest scoring average since the 1987-88 season when Hersey Hawkins-led Bradley put up 92.7 per contest. No MVC team has averaged more than 80 per game since 1993-94 Tulsa (81.9).
*WSU has scored at least 80 in all five Valley games. That's the program's longest string since the 1984-85 Shockers, led by Xavier McDaniel and Aubrey Sherrod, finished off a school record streak of 11-in-a-row against league foes.
*WSU is 71-1 under Marshall when scoring at least 80, with 48 consecutive wins. Drake's 93-86 triple overtime win in January, 2012 is the lone exception.
 
NINE-STRAIGHT:
*WSU's nine-game MVC regular season winning streak is the eighth-longest in school history.
*From 2013-15, WSU set a modern conference record in 2015 with a streak of 27-consecutive *MVC regular season wins. Last year, the Shockers built up a similar 19-game streak that ranks among the 10-longest of the league's post World War II era.
 
A SHOCKER WIN WOULD...
… extend their winning streak to seven games.
… improve their overall record to 16-3.
… be their 13th-straight Charles Koch Arena victory.
… make them the first team in modern MVC history to start 6-0 in four consecutive seasons.
… give them 10-straight conference wins (their third double-digit streak under Marshall).
… give them 14-consecutive January victories (WSU went 9-0 in January, 2016).
 
A SHOCKER LOSS WOULD... 
… drop them to 15-4 for the year.
… snap a nine-game MVC winning streak.
… sink their MVC record to 5-1.
… knock them out of first-place for the first time since the end of the 2012-13 season.
… be less good than a win.
 
UP AHEAD: Jan. 17 at Evansville
*Wichita State hit the road again to face Evansville. 
*WSU has won the last seven series games against the Aces, last losing in February, 2013.
*It's the first of two meeting between the teams. Evansville makes a return trip to Wichita for Senior Day in late February.
*The 8 p.m. CT tip will air on CBS Sports Network.