EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- Coming off just its fourth MVC regular season loss in as many seasons, Wichita State (15-4, 5-1 MVC) looks to bounce back Tuesday night at Evansville (10-9, 1-5). Tip is scheduled for 8:06 p.m. CT.
 
TUNING IN:
*Catch the action on CBS Sports Network. Andrew Catalon will provide play-by-play alongside analyst Steve Lappas and sideline reporter Allie LaForce. CBS Sports Network can be seen in Wichita on AT&T Uverse (channel 643), Cox HD (2260), DIRECTV (221), DISH (158) and SKT Communications (58).
*Listen to 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 1,196th consecutive game, alongside Bob Hull. Pregame begins at 7 p.m.
 

MISSOURI VALLEY CONFERENCE PLAY

Wichita State (15-4, 5-1 MVC)  Evansville (10-9, 1-5 MVC)

Tuesday, Jan. 17

8:00 P.M. CT

Evansville, Ind.

Ford Center

Game Notes: WSU | UE

COVERAGE

CBS Sports Network

Andrew Catalon, Steve Lappas           & Allie LaForce

KEYN 103.7 FM

Listen

Live Stats

SOCIAL

@GoShockersLIVE | #watchus

@goshockers | #watchus

Go Shockers

SERIES HISTORY

All-Time: WSU leads 29-16

In Evansville: WSU leads 11-10

Last Meeting: Jan. 31, 2016 (WSU 78-65)

MVC STANDINGS

Team MVC OVR Illinois State 6-0 14-4 Wichita State 5-1 15-4 Southern Illinois 4-2 13-6 Loyola 3-3 13-6 Missouri State 3-3 12-7 Bradley 3-3 8-11 Drake 3-3 5-13 Evansville 1-5 10-9 Indiana State 1-5 7-11 Northern Iowa 1-5 6-11

1 ----- Tuesday night's game will be the Aces' 100th at the Ford Center, their home since the start of the 2011-12 campaign. Evansville owns a 72-27 home mark in six seasons  - good for a .727 winning percentage - and is off to a 9-2 start this year. The only team with a better track record in this building is Wichita State (4-1, .800). Of the 17 visiting schools that have made multiple appearances, WSU and Murray State (2-1, .667) are the only the only programs with winning records. Against the other eight Valley teams, Evansville has won 70 percent of its Ford Center games (28-12). WSU has won its last three visits, all by double-figures, and trailed for a combined 3 minutes, 18 seconds in those games.
 
2 ----- After falling at Illinois State in Saturday night's battle of 5-0 teams, WSU is out of the first-place for the first time since March 2, 2013 when it lost a winner-take-all finale at Creighton and had to settle for a runner-up finish.
 
3 ----- The aforementioned loss at Omaha, nearly four years ago, was also the last time the Shockers dropped consecutive conference games. Since an 0-6 slide to open the 2008-09 campaign, WSU has lost back-to-back MVC games on just two occasions (both during the 2012-13 season). After enduring a three-game skid from Jan. 26-Feb. 5, 2013, they lost their last two regular season games to Evansville and Creighton on Feb. 27 and March 2. It wasn't the end of the world. That 2012-13 team regrouped to make the Final Four.
 
4 ----- After being swept in the 2012-13 season series, WSU has won its last seven meetings with Evansville and leads 29-16 all-time.
 
5 ----- Threat of winter weather kept the Shockers out on the road. Instead of returning to Wichita after Saturday evening's game at Illinois, the team stayed an extra night in Normal, Ill., then took a bus directly to Evansville on Monday morning. It's the first two-game conference road swing for the Shockers since the 2012-13 season when they won two tight games in three days at Illinois State and Indiana State (Feb. 17 & 19).
 
THE SERIES:
*This is the 46th meeting between WSU and Evansville in a series that dates back to 1994 (when the Aces joined the Missouri Valley Conference). The teams have met at least once in each of the last 27 seasons.
*The Shockers lead the all-time series 29-16.
*WSU's seven consecutive victories over Evansville are just two wins shy of their longest streak against the Aces. From 2003-07, WSU won nine straight meetings.
*The Shockers have captured 12 of the last 14 overall in the series, with a three-game sweep in 2013-14 during the undefeated run and two-game sweeps in 2014-15 and 2015-16.
*Head coaches Gregg Marshall and Marty Simmons made their respective debuts at WSU and Evansville in the same season, 2007-08, and are the league's second-longest tenured coaches behind UNI's Ben Jacobson. Marshall is 14-5 against Simmons.
 
>> 2015-16 (WSU, 2-0)
 
Jan. 6, 2016 | Wichita | WSU 67, UE 64
A Zach Brown three-pointer with 19 seconds remaining helped WSU fend off Evansville... Brown's clutch basket – his only points of the night and one of just two field goal attempts– gave the WSU a two-possession lead... Anton Grady led the Shockers with 17 points on 8-of-13 shooting and snagged a team-high seven rebounds... Fred VanVleet narrowly missed a double-double with 16 points and nine assists... Brown, Markis McDuffie and Ron Baker were part of a rotating cast of defenders that helped hold Evansville star D.J. Balentine to 14 points (a season low to that point) on 17 shots and harassed him into five turnovers... Evansville's Egidijus Mockevicius -- who finished the year as the nation's leading rebounder (14.0) -- secured 16 boards to go with nine points... The Aces kept the Shockers within arm's length with strong performances from their supporting cast. Jaylon Brown emerged for 18 points on an array of drives and jumpers, and Adam Wing tacked on 12 points.
 
Jan. 31, 2016 | Evansville | WSU 78, UE 65
VanVleet scored a career-high 32 points and tied Dave Stallworth's 53-year old school accuracy record by going 15-of-15 at the foul line... Gregg Marshall tied Ralph Miller as WSU's career wins leader with his 220th Shocker victory in nine seasons... WSU took a sellout crowd of 10,034 out of the game by building a 32-21 halftime lead. The Shockers held the hosts without a field goal for a stretch of nearly nine minutes, and Balentine managed just three first-half points... The Shockers won their 11th straight and extended their lead to three games by taking down the second-place Aces for the second time in less than a month... WSU led by as many as 20 points with 12:00 to go to effectively put the game away, ending Evansville's 14-game home winning streak... Mockevicius had a double-double, scoring 16 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. Balentine added 18 points, 15 of them coming in the second half. He missed his first nine shots from the field and finished a chilly 5-of-19 for the game.
 
>> 2014-15 (WSU, 2-0)
WSU defended Evansville well in 2014-15, holding the Aces to their two lowest points totals of the season (41 and 43). Evansville scored 52-or-more points against every other opponent that year.
 
>> 2013-14 (WSU, 3-0)
The Shockers won all three games by double-digits and averaged 10 steals. Ron Baker went for 26 points at Evansville. D.J. Balentine put up 26 and 31 in the final two meetings in Wichita and St. Louis. WSU's 80-58 MVC semifinal win ended the Aces' season and improved the Shockers to 33-0.
 
>> 2012-13 (Evansville, 2-0)
The Aces swept both games from the Final Four Shockers, capped by a 59-56 victory in Wichita that spoiled WSU's Senior Night and ultimately denied them a share of the MVC regular season title. Evansville hit 7-of-10 three-point attempts to build a 38-28 halftime lead, then hung on behind 29 points from Colt Ryan. WSU outrebounded Evansville by 19 (with an 18-3 edge on the offensive glass) but shot just 38 percent.
 
GOOD AT GETTING & KEEPING THE BALL:
Wichita State is one of just two Division I teams that rank in the top-30 nationally in both rebounding margin and turnover margin (Louisiana is the other). The Shockers enter the week at +8.5 on the boards (11th) and are +3.4 in turnovers (30th).
 
ALL THE ROAD RAGE:
*Saturday's loss at Illinois State ended what had been the nation's second-longest road winning streak (7). 
*WSU is 4-1 this year in true road games. Three of those wins came in December when they beat Colorado State, Oklahoma and Indiana State. Victory No. 4 came in early January at Northern Iowa.
*Against all opponents, the Shockers are 35-6 (.854) in true road games since the start of the '13-14 season and 61-14 (.813) 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 27-3 (.900).
*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 (49-8, .860) 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 and Jan. 14, 2017).
 
 
MATCHUP MASHUP (Finding New Identities):
Both teams are building new identities this year after graduating four of the five first team All-Valley selections from last season. 
 
>> Evansville:
The Aces must replace the three-time MVC scoring champion, D.J. Balentine, and three-time rebounding champ, Egidijus Mockevicius. 
 
So far, so good: Jaylon Brown (20.8 point per game) leads the MVC in scoring, continuing a legacy of Aces atop the Valley scoring chart. If he can keep up the pace, it would mark the sixth consecutive year that an Evansville player has averaged north of 20 points per game. Colt Ryan scored 2,279 points from 2009-13 and twice averaged more than 20 per game. Balentine (2,464 points from 2012-16) finished as the school's career scoring leader.
 
So far, not so good: With the nation's leading rebounder, Mockevicius (1,258 career rebounds, 14.0 per game last year), no longer in the mix, the Aces have been middle of the road in the rebounding department. In six league games, they're dead even on the glass. David Howard (5.1) is the only Ace averaging more than 5 boards per game.
 
>> Wichita State
WSU moves on in the absence of three-time MVC assist leader and two-time Player of the Year, Fred VanVleet, and three-time first teamer, Ron Baker. The former Shocker stars are in their rookie seasons with the NBA's Raptors and Knicks.
 
So Far, So Good: VanVleet recorded each of the top three assist-to-turnover ratios in school history and finished up as the school's career assist leader and steals leader. Baker ranks in WSU's top-10 all-time in points, rebounds and assists. Yet, the 2016-17 Shockers are averaging more steals (7.42, up from last year's 7.28) and have a higher assist-to-turnover (1.43, up from 1.41). The Shockers are averaging nearly 10 more points per game.
 
So Far, Not So Good: The Shockers led the nation in scoring defense last year (59.0) but so far are surrendering 70.0 per game in league play. MVC foes shot just 35.9 percent against the Shockers last year but are connecting on 43 percent in 2016-17.
 
SCOUTING EVANSVILLE:
*Evansville's two-headed monster of guards (Jaylon Brown and Ryan Taylor) account for 36.5 of the team's 68.3 points per game and 26 of its 53 shots.
*Brown averaged a Valley-best 20.8 points (19.3 in league play) and has topped 30 points on two occasions... His 39-points in a double-overtime loss to Toledo are the most by a Valley player this season... Brown went for 33 in a Dec. 22 win over Mt. St. Joseph... 
*Taylor averaged 15.7 points (6th in the MVC) with a season-high 38 points against Norfolk State on Dec. 14, fueled by six three-pointers.
*Taylor (.851) and Brown (.845) rank Nos. 1 and 2 in the MVC in free throw percentage... Brown gets the line for 7.5 attempts per game... On Jan. 4 against Bradley he went just 2-of-13 from the field but still topped 20 thanks to a 17-of-20 effort at the line.
*The Aces have attempted just 202 three-point attempts this year (10.6 per game), and their 3.9 makes are by far the MVC's lowest. Last year's squad averaged 4.6 (also last).
*Evansville recorded a perfect three-point shooting game earlier this season, finishing 1-for-1 in a Nov. 26 contest again UNC-Wilmington. Dru Smith made the one shot at the 17:22-mark of the second half.
*The Aces don't shoot the three much and also do a good job denying other teams of the opportunity. Evansville leads the MVC in three-point field goal defense, both overall (.306) and in league play (.316).
 
BEAT-THE-ODDS COUPLE:
*Former Shockers Ron Baker and Fred VanVleet have made a habit of exceeding expectations, and that trend continues at the next level. 
*Baker (NY Knicks) and VanVleet (Toronto Raptors) were two of only a dozen undrafted rookie free agents from last year's NCAA ranks to make a 2016 Opening Night roster. 
*Both rookies stuck with their respective teams past the  mid-January deadline and earned guaranteed contracts for the remainder of the year.
*On Jan. 16, Baker made his first career start for the Knicks.
*A total of five Shockers have now made an NBA debut in the last four seasons.
 
500 IN SIGHT:
*Shaquille Morris became the first of the current Shockers to reach 500 career points on Jan. 11 against Loyola. Sophomore Markis McDuffie (489) and junior Zach Brown (491) could also hit that milestone in Evansville.
 
A SHOCKER WIN WOULD...
… improve their conference record to 6-1.
… improve their overall record to 16-4 and guarantee them a winning regular season record for the eighth consecutive year.
… improve their road record to 4-1 this year and make them 28-3 in Valley road contests over the last four years.
… give them eight straight wins over Evansville.
… give them four consecutive victories at the Ford Center and improve their mark to 5-1 in the building.
… extend their lead in the all-time series with Evansville to 30-16 (12-10 in Evansville).
 
A SHOCKER LOSS WOULD...
… drop them to 15-5 for the year.
… give them consecutive MVC losses for the first time since February/March of 2013 and for just the third time since Jan. 14, 2009.
… sink their MVC record to 5-2.
… end a seven-game winning streak against the Aces.
… snap a three-game winning streak in Evansville.
… be less good than a win.
 
UP AHEAD: Jan. 21 vs. Indiana State:
*After a stretch of three of four games on the road, Wichita State plays two home contests in four days against Indiana State (Saturday, 2 p.m. CT, ESPN3) and Southern Illinois (Tuesday, 6 p.m., CBS Sports Network).
*This is the second meeting with Indiana State (7-11, 1-5 MVC). WSU won in Terre Haute, 80-72, on Dec. 28 to open up conference play. The Shockers have won the last nine meetings.
*WSU and SIU (11-8, 4-2 MVC) face off for the first time this year. The Shockers have taken the last seven in that series, last losing in Wichita in February, 2011.