WICHITA STATE (2-0) vs. FRIENDS (1-2)
Sunday, Nov. 12 | 1:00 p.m. CT
Wichita, Kan. | Charles Koch Arena
 
TV: ESPN+ (Shane Dennis & Bob Hull)
Radio: KEYN 103.7 FM with Mike Kennedy & Dave Dahl
 

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Hometown Heroes Day - Join us as we honor and recognize Military, Police, Fire, EMS and Healthcare Workers. These first responders can claim a special ticket offer for the game at the Shocker Ticket Office.
Canned Food Drive - Bring a canned food item to donate to Wichita State University's Shocker Locker to combat food insecurity among WSU students.
Ticket Offer - Family Four Pack for $100
 

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OPENING TIPS
• Wichita State plays its third game of college basketball's opening week with an inter-city matchup against Friends on Sunday.
• Wichita State is seeking its 40th 3-0 start in program history.
• This marks the 51st meeting all time between the two schools, but first since 1943. Wichita State has won the last six meetings and leads the series, 39-11.
• Wichita State is 0-1 all time when playing on Nov. 12.
• Wichita State opened the season with a 76-59 home win Monday night vs. Lipscomb and followed that with a 71-61 win over WKU on Thursday.
• Kenny Pohto recorded his first double-double of the season vs. WKU with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Harlond Beverly scored all 13 of his points after halftime to go with 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 steals.
• Colby Rogers scored a game-high 20 points and Quincy Ballard notched his first career double-double against Lipscomb. Rogers made his long-awaited Shocker debut after sitting out last season due to the NCAA's transfer rules.
• Rogers' 20 points tied for the 5th most in a Shocker debut in school history.
• Rogers leads Wichita State in scoring (15.0 ppg), 3-pointers made (4) and 3-point attempts (13).
• Pohto is averaging a double-double after two games with 12.5 points and 11.0 rebounds.
• Wichita State ranks 9th nationally in defensive rebounds per game and 13th in 3-point defense.
• Since 1992, Wichita State teams are 29-2 in season openers.
• The Shockers opened at home for the 20th straight season. They've won 27 of their last 28 home openers with the lone loss coming in 2018 to Louisiana Tech. They're 60-8 in the Roundhouse and 99-18 all-time in season openers.
• Following Sunday's home matchup, Wichita State hits the road for the first time this season at the Myrtle Beach Invitational.
• First-year head coach Paul Mills has only four returning letterwinners, and welcomes seven newcomers to the 2023-24 roster.
• Wichita State currently has 10 players on scholarship eligible to play in 2023-24 and two walk-ons.
• KenPom ranks the Shockers 107th nationally in its preseason rankings and 53rd defensively.
• Wichita State returns only 20.3 percent of its scoring from a season ago, having lost its top four scorers. Pohto is the only returner to average more than 4.0 points per game. Craig Porter Jr., James Rojas, Gus Okafor and Isaiah Poor Bear-Chandler exhausted their eligibility, and four others exited via the transfer portal.
• Wichita State has only two true freshmen on the roster in Joy Ighovodja (Nigeria) and Yanis Bamba (Canada).
• The 2022-23 Shockers ranked 230th in adjusted tempo, but that will most certainly change under Mills' leadership. His Oral Roberts squad was 40th in tempo last season.
• Wichita State ranked near the very bottom in the NCAA when it came to 3-point shooting a season ago. Converting on just 30.9 percent of its attempts from beyond the arc, that ranked 324th nationally. Mills' Oral Roberts squad on the other hand attempted nearly 400 more and shot 36.5 percent, which ranked 56th in the country.
• Oklahoma transfer, Bijan Cortes, had his NCAA waiver denied and will sit out at least the first semester. There is still a chance he could have a waiver approved for the second semester. In two seasons at Oklahoma, Cortes averaged 2.6 points, 1.5 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game. He appeared in 59 career games with the Sooners and was a career 50 percent 3-point shooter. In his final season he posted career highs of 3.2 points, 2.0 assists and was 13-of-27 from beyond the arc.

OPENING NIGHT    
• Wichita State has won 75 percent of its season openers all time (88-29, .752) and over 80 percent (64-15, .810) in the modern era.
• Wichita State is 20-1 in home openers since Charles Koch Arena's 2003 renovation. The lone loss came in 2018 to Louisiana Tech.
• Wichita State is starting its 68th season at the Roundhouse (1955-Pr.). Shocker teams have lost just eight home openers during that span (60-8, .882).
• 40 seasons ago (Dec. 1, 1972), Antoine Carr set the school record for most points by a freshman in his Shocker debut (19 points). He dunked five times in the first half of a 76-61 win over Northern Michigan.
• Wichita State's highest-scoring varsity debut came Dec. 1, 1972 at Oregon State when Bobby Wilson put up 29 points. Wilson went on to play parts of four NBA seasons with the Bulls, Celtics and Pacers.

MONDAY MADNESS    
• Wichita State has won 11 straight games that happen to fall on a Monday. The Shockers were 2-0 on Mondays a season ago and haven't lost on a Monday since Nov. 22, 2010 against UConn in the Maui Invitational.
• Before last season, Wichita State had not played on a Monday since November of 2017.
• The Shockers made it 11 in a row in the season opener vs. Lipscomb, which happens to be their only game on a Monday in 2023-24.

SCOUTING FRIENDS
• Friends is under the guidance of first-year head coach Phil McClintock.
• McClintock brings a stark familiarity of the KCAC to Friends, highlighted by an eight-year tenure as associate head coach at Ottawa University.
• At Ottawa, McClintock served as the recruiting coordinator and was responsible for film breakdown and scouting reports.
• 2019-20 was a breakout season, as McClintock brought in six of the team's top 10 players that produced a school-record 28 victories, a regular season KCAC championship and an NAIA Sweet 16 appearance (tournament ended early due to COVID-19).
• The Falcons are 1-2 so far in 2023-24. After dropping their season opener at Central Methodist, 73-88, they regrouped to dominate Calvary University, 119-56, on Nov. 2 in the home opener.
• They will be playing their second game in as many days after dropping a road contest at Oklahoma City University on Saturday, 83-68.
• Four Falcons average 10 or more points on the season, led by Al Emerllahu at 13.5. Steele Chapman is shooting 55.6 percent to go with 12.5 points per game. Drew Patterson (12.0) and KJ Spiller (11.0) round out the leading scorers.
• In their home opener, the Falcons put 119 points on the board, and average 96.0 through two games. Friends is converting 49.3 percent of its field goal attempts and 90.6 percent of its free throw attempts (29-for-32).

ALL-TIME SERIES VS. FRIENDS   
• Wichita State is 39-11 all time vs. Friends in a series that dates all the way back to 1906.
• The two programs haven't met in a regular season game since 1943 - a contest the Shockers won, 74-22.
• The two teams haven't even met in an exhibition game since at least 1970 when exhibition games started being recorded.
• Friends won the first four meetings in the series, but was dominated by Wichita State over the next 40 years. Friends won a high-scoring affair, 26-14, in the first ever meeting on March 2, 1906.
• The Shockers have won six in a row entering Sunday's matchup.

WKU LEFTOVERS
• WKU missed all 21 of its three-point attempts, snapping a streak of 1,335 straight games with a three-pointer.
• It marked the first time since Dec. 22, 2014 that an opponent failed to make a three-pointer (Loyola Marymount, 0-for-5).
• The 21 attempts were the 5th most nationally without a make since 2010.
• Three Shockers finished with double-digit rebounds (Dalen Ridgnal - 13, Kenny Pohto - 11, Quincy Ballard - 10).
• Wichita State blocked eight shots - four of those belonging to Ballard.
• Xavier Bell set new career highs in free throws made (8) and free throw attempts (10).

NON-CONFERENCE NOTABLES    
• Wichita State could potentially face three first-time foes in the non-conference slate, all three are in the Myrtle Beach Invitational field (Coastal Carolina, Liberty and Vermont).
• Liberty (CUSA), College of Charleston (CAA), South Dakota State (Summit League) and Kansas (Big 12) were all picked to win their respective leagues. Norfolk State (MEAC) and Western Kentucky (CUSA) were picked second and third in each of their preseason polls.
• The Shockers' will play three road or neutral site games against teams that finished inside the Top 50 of last year's NCAA NET Rankings (at Missouri - 47, vs. K-State - 19 and vs. Kansas - 9).
• Wichita State has won eight of its last nine non-conference true road games, dating back to the 2019 NIT run. The Shockers only loss came a year ago in Manhattan vs. Kansas State. • Wichita State's non-conference slate sends the Shockers to Columbia on Dec. 3 to face Missouri.

INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR    
• Three of Wichita State's 14 players on the roster this season hail from international countries. That ties for the second-most on a season roster in school history. Only the 2012-13 team had more (4 - Chadrack Lufile, Nick Wiggins, Kadeem Coleby, Ehimen Orukpe).
• Yanis Bamba (Canada), Joy Ighovodja (Nigeria) and Kenny Pohto (Sweden) are the foreign Shockers on the team.

MILESTONE WATCH    
• Colby Rogers is just 85 points away from 1,000 for his career. He scored 490 in two seasons at Cal Poly and 395 in his lone season at Siena.
• Jacob Germany needs only 5 points to reach 1,300 career points.

CR4 - CERTIFIED SNIPER    
• Shockers fans have been chomping at the bit to see Colby Rogers in action since he arrived on campus in 2022. During his sophomore campaign at Siena, Rogers attempted 170 three-pointers and converted on 42.9 percent of those tries. That percentage was top 70 in the country.
• During that 2021-22 season at Siena, Rogers played in 28 games and made multiple three-pointers in 22 of those contests. He finished the season with multiple triples in each of the last 13 games.

A SHOCKER WIN WOULD...                                                                     
... Make them 3-0 for the 40th time in the program's 117 seasons.
... Make them 1-1 all time on Nov. 12.
... Give Paul Mills 109 career coaching victories.
... Run their record to 1,660-1,245 all time.
... Make them 40-11 vs. Friends all time.

A SHOCKER LOSS WOULD...                                                                     
... Make them 2-1 to open a season for the second straight year.
... Make Paul Mills 2-1 as Wichita State head coach.
... Drop their record to 1,659-1,246 all time.
... Make them 39-12 all-time vs. Friends.

UP NEXT: COASTAL CAROLINA
Thursday, Nov. 16 | 3:30 p.m. CT
Conway, S.C. | HTC Center
ESPNU | KEYN 103.7 FM