SOUTHERN ILLINOIS (6-3) at WICHITA STATE (7-3)
Saturday, Dec. 16 | 6:00 p.m.
Wichita, Kan. | Charles Koch Arena
 
TV: ESPN+ with Shane Dennis & Bob Hull
Radio: KEYN 103.7 FM with Mike Kennedy & Dave Dahl
 

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Promotions:
White Out - Wear WHITE for a big non-conference game against a former Missouri Valley foe.
Giveaway – Rally Towel presented by The Shocker Store (First 2,500)
Junior Shocker Kids Club Day – Kids 12 & under receive a free ticket to this game and a VIP experience when they become a member of the Junior Shocker Kids Club.
Ticket Offer - All college students with a valid student ID from their institution can receive a free GA ticket as a part of our Home for the Holidays initiative.
Halftime Act: Red Panda
Postgame Autographs – Exclusive to Men's Basketball Season Ticket Holders and Junior Shocker Kids Club Members
 

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OPENING TIPS
• Wichita State closes out its home portion of the non-conference schedule on Saturday vs. an old Missouri Valley Conference rival, Southern Illinois.
• Wichita State is 9-7 all time when playing on Dec. 16.
• Wichita State has won nine straight in the series with Southern Illinois, but the Salukis lead the all-time series, 48-47.
• SIU is 6-3 this season after a pair of impressive wins over Saint Louis (101-62) and Oklahoma State (70-68).
• Wichita State will have its hands full with the nation's second leading scorer in Xavier Johnson (25.0 ppg). Johnson has shooting splits of 48/42/91 through nine games.
• Wichita State is coming off a second straight loss, falling 79-69 to South Dakota State.
• Wichita State shot a season-worst 31.4 percent from the field in the loss to South Dakota State at INTRUST Bank Arena.
• Wichita State dropped to 8-5 all-time at INTRUST Bank Arena following its third straight loss in the building.
• Harlond Beverly has 23 assists over his last four games. Beverly now leads the team in assists with 34.
• Colby Rogers (17.0 ppg; leading scorer) has made a three-pointer in all 10 games this season and multiple in nine of the 10. He leads the AAC in field goals made (62), three-point percentage (40.3), three-pointers per game (2.90) and three-pointers made (29).
• Rogers eclipsed 1,000 career points on Wednesday vs. Richmond with a game-high 19 points.
• Xavier Bell and Rogers have scored in double figures in nine of the 10 games this season, and they both have multiple 20-point games to their name.
• Wichita State ranks 3rd in rebounds per game, 4th nationally in defensive rebounds per game, 19th in rebound margin and 26th in field goal defense.
• Wichita State is the only team in the country that has three players averaging 7.0 or more rebounds per game (Kenny Pohto - 7.9; Dalen Ridgnal - 7.8; Quincy Ballard - 7.2).
• Quincy Ballard ranks 10th nationally in blocks (25). He had a career-high 7 vs. Norfolk State.
• Paul Mills is only the seventh coach in school history to start 7-3 or better in his first 10 games. Wilmer Elfrink won nine of his first 10 for the best start in WSU history.
• Wichita State celebrated the 20th anniversary of Charles Koch Arena on Wednesday, Nov. 29.
• Wichita State is guaranteed to have a winning non-conference record for the 26th consecutive season.
• 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.
• 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.
• Ronnie DeGray III is another transfer who is currently sitting out due to NCAA transfer rules. The former Missouri Tiger and UMass Minuteman is a two-time transfer and awaiting a decision on an NCAA waiver to see if he will be eligible to play this season in the Black and Yellow.

SCOUTING SOUTHERN ILLINOIS
• Led by fifth year head coach Bryan Mullins, Southern Illinois enters the matchup at 6-3.
• Mullins is one of 50 head coaches in Division I who is coaching at his alma mater.
• Mullins and assistant coach Brendan Mullins are brothers. They are one of three sets of brothers coaching together in Division I basketball joining UT Martin's Ryan and Reed Ridder as well as Pitt's Jeff and Jason Capel.
• Mullins was a point guard for the Salukis during back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in 2006 and 2007.
• The Salukis went 23-10 a season ago and 14-6 in the Missouri Valley Conference, but were picked to finish ninth in this season's Preseason MVC Poll.
• Xavier Johnson was named to the Preseason MVC Third Team.
• After scoring just 7.0 points per game in 2022-23, Johnson has started the season on fire. He ranks first nationally in scoring at 25.0 points per game.
• Johnson already has four 30-point games in nine games this season, including a career-high 38 vs. James Madison on Nov. 21. He poured in 32 against Oklahoma State, leading the Salukis to a big Power 5 win.
• Johnson is an elite free throw shooter, converting 91.4 percent of his freebies, while his 74 made free throws rank third in the NCAA.
• Southern Illinois also boasts one of the nation's top three-point shooters so far this season. Trent Brown is connecting on 53.7 percent of his tries from beyond the arc, good for third nationally.
• Brown is primarily a three-point specialist, as 41 of his 47 field goal attempts have come behind the three-point line this season.
• Clarence Rupert pulls down a team-best 6.9 rebounds to go with 9.9 points.
• As a team, SIU ranks eighth nationally in three-point percentage (40.5 percent) and 35th in three-point percentage defense (28.6 percent).
• SIU has had problems rebounding, ranking 306th nationally with 33.0 rebounds per game.

ALL-TIME SERIES VS. SOUTHERN ILLINOIS
• Wichita State enters the matchup riding a nine-game win streak in the series with the Salukis. A win on Saturday would even the all-time series at 48-48.
• The Shockers recorded six series sweeps over Southern Illinois in the last eight years as a member of the Missouri Valley Conference.
• A 10th straight win vs. the Salukis would be the longest win streak for the Shockers in the series that dates all the way back to 1965.
• During Wichita State's current nine-game win streak vs. Southern Illinois, the Shockers have won all nine by double digits and an average of 19.8 points.
• Southern Illinois is the only current member of the Missouri Valley Conference that owns a winning record against Wichita State.
• SIU's last win in Wichita came on Feb. 8, 2011. Since the 2003 renovation of Charles Koch Arena, the Salukis are 5-9 in the Roundhouse - one of the better marks for an MVC opponent.
• In the last meeting as MVC members, Wichita State defeated SIU, 87-68 on Feb. 15, 2017. The Shockers placed five in double figures, shot 55 percent from the floor and 62 percent from beyond the arc.
• Wichita State held SIU to 37 percent on field goal attempts and just 1-of-13 from three-point range.

CONNECT THE DOTS
• Wichita State and SIU are no strangers, having faced each other 95 times entering Saturday's matchup.
• Grad transfer RJ McGee should be familiar with the Shockers after spending the previous four seasons at Tulane. McGee appeared in more than 100 career games for the Green Wave.
• Kansas native (Merriam) and Cincinnati transfer Jarrett Hensley is another former AAC student-athlete that saw limited action with the Bearcats.

BETTER CALL PAUL
• Head Coach Paul Mills has the Shockers at 7-3 through his first 10 games on the bench.
• His seven wins are tied for the fourth most by a Wichita State head coach in his first season. Only Wilmer Elfrink, Gary Thompson and Randy Smithson have had more wins in their first 10 games.

LEAD GUARDS
• Colby Rogers and Xavier Bell have formed a potent 1-2 scoring attack for Wichita State through 10 games. Rogers leads Wichita State in scoring at 17.0 per game and Bell is right behind at 14.4.
• The duo of Rogers and Bell make up 40.1 percent of Wichita State's scoring as they've accounted for 314 points.
• Both players have scored in double figures in nine of the first 10 games and they each have multiple 20-point outings to their name.

COLBY ROG3333333333RS
• Colby Rogers is riding a streak of 10 straight games with at least one made three-pointer to start the season.
• He has multiple three-pointers in nine of the first 10 games, including six straight.
• Rogers is attempting 7.2 three-pointers per game, which currently stands as the third most in school history behind Tyson Etienne (8.30 in 2021-22; 7.55 in 2020-21).
• His 2.90 three-pointers made per game is just slightly behind Etienne's school record of 2.95 in 2020-21.

ACCESS DENIED
• Wichita State has an elite rim protector in Quincy Ballard. His season was cut short in 2022-23 due to injuries, so he's only played 20 total games in his Shocker career. In those 20 games he has 39 blocked shots. Twenty-five of those have come in the first 10 games.
• Through 10 games his 25 blocks rank 10th nationally and his 2.50 blocks per game rank 14th.
• He has multiple blocks in all but two games this season.

BOARD OF APPROVAL
• Through the first 10 games of the season Wichita State has been among the nation's top rebounding teams. Wichita State ranks 3rd nationally in rebounds per game, 4th in defensive rebounds per game and 19th in rebound margin.
• Wichita State is the only team in the country that has three players averaging 7.0 or more rebounds per game (Kenny Pohto - 7.9; Dalen Ridgnal - 7.8; Quincy Ballard - 7.2).
• Wichita State has been outrebounded just twice this season by a total of three rebounds (-2 vs. WKU; -1 vs. Coastal Carolina).
• Wichita State has pulled down 40 or more rebounds in 8 of the 10 games, including three games of 50+.
• Wichita State has grabbed 76.4% of its possible defensive rebounds this season. That number would be the second best in school history, trailing only the 2017-18 team's 77.4%.

A SHOCKER WIN WOULD...                                                                     
... Make them 8-3 this season.
... Be their 10th straight win vs. SIU.
... Make them 10-7 all time on Dec. 16.
... Give Paul Mills 114 career coaching victories.
... Run their record to 1,665-1,248 all time.
... Make them 48-48 vs. Southern Illinois all time.

A SHOCKER LOSS WOULD...                                                                     
... Make them 7-4 this season.
... Be their third straight loss.
... Snap a nine-game win streak vs. SIU.
... Make Paul Mills 7-4 as Wichita State head coach.
... Drop them to 9-8 all time on Dec. 16.
... Drop their record to 1,664-1,249 all time.
... Make them 47-49 all-time vs. Southern Illinois.

UP NEXT
GAME 12: VS KANSAS STATE (T-MOBILE CENTER)                                                             
• Kansas State is 8-2 under second year head coach Jerome Tang.
• Following last year's close contest in Manhattan, K-State has won the last four meetings.
• K-State leads the all-time series with Wichita State, 22-11.
• This will be the first-ever matchup between the two programs on a neutral court.