NORTH TEXAS (7-5, 0-0) at WICHITA STATE (8-5, 0-0)
Thursday, Jan. 4 | 8:00 p.m.
Wichita, Kan. | Charles Koch Arena
 
TV: ESPN2 with Mark Neely & Tim Welsh
Radio: KEYN 103.7 FM with Mike Kennedy & Dave Dahl
 

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Aviation Night - Celebrate Wichita being the Air Capital of the World and recognize those that work in the aviation industry. Employees within the aviation industry can claim a special ticket offer for the game at the Shocker Ticket Office.
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.
Ticket Offer – $20 Upper-Reserved Tickets (available online only at GoShockers.com/HolidaySale)
Halftime Act: Granny Basketball
 

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OPENING TIPS
• Wichita State opens American Athletic Conference play on Thursday vs. North Texas in front of a nationwide audience on ESPN2 at 8 p.m.
• Wichita State is 3-3 in conference openers since joining the American Athletic Conference, but has dropped its last two league lid-lifters.
• Wichita State is 26-9 all time when playing on Jan. 4. The 26 wins are the most on a single date in school history.
• Wichita State leads the all-time series with North Texas, 26-12. The teams have split the last six meetings. The two programs were MVC members from 1958-1975.
• North Texas is 7-5 after back-to-back wins over UT Arlington and LSU-Shreveport. Four of UNT's five losses are by a combined 11 points, including two by a single point.
• The Mean Green boast one of the nation's top defenses, as they allow just 58.9 points (No. 4 in NCAA) and their opponents are shooting just 38.4% (No. 19 in NCAA).
• Wichita State wrapped up non-conference play on Dec. 30, falling to No. 2 Kansas, 86-67.
• The Shockers have lost their last five games against Top 25 teams since defeating No. 6 Houston in 2021.
• Wichita State has dropped eight straight vs. Top 25 opponents on a neutral court.
• Bijan Cortes made his Wichita State debut Thursday vs. Kansas State after sitting out the first 11 games.
• Ronnie DeGray III made his Wichita State debut Saturday vs. Southern Illinois after sitting out the first 10 games due to NCAA transfer rules.
• Harlond Beverly has 33 assists over his last seven games. Beverly now leads the team in assists with 44.
• Colby Rogers (16.2 ppg; leading scorer) has made a three-pointer in all 13 games this season and multiple in 11 of the 13. He leads the AAC in three-point percentage (40.0), three-pointers per game (2.77) and three-pointers made (36).
• Xavier Bell has scored in double figures in 12 of 13 games and Rogers has in 11 of the 13 games, and they both have multiple 20-point games to their name.
• Wichita State ranks 8th nationally in defensive rebounds per game, 9th in rebounds per game and 42nd in rebound margin.
• Quincy Ballard ranks 25th nationally in blocks (28). He had a career-high 7 vs. Norfolk State.
• Wichita State posted a winning non-conference record for the 26th consecutive season, and has the league's fifth-best NET ranking.
• 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.

SCOUTING NORTH TEXAS
• Led by first year head coach Ross Hodge, North Texas enters the conference opener at 7-5.
• Hodge was UNT's associate head coach for the previous six seasons prior to being promoted to head coach last spring. This is Hodge's first NCAA head coaching job. He was a two-time junior college head coach from 2006-11 at Paris JC and then Midland JC.
• In his six seasons at UNT, Hodge has helped lead the Mean Green to a combined 135-65 overall record and 71-35 record in conference games. North Texas won the 2020 Conference USA regular season championship, 2021 Conference USA Tournament championship and 2022 Conference USA regular season title. In 2021, UNT earned an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament where they received a program-best No. 13 seeding. In the first round they upset Purdue, 78-69 (ot), for the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament win.
• UNT is coming off the most successful season in program history. Last year, the Mean Green won a program record 31 games, tied the program record for conference wins with 16 and won the 2023 NIT championship.
• In each of the previous two seasons the Mean Green led the nation in scoring defense. Between the 2021-22 season and 2022-23 season combined, UNT's defense held opponents to 55.7 ppg.
• Since the start of the 2021-22 season, North Texas has the nation's ninth-best overall combined winning percentage (.772).
• UNT returns three starters from its NIT championship team, however, only returns 30 percent of its scoring. North Texas' top three scorers from last year are gone and five of their top seven scorers are gone. Aaron Scott is UNT's top returning scoring. The junior averaged 7.0 ppg last season.
• The Mean Green were picked to finish 6th in their inaugural season as a member of the American Athletic Conference.
• UNT has lost five games, four are by five points or less and two are by just a single point. UNT is undefeated at home this season.
• UNT owns the nation's No. 4 scoring defense as they are holding its 12 opponents so far to 58.9 points per game.
• North Texas newcomer Jason Edwards has come off the bench in each of the Mean Green's 12 games this season. His 183 total points scored are the 7th most in the nation by a reserve and the most among AAC reserves. He leads the team in scoring at 15.3 points per game.
• Rubin Jones puts up 12.4 points to go with a team-high 45 assists, 19 steals and 3.2 rebounds per game.
• Aaron Scott rounds out the double figure scorers at 11.8 points, while adding 5.5 rebounds. His 17 blocks lead the team.
• Robert Allen pulls down a team-best 7.7 rebounds to go with 5.3 points.

THE SERIES VS. NORTH TEXAS
• WSU leads the all-time series 26-12. This is just the second time the schools have met on the hardwood since December, 1982 when the Shockers defeated North Texas in the championship game of the McDonald's Shocker Classic.
• North Texas came into Charles Koch Arena two years ago on Dec. 18 and handed the Shockers a 62-52 loss, snapping a six-game home win streak vs. the Mean Green.
• Current Kansas State point guard Tylor Perry scored a game-high 23 points behind a 10-of-10 night at the free throw line.
• Morris Udeze scored 17 points and Craig Porter Jr. added 12 in a losing effort for the Shockers.
• At that time North Texas was led by Grant McCasland who spent five years at Baylor as an assistant coach with Paul Mills.
• The schools were Missouri Valley Conference rivals from 1957 to 1975.
• The Shockers have won six of the last seven against North Texas in Wichita and are 16-4 all-time.
• The most-impressive of the three Mean Green wins came in 1963 over a Shocker team that came in ranked No. 8 nationally, 69-67.
• North Texas' last win at the Roundhouse came in the semifinals of the 1982 McDonald's Classic over District Columbia. Robert Lewis' putback at the buzzer gave the Mean Green an exciting 74-73 victory.
• North Texas' last appearance came the following day in the championship game. Zarko Durisic scored a career-high 30 points and the Shockers edged the Mean Green, 78-72.
• The Shockers are 10-8 against UNT in Denton but are winless at the Super Pit (est. 1973-Pr.).
• Wichita State's last visit actually came during the 1976 NCAA tournament when the Shockers lost to 14^th-ranked Michigan, 74-73, on Rickey Green's 20-foot jumper with six seconds to play.

CONNECT THE DOTS
• Bijan Cortes and North Texas junior guard Matthew Stone played high school basketball together at Kingfisher High School in Kingfisher, Okla. The duo started all four years together and led Kingfisher to a 107-4 record over four years, winning the 4A Oklahoma State Championship in 2019 and 2021. They were the prohibitive favorites to win it in 2020, but COVID canceled the state tournament the day it was supposed to begin.
• Their 96.4% winning percentage is the best four-year win percentage for any boys team in Oklahoma history.
• Cortes and North Texas junior guard CJ Noland were both teammates at Oklahoma for the previous two seasons before transferring out of Norman.
• North Texas junior forward Aaron Scott played prep basketball for former Wichita State standout P.J. Couisnard at Legacy the School of Sport Sciences in Spring, Texas.
• North Texas sophomore guard Jason Edwards spent last season in the Sunflower State at Dodge City Community College. Edwards was the KJCCC Player of the Year and and NJCAA First Team All-American.

REINFORCEMENTS COMING
• Wichita State received an early Christmas present in the form of Ronnie DeGray III and Bijan Cortes being cleared to play by the NCAA for the remainder of the season.
• DeGray III made his long awaited Wichita State debut on Saturday, Dec. 16 vs. Southern Illinois. DeGray sat out the first 10 games due to NCAA two-time transfer rules, but is cleared to play the remainder of the season.
• DeGray played nearly 19 minutes off the bench and finished with two points and four rebounds - all offensive.
• Cortes (Academics) missed the first 11 games before making his Shocker debut on Dec. 21 vs. Kansas State. He played 24 minutes off the bench and finished with three assists and two rebounds.

LEAD GUARDS
• Colby Rogers and Xavier Bell have formed a potent 1-2 scoring attack for Wichita State through 13 games. Rogers leads Wichita State in scoring at 16.2 per game and Bell is right behind at 14.4.
• Rogers ranks 6th in the American in points, while Bell is 11th.
• The duo of Rogers and Bell make up 40.7 percent of Wichita State's scoring as they've accounted for 398 points.
• Bell has scored in double figures in 12 of the first 13 games, and Rogers in 11 of the 13. They each have multiple 20-point outings to their name (Rogers - 4, Bell - 3).

COLBY ROG3333333333333RS
• Colby Rogers is riding a streak of 13 straight games with at least one made three-pointer to start the season.
• He has multiple three-pointers in 11 of the first 13 games, including eight of the last nine.
• Rogers is attempting 6.9 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 2.77 three-pointers made per game are currently the second-most in school history.

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 23 total games in his Shocker career. In those 23 games he has 42 blocked shots. Twenty-eight of those have come in the first 13 games.
• Through 13 games his 28 blocks rank 25th nationally and his 2.15 blocks per game rank 27th.
• He has multiple blocks in all but four games this season.

BOARD OF APPROVAL
• Through the first 13 games of the season Wichita State has been among the nation's top rebounding teams. Wichita State ranks 9th nationally in rebounds per game, 8th in defensive rebounds per game and 42nd in rebound margin.
• Wichita State has three players averaging 6.7 or more rebounds per game (Kenny Pohto - 7.8; Dalen Ridgnal - 6.9; Quincy Ballard - 6.7).
• Wichita State has been outrebounded just four times this season.
• Wichita State has pulled down 40 or more rebounds in 8 of the 13 games, including three games of 50+.
• Wichita State has grabbed 74.4% of its possible defensive rebounds this season. That number would be the sixth best in school history.

A SHOCKER WIN WOULD...                                                                     
... Make them 9-5 this season.
... Make them 1-0 in AAC play for the first time since 2021.
... Make them 27-9 all time on Jan. 4.
... Give Paul Mills 115 career coaching victories.
... Run their record to 1,666-1,250 all time.
... Make them 27-12 vs. North Texas all time.

A SHOCKER LOSS WOULD...                                                                     
... Make them 8-6 this season.
... Drop them to 0-1 in AAC play for the third straight season.
... Be their third straight loss.
... Make Paul Mills 8-6 as Wichita State head coach.
... Drop them to 26-10 all time on Jan. 4.
... Drop their record to 1,665-1,251 all time.
... Make them 26-13 all-time vs. North Texas.

UP NEXT
GAME 15: AT TEMPLE                                                          
• Temple is 7-6 and under first year head coach Adam Fisher.
• Wichita State won the lone meeting a season ago in Philadelphia, 79-65.
• The all-time series with Temple is tied 6-6 with the Shockers winning each of the last three games.
• This will be just the fourth time Wichita State has played at Temple. The Shockers are 1-2 all-time at Temple.