SMU (13-6, 4-2) at WICHITA STATE (8-11, 0-6)
Sunday, Jan. 28 | 2:00 p.m. CT
Wichita, Kan. | Charles Koch Arena
 
TV: ESPN2 with Jordan Bernfield & Mark Adams
Radio: KEYN 103.7 FM with Mike Kennedy & Dave Dahl
 

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OPENING TIPS
• Wichita State and SMU tip off in the regular season for the final time as American Athletic Conference members Sunday afternoon on ESPN2.
• Wichita State is 17-13 all time when playing on Jan. 28.
• The Shockers lead the series with SMU, 11-6. The Shockers have won seven straight over the Mustangs, including two wins last season by a combined four points.
• SMU is 13-6 overall and 4-2 to begin conference play. The Mustangs had their three-game win streak snapped on Thursday, falling at North Texas, 68-66.
• Wichita State is coming off an eighth straight loss after falling at home to East Carolina on Wednesday, 54-52.
• The 8-game losing streak is the longest since Wichita State dropped 11 in a row during Mark Turgeon's first season in 2000-01.
• The Shockers are 0-6 to begin conference play for the first time since 2008-09. That team also lost its first six league games.
• Harlond Beverly has 46 assists over his last 13 games. His 60 total assists are tops on the team.
• Colby Rogers (15.5 ppg; leading scorer) has made a three-pointer in all 19 games this season and multiple in 14 of the 19. He leads the AAC in total 3PT FG made (51) and 3PT Pct (38.1%).
• His streak of 19 straight games with a made three-pointer is the 7th longest in school history.
• In 13 of the 19 games Rogers has tallied 15 points or more - a team best. He has a team-high five 20-point games.
• Wichita State ranks 22nd nationally in rebounds per game and 20th in defensive rebounds per game.
• Quincy Ballard ranks 13th nationally in blocks (46). He had tied a career-high with 7 vs. East Carolina on Jan. 24. Ballard has 14 games with multiple blocks.
• Ballard has scored 10 or more points in four of the last eight games. He had three total in the first 11 games of the season. In the last eight games, he's 30-for-37 (81.1%) from the field.
• Wichita State posted a winning non-conference record for the 26th consecutive season, and has the league's eighth-best NET ranking.
• Per KenPom the American Athletic Conference is ranked the 9th best conference in the NCAA.
• 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.

SCOUTING SMU
• Led by second year head coach Rob Lanier, SMU enters the matchup at 13-6 and 4-2 in league play. Just over halfway through the season, the Mustangs have already surpassed their win total from a season ago when they finished 10-22 overall. SMU needs one more conference win to match last year's total (5-13 in 2023).
• Lanier has more than 30 years of experience as a collegiate coach, including eight seasons as a head coach. His teams have made 12 NCAA Tournaments and earned 19 total postseason bids. Those teams also have five conference titles, three regular season championships and two tournament crowns.
• Like Wichita State, SMU embarked on a foreign tour this past summer. The Mustangs went on a 10-day trip to Spain, going 3-0 with games in Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona. The team visited several historic sites including Madrid's Mercado de San Miguel, Plaza Mayor and Royal Palace as well a tour of Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, the home of Real Madrid, the Port of Valencia and a tour at La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.
• SMU was picked one spot ahead of Wichita State in the Preseason American Athletic Conference Coaches Poll at 7th.
• The Mustangs are led by Preseason American Athletic Conference Second Team selection Zhuric Phelps who scores a team-high 14.7 points per game. Phelps adds 4.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.9 steals a game. His 1.9 steals per contest rank 5th in the AAC.
• Phelps has scored 10 or more points in all but three games, including four games of 20-plus.
• Chuck Harris is second on the team in scoring at 13.1 per game and adds 3.3 rebounds and 3.5 assists. Harris is connecting on 42.7% of his three-point attempts and 82.5% of his free throws.
• Samuell Williamson leads the Mustangs in rebounding at 7.3 per game to go with 9.1 points. He's coming off back-to-back games with a double-double against Temple and Tulsa.
• At just 6-foot-6, forward Keon Ambrose-Hylton is shooting 67.7% from the field and scoring 8.1 points.
• Tyreek Smith leads SMU with 28 blocks to go with 7.5 points and 5.9 rebounds on 60.9% shooting from the field.
• B.J. Edwards has dished out a team-best 69 assists, but only scores 4.5 points a game. His 2.76 assist-to-turnover ratio ranks second in the AAC.
• SMU is among the nation's elite on the defensive end of the floor. The Mustangs rank 3rd in the nation in three-point percentage defense (26.5%) and field goal percentage defense (37.4%), 9th in scoring defense (62.7) and 20th in blocks per game (5.2). They lead the AAC in assists per game, field goal percentage defense, rebound margin, offensive rebounds per game, scoring margin and three-point defense.
• On the offensive end, SMU averages 75.7 points per game on 45.7% shooting and 34.7% on three-point attempts. The Mustangs hand out 15.8 assists per game and post an assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.34.

THE SERIES VS. SMU
• This is meeting No. 18 in the series. Wichita State leads 11-6 with seven straight wins.
• Wichita State is 6-2 all-time against SMU in Wichita with back-to-back-to-back wins. The Mustangs upset the seventh-ranked Shockers in 2018 in a showdown between future NBA guards Shake Milton and Landry Shamet. Wichita State won the following year on a last-second shot. SMU's 2022 visit was its first in three years, due to a combination of unbalanced schedules and COVID-19 cancelations. The Shockers won by 15.
• The Shockers are 4-4 in Dallas. They lost four non-conference games at Moody Coliseum between 1956 and 1995 but have won all four visits since joining the American.
• The series' most-important game took place on a neutral floor in Manhattan, Kan. in the 1965 Midwest Regional Semifinal. Behind 31 points from Kelly Pete, the Shockers knocked off SMU 86-81 on their way to the FInal Four.
• Wichita State's move to The American ended a 22-year series hiatus. The teams split a four-game non-conference series from 1993-96.
• This marks the final regular season meeting as AAC members with SMU departing this summer for the ACC.

RECORD BOOK WATCH
• Quincy Ballard is on pace to shatter the single season school record for field goal percentage.
• Through 19 games Ballard is shooting 70.9% (61-for-86) from the field. The current school record is 61.6% by Steve Grayer set in 1987-88.
• That number would rank 2nd nationally but to qualify players must average 5 FGM per game. Currently Ballard is at 3.3 FGM per game.
• On the defensive end, Ballard is trending towards a top five season blocking shots. He's currently third on the single season blocks per game list.
• Ballard needs just 5 blocks to move into the top 10 on the single season total blocks list.

LEAD GUARDS
• Colby Rogers and Xavier Bell have formed a potent 1-2 scoring attack for Wichita State through 19 games. Rogers leads Wichita State in scoring at 15.5 per game and Bell is right behind at 12.1.
• Rogers ranks 9th in the American in points and 9th in points per game.
• The duo of Rogers and Bell make up 37.8 percent of Wichita State's scoring as they've accounted for 523 points.
• Rogers has scored in double figures in 15 of the first 19 games, and Bell in 13 of the 19. They each have multiple 20-point outings to their name (Rogers - 5, Bell - 3).

COLBY ROG3333333333333333333RS
• Colby Rogers is riding a streak of 19 straight games with at least one made three-pointer to start the season.
• He has multiple three-pointers in 14 of the first 19 games.
• Rogers is attempting 7.05 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 2.68 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 29 total games in his Shocker career. In those 29 games he has 60 blocked shots. Forty-six of those have come in the first 19 games.
• Through 19 games his 46 blocks rank 13th nationally and his 2.42 blocks per game rank 12th.
• He has multiple blocks in all but five games this season.

BOARD OF APPROVAL
• Through the first 19 games of the season Wichita State has been among the nation's top rebounding teams. Wichita State ranks 22nd nationally in rebounds per game, 20th in defensive rebounds per game and 63rd in rebound margin.
• Wichita State has four players averaging 4.5 or more rebounds per game (Dalen Ridgnal - 7.2; Kenny Pohto - 6.7; Quincy Ballard - 6.0; Harlond Beverly - 4.7).
• Wichita State has been outrebounded seven times this season with five of those coming in the last eight games.
• Wichita State has pulled down 40 or more rebounds in 9 of the 18 games, including three games of 50+.

A SHOCKER WIN WOULD...                                                                     
... Make them 9-11 this season.
... Make them 1-6 in AAC play.
... Snap an eight-game losing streak.
... Make them 18-13 all time on Jan. 28.
... Give Paul Mills 115 career coaching victories.
... Run their record to 1,666-1,256 all time.
... Make them 12-6 vs. SMU all time.
... Be their 8th straight win over the Mustangs.

A SHOCKER LOSS WOULD...                                                                     
... Make them 8-12 this season.
... Drop them to 0-6 in AAC play.
... Be their ninth straight loss - the longest since 2000-01.
... Make Paul Mills 8-12 as Wichita State head coach.
... Drop them to 17-14 all time on Jan. 28.
... Drop their record to 1,665-1,257 all time.
... Make them 11-7 all-time vs. SMU.
... Snap a 7-game win streak vs. the Mustangs.

UP NEXT
GAME 21: at TULSA                                              
• Tulsa is 10-8 and under second year head coach Eric Konkol.
• The Shockers won all three meetings with the Golden Hurricane a season ago, which included the AAC Championship.
• Wichita State leads the all-time series, 77-63, and has won the last three meetings.
• Wichita State is 32-37 against the Hurricane in Tulsa all time.