HALL OF FAME CLASSIC
SAINT LOUIS (2-1) vs. WICHITA STATE (4-0)
Friday, Nov. 22 | 9:30 p.m. CT
Kansas City, Mo. | T-Mobile Center
 
TV: Peacock and the NBC Sports FAST Channel with Jake Eisenberg & Jess Settles
Radio: KEYN 103.7 FM with Mike Kennedy & Bob Hull
 

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The game is available via the Peacock app for all Peacock subscribers. Additionally, the NBC Sports FAST Channel is available for free on all major FAST channel distributors, including the following devices and smart TV platforms: Roku Channel, PlutoTV, Samsung TV, Amazon Fire, Fubo, Xumo, Sling Freestream, and Freeve.
 

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OPENING TIPS
• Wichita State and Saint Louis meet in the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City for the 2024 Hall of Fame Classic Friday night.
• Saint Louis holds a 41-24 lead in the all-time series, but Wichita State has won the last six meetings.
• The matchup will feature two of the more experienced teams in college basketball this season. According to KenPom, Wichita State ranks 10th in experience and SLU is 14th.
• Saint Louis ranks Top 10 nationally in three-pointers made and three-point attempts per game.
• Wichita State is 3-3 all time on Nov. 22.
• Wichita State is No. 93 in the lastest KenPom rankings.
• Wichita State moved to 4-0 with a 70-66 win over Monmouth Monday night, behind 20 points from Corey Washington.
• Justin Hill leads the team in points (17.5 ppg) and assists (5.0 apg), and is second in rebounding (5.5 rpg) through the first four games of the season.
• The Houston native scored a career-high 31 in the season opener at Western Kentucky. His 31 points were the most ever in a Shocker debut.
• Harlond Beverly ranks 1st in the AAC and 31st nationally in steals per game (2.75).
• Wichita State ranks 12th nationally in free throws made per game (21.8) and 18th in free throw attempts per game (29.3).
• Wichita State returns three starters and seven letterwinners from the 2023-24 roster, including three of its top five scorers.
• Fifty-one (51.0) percent of the scoring from last year's team is back for the Shockers, led by second leading scorer Harlond Beverly (11.2 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 3.2 APG).
• An experienced backcourt features a total of 353 combined starts between Beverly, Xavier Bell (11.3 PPG), Bijan Cortes (4.3 PPG) and transfers Justin Hill (Georgia) and AJ McGinnis (Lipscomb).
• Quincy Ballard shattered the single season school record for field goal percentage and also had top five marks in blocks per game and total blocks in 2023-24.
• Ballard moved into a tie for 9th on the Wichita State career blocks list last Thursday vs. UNI. He's on pace to shatter the WSU career record for blocks per game at 2.00.
• Wichita State was picked to finish 4th in the American Athletic Conference Preseason Coaches Poll - its highest projected finish since 2021. The league's coaches project UAB to win the conference.

WE > ME
• With the late arrival of Matej Bošnjak to the roster this summer, Wichita State had no scholarships remaining. Enter redshirt senior Harlond Beverly. Beverly volunteered to give his scholarship to Bošnjak and classify as a walk-on during his final season of collegiate basketball.
• In an interview with the Wichita Eagle, Beverly said: "I'm just grateful to be in this position where I can play Division I basketball while getting my Bachelor's and working toward my Master's degree. It's really just a blessing to be in college. I've been to two really good schools and that's really going to be helpful for my future, so I understand how helpful college can be. If I can help someone else get a full-ride scholarship, like one of my teammates, then I don't mind being the one to sacrifice when it's beneficial to our team."
• Head Coach Paul Mills said in that same interview: "In order to be a part of it, you have to make sacrifices and this is a pretty substantial one on his part. I would tell you that he not only volunteered to do it, he was eager to do it, to be honest with you."

OPENING NIGHT
• Wichita State has won 75 percent of its season openers all time (89-29, .754) and over 80 percent (65-15, .813) in the modern era.
• Wichita State is 21-1 in home openers since Charles Koch Arena's 2003 renovation. The lone loss came in 2018 to Louisiana Tech.
• Wichita State is starting its 69th season at the Roundhouse (1955-Pr.). Shocker teams have lost just eight home openers during that span (61-8, .884).
• Forty seasons ago (Nov. 30, 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 13 straight games that happen to fall on a Monday. The Shockers were 1-0 on Mondays a season ago and haven't lost on a Monday since Nov. 22, 2010 against UConn in the Maui Invitational.
• Since 2017, Wichita State has played just five games on a Monday.
• The Shockers win at WKU and Monday's win vs. Monmouth were the first of four Monday games in 2024-25.

SCOUTING SAINT LOUIS
• Saint Louis begins Year 1 of the Josh Schertz era.
• Schertz comes to Saint Louis after a three-year run at Indiana State. He led the Sycamores to a 32-7 record in 2023-24 and a magical run to the NIT championship game.
• Prior to his stint at Indiana State, Schertz spent 13 seasons at Lincoln Memorial, where he led the Railsplitters to 10 NCAA Division II national tournaments, including an appearance in the 2016 NCAA Division II national championship game.
• Schertz is 405-110 in 17 seasons as a collegiate head coach. His .787 winning percentage entering the season ranked in the top 10 among all active coaches in the NCAA.
• Schertz, the 2024 MVC Coach of the Year, turned around the Indiana State program and led the Sycamores to their best season in several decades in 2023-24 as ISU captured its first Missouri Valley Conference regular-season title since 2000.
• Indiana State fell in the championship game of the 2024 Missouri Valley Conference Tournament and was selected as a No. 1 seed for the NIT after just missing out on an at-large bid to the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship.
• Saint Louis returns just three letterwinners off the 2023-24 team (Larry Hughes II, Gibson Jimerson and Kellen Thames).
• Jimerson continues to climb the all-time scoring chart at SLU, sitting in 3rd with nearly 1,900 career points. Among active NCAA DI players, Jimerson leads with more than 320 career made three-pointers.
• Of the 10 newcomers on the roster, seven come by way of the transfer portal: Kalu Anya (Brown), Robbie Avila (Indiana State), Kilian Brockhoff (UC Santa Barbara), AJ Casey (Miami), Josiah Dotzler (Creighton), Kobe Johnson (West Virginia), Isaiah Swope (Indiana State).
• After taking the college basketball world by storm last year, it's no surprise Avila is collecting quite a list of preseason honors.
• Avila has been named a preseason AP honorable-mention All-American, First Team preseason All-Conference by the Atlantic 10, and named to preseason Watch Lists for the Naismith Trophy, the Wooden Award and the Kareem Abdul-Jabaar Center of the Year.
• Avila averaged 17.4 points, 6.6 rebounds and 4.1 assists for Indiana State his sophomore year, shooting 53.6 percent from the field and 39.4 percent from the arc while draining 61 3-pointers. He accumulated 1,007 points in two years for the Sycamores.
• SLU was picked to finish fourth in the Preseason Atlantic 10 poll. Joining Avila on the preseason all-conference first team was Jimerson. Swope picked up third team honors.
• Through the first three games, four Billikens average 14.7 points per game or more, led by Jimerson's 22.3 per game. Swope is right behind at 18.3 points per game.

ALL-TIME SERIES VS. SAINT LOUIS
• Saint Louis leads the all-time series, 41-24 in a series that dates back to 1936.
• From 1946 to 1954, Saint Louis won 16 straight matchups. The Billikens are 24-8 against the Shockers in St. Louis.
• In 65 all time meetings, the two programs have only met on a neutral court one time prior to Friday night, and that came last season in Conway, S.C., at the Myrtle Beach Invitational.
• Wichita State enters the game having won the last six with the last matchup on campus coming on Dec. 6, 2016 in Charles Koch Arena. Wichita State dominated that contest, winning by 30 behind a balanced scoring attack.
• The leading scorer was Rashard Kelly with 15 points. He also pulled down eight of Wichita State's 52 rebounds.
• Saint Louis made just 15 total field goals in that 2016 matchup, eight of those coming from beyond the arc. The Billikens shot just 25.9 percent overall.
• All but eight of the games between the two schools came as members of the Missouri Valley Conference.
• From 2013-15, Ron Baker had the Billikens' number, scoring 54 points in three games, including 22 at Saint Louis in 2013.
• Wichita State handed the Billikens an 88-69 defeat in the third place game of the Myrtle Beach Invitational in Conway, S.C.
• Led by Colby Rogers' game-high 28 points and Kenny Pohto's 23-point, 12-rebound double-double, the Shockers led for all but 2:38 of game time.
• Wichita State dominated the glass, outrebounding Saint Louis, 50-31. The Billikens grabbed only five offensive rebounds on the night.

HILL'S HOT START
• Through the first two games senior guard Justin Hill  has scored 48 points, the most by a Shocker since Jason Perez scored 54 against McNeese State and Prairie View A&M in 1999. Hill is just the third Shocker to score 40 over the first two games since 2000, joining Markis McDuffie (40, 2018) and Tyson Etienne (40, 2020).

NON-CONFERENCE NOTABLES
• Wichita State could potentially face two first-time foes in the non-conference slate (East Tennessee State and Wake Forest).
• The Shockers will play three teams ranked in the Top 60 of KenPom's preseason rankings (vs. Florida - 28; vs. Wake Forest - 44; K-State - 49; Minnesota - 59).
• Wichita State has won nine of its last 12 non-conference true road games, dating back to the 2019 NIT run. The Shockers have two true non-conference road games in 2024 (WKU and DePaul).

MILESTONE WATCH
• Quincy Ballard is 6 blocks away from 100 in his Wichita State career.
• Xavier Bell needs 60 points to reach 1,000 for his collegiate career.
• Harlond Beverly is 106 points shy of 1,000 career points.
• Justin Hill has 1,437 career points. He needs 63 points to reach 1,500. His 55 assists shy of 500 for his career.
• AJ McGinnis is 150 points away from reaching 1,000 for his career.

HEATING UP
• After scoring just six points in his Wichita State debut at Western Kentucky, Corey Washington has found his groove. The junior has scored 10 or more in each of the last three games, including a game-high 20 vs. Monmouth. Washington is averaging 17.7 points per game on 51.4 percent shooting over the last three games.

MONMOUTH LEFTOVERS
• Wichita State improved to 2-1 all-time vs. Monmouth.
• The Shockers are now 7-3 when playing on Nov. 18.
• Wichita State was outrebounded for the second time this season. They were minus-7 on the glass - a season worst.
• Wichita State set season lows in three-pointers made (2), three-point percentage (13.3%), rebounds (34), blocks (2) and free throw percentage (64.5%).
• Corey Washington set a season high for the second straight game, scoring a game-high 20 points.
• Justin Hill reached double figures for a fourth straight game, finishing with 11 points.
• Matej Bosnjak recorded his first career start and game in double figures with 12 points.
• Harlond Beverly reached double figures for a third time this season, scoring a season-high 15 points.
• Xavier Bell tied a career high with 4 steals to go with 12 points on a perfect 8-for-8 at the free throw line. His 8 made free throws tied a career high.

OLD TIMERS
• With COVID still impacting eligibility, several schools around the country have multiple student-athletes on their rosters playing in their fifth, sixth and even seventh seasons. Wichita State is tied for second in the country with seven student-athletes in their fifth year or higher of collegiate basketball.

A SHOCKER WIN WOULD...                                                                     
... Make them 5-0 for the 17th time in program history.
... Be their first win on a neutral court this season.
... Make Paul Mills 20-19 as Wichita State head coach.
... Give Mills 126 career coaching victories.
... Run their record to 1,677-1,264 all time.
... Improve their record to 25-41 all-time vs. Saint Louis and be their 7th straight win vs. the Billikens.

A SHOCKER LOSS WOULD...                                                                     
... Be their first loss of the season.
... Make them 0-1 on a neutral court this season.
... Make Paul Mills 19-20 as Wichita State head coach.
... Lower Mills' career record to 125-104.
... Drop their record to 1,676-1,265 all time.
... Make them 24-42 all-time vs. SLU and snap a 6-game win streak vs. the Billikens.

GAME 6: vs. MINNESOTA (ESPN EVENTS INVITE)                                                                    
• Wichita State is 3-2 all time vs. Minnesota, but 0-1 against the Gophers on a neutral court.
• Minnesota won the most recent meeting on Nov. 25, 1995 in Hawaii.
• Minnesota is led by fourth-year head coach Ben Johnson.