RICE (6-9, 0-2) at WICHITA STATE (9-6, 1-1)
Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026 | 6:30 p.m. CDT
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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Baby Race Night - The Prill Garwood Baby Race takes center court. Watch as our tiniest Shockers crawl their way to victory in the most adorable competition of the season.
 

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OPENING TIPS
• Wichita State welcomes Rice for its American Conference opener Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m. on ESPN+.
• Wichita State is 21-15 all time when playing on Jan. 7. The 21 wins are tied for 3rd most of any date in program history.
• Wichita State is 4-5 in conference openers since joining the American Conference and had dropped its last four league lid-lifters until defeating UAB on New Years Eve. Wichita State won its conference opener for the first time since 2020.
• Wichita State (8-5) posted a winning non-con record for the 28th consecutive season but were 1-5 in games decided by 6 points or fewer with close setbacks against NET No. 26 Saint Mary's (neutral), No. 40 Boise State (away) and No. 51 Colorado State (neutral).
• In WSU's conference opening road win at UAB, the Shockers trailed by as many as 16, before completing the comeback. It was the largest comeback win since 2023 at Tulsa (16) and tied for the 8th largest comeback in program history.
• In Wichita State's double OT loss at Charlotte, the Shockers led by as many as 18, tied for the 4th largest lead in a loss in program history.
• Through 15 games Wichita State is one of the top offensive rebounding teams in the country at 15.1 per game - good for 6th nationally. That mark would be the best in a single season in school history.
• Will Berg is averaging 12.0 ppg and 10.0 rpg over the last four games on 55.2% FG (16-29) and 84.2% FT (16-19).
• Karon Boyd has scored 20+ in two of the last three games, including a 21-point, 12-rebound double-double at Charlotte.
• Berg (8) and Boyd (5) combined for 13 offensive rebounds at Charlotte. The duo accounts for 40.7% of WSU's offensive rebounds this season.
• Kenyon Giles has scored 10+ points in 14 of the 15 games this season, including six 20-point games. After tying a career high with 26 points on a career-best 8 three-pointers at UAB, he set a new career high in the very next game at Charlotte with 27 points.
• Giles is averaging 26.5 PPG over his last two games. He's shooting 50.0% (20-for-40) from 3-point range over his last 4 games. He's riding a 6-game streak with multiple 3-pointers.
• Giles ranks 6th nationally in total three-pointers made (53) and 11th in three-pointers made per game (3.53). Xavier Bell led the Shockers in made three-pointers last season with 35 for the whole year. Giles needed only 12 games to surpass that total this season.
• Dre Kindell ranks 28th nationally and 1st in the American in assist-turnover ratio at 3.40.
• Three different Shockers have recorded a double-double through the first 15 games: Berg (4), Boyd (3) and TJ Williams.
• The Shockers opened the season ranked No. 128 according to KenPom, but have jumped to 94 after a 9-6 start to the season.

THE SHOCKS, IN SHORT
• Wichita State returns just 0.9 percent of its scoring from a season ago. The Shockers lost their top nine scorers from 2024-25 and 12 total letterwinners. Wichita State  lost seven players to graduation (Xavier Bell, Harlond Beverly, Matej Bosnjak, Bijan Cortes, Ronnie DeGray III, Justin Hill, AJ McGinnis, Zane Meeks) and four to the transfer portal (Quincy Ballard: Mississippi State, Corey Washington: SMU, Yanis Bamba: Maine, Zion Pipkin: South Plains JC).
• Wichita State brings back only two returners that logged minutes in 2024-25: Joy Ighovodja (87 minutes) and walk-on Henry Thengvall (8 minutes). TJ Williams is the only other returner, but he did not see any action after redshirting.

THE SERIES VS. RICE
• This is just the sixth meeting all-time between Wichita State and Rice. Since the Owls joined the American, the two teams have never played a home-and-home series during the regular season.
• The series dates all the way back to the first meeting in 1949 - a Rice victory, 72-66.
• Wichita State and Rice met only once in the regular season a year ago on March 6 in Houston. The Shockers edged the Owls, 63-59.
• In the 2024 regular season meeting, Wichita State set a school record for single game three-point percentage at 63.6%. They were 14-for-22, tying for the second most made three-pointers in a single game.
• The Shockers led by only three at halftime, but outscored the Owls by 18 in the second half to win going away.
• Colby Rogers was a career-best 7-of-9 from beyond the arc for a game-high 25 points.
• The two teams then met just 11 days later in the first round of the American Athletic Conference Championship. Wichita State eliminated the Owls from the tournament with an 88-81 win.
• Rogers had a team-high 22 points behind 5 three-pointers.
• Both teams shot better than 50 percent from the field in a game that featured six ties and 13 lead changes. Rice led by as many as 13 in the first 5:00 minutes of the game, but Wichita State stormed back to its own 13-point lead into halftime.
• Wichita State set an American Athletic Conference championship record, shooting 72.4 percent from the field in the first half to turn a 13-point deficit into a 13-point lead at the break.
• Behind a game-high 21 points from Erik Stevenson, Wichita State raced out to a big lead and never looked back in a 90-61 win on Nov. 25, 2018.
• Wichita State scored 49 points in the first half, taking a 25-point lead into the locker room.
• Rice missed 22-of-26 three-point attempts and finished with 17 turnovers. Wichita State dished out 21 assists to just nine turnovers.
• The two teams combined to shoot 50 free throws.
• Markis McDuffie and Jaime Echenique added 14 points apiece and Dexter Dennis chipped in 11.

SCOUTING RICE
• Led by first year head coach Rob Lanier, Rice enters the matchup at 6-9 and 0-2 in league play.
• Lanier brings more than 30 years of experience as a collegiate coach, including nine seasons as a head coach at Siena, Georgia State and SMU. In his coaching career, he has been on staff for 12 NCAA Tournaments and 20 total postseason bids. Those teams combined for five conference titles, three regular season championships and two tournament crowns, plus five more trips to a league tournament final.
• He came to Rice after a stint at SMU, where he led the Mustangs to a 20-13 record in 2023-24, including an 11-7 in the American Athletic Conference and the second seed in the AAC Championship.  SMU saw a 10-game improvement in its overall record and more than doubled its win total in the conference this past season.
• Lanier arrived at SMU after posting a 53-30 record in three seasons at Georgia State, capped by a Sun Belt tournament championship in 2022 and a berth in the NCAA Championship.  He led the Panthers to the SBC tournament championship game in each of his last two years.
• Lanier added 10 newcomers to the roster this season, but welcomed back six returners - just one starter.
• The Owls were picked to finish 12th in the American Conference Preseason Coaches Poll.
• Rice is led by Prairie View A&M transfer Nick Anderson with 13.9 points and 3.5 rebounds, while shooting 39.3 percent from three-point range. He's also converting 91.8 percent of his free throw attempts.
• Trae Broadnax adds 13.5 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.6 assists.
• Jalen Smith rounds out the double figure scorers at 11.9 points per game. He leads the Owls in assists (40) and three-point shooting (40.8 percent).

KG THE BUCKET
• Kenyon Giles has six 20-point games this season after dropping a career-high 26 points at UAB on Dec. 31. Twenty-four of those 26 came from beyond the arc when he knocked down a career-high 8 three-pointers. His 8 three-pointers tied for the second most in a single game in school history, one shy of the school record held by Jason Perez's 9. The last Shocker to make 8 three-pointers in a game was Joe Ragland 14 years ago on Dec. 4, 2011.
• Giles has scored 271 total points this season - 150 of those have come after halftime. The 5-10 guard scores 55.4 percent of his points in the second half. He has scored fewer than 10 points after halftime just seven times this season, which includes one scoreless second half vs. Prairie View A&M. Against PVAMU he scored all 15 of his points in the first half.
• He had three 20-point games in November, becoming the first Shocker since Markis McDuffie in 2018 to have three 20-point performances in the month of November.

GRAY AREA
• In Wichita State's nine wins, Michael Gray Jr. is averaging 10.1 points on 47.7% shooting (21-for-44) from three-point range and 12-of-13 (92.3%) at the free throw line. Conversely, in the Shockers' six losses Gray is averaging just 6.3 points on 32.6% (14-for-43) from the field and 7-for-28 (25.0%) from beyond the arc.
• Gray went through a slump during the three games in the Bahamas, scoring just 6 total points on 2-of-19 shooting. In the seven games since, he's averaging 10.1 points on 46.0% (23-for-50) shooting from the field and 44.1% (15-for-34) from three-point range.

A GOOD COMEBACK AND NOT SO GOOD COMEBACK
• In Wichita State's conference opening win at UAB on Dec. 31, the Shockers trailed by as many as 16 in the game before completing the comeback for a 5-point win. It marked the largest come-from-behind win since Jan. 14, 2023 at home vs. Tulsa when the Shockers also came back from 16 down.
• The 16-point deficit tied for the 8th largest in a comeback win in program history.
• Three days later Wichita State found itself on the wrong side of a giant comeback. The Shockers led by as many as 18 in the second half on Jan. 3 at Charlotte, before the Niners mounted a come-from-behind win in double overtime.
• Wichita State's 18-point lead tied for the 4th largest in a loss in program history. It was the 3rd largest second half lead in a loss in program history.

FROM BEHIND THE ARC AND BEYOND
• Wichita State's offense was lethal from three-point range in the wins over Loyola, Prairie View and Mount Marty. The Shockers splashed in a new school record 16 three-pointers in the win over Loyola Chicago on Nov. 13, converting 50 percent of their attempts for the game.
• Wichita State has made 10+ three-pointers in five of the first 15 games this season. Last season's team had two all season.
• Kenyon Giles is spearheading the long range bombing. He ranks 6th in the NCAA in total 3-pointers made (53), 11th in three-point field goals per game (3.53) and 37th in three-point percentage (42.7%).
• At the current pace, Giles is on track to break the single season school record for three-pointers made per game (3.53). His 8.27 three-point attempts per game would be the second-most in a single season at Wichita State.
• Giles was one of only five players in the country this season to make at least 20 three-pointers through the first five games of the season.
• He is the first Shocker in program history to knock down 20 three-pointers in the first five games of a season.
• To put that into perspective, Giles needed only 12 games to pass the Shockers' three-point leader from a season ago (Xavier Bell - 35).

CRASHIN THE GLASS
• Wichita State ranks 7th nationally in offensive rebound percentage at 40.5%. The Shockers average 15.1 offensive rebounds a game, which ranks 6th in the country. At the current rate, that average would easily break the single season program record. The school record was set back in 1995-96 at 13.8 offensive rebounds per game.

MILESTONE WATCH
• Karon Boyd scored his 1,000th career point on Jan. 3 at Charlotte and played his 100th career game on Nov. 26 vs. Saint Mary's. He needs 11 steals to reach 100 and 2 rebounds to reach 700.
• Kenyon Giles needs 9 points to reach 1,500 career points. He played his 100th career game on Nov. 8 vs. Prairie View A&M. He needs 45 assists to reach 250 career assists.
• Michael Gray Jr. is 13 assists away from 100 for his career. He is 17 games shy of his 100th career game.
• Emmanuel Okorafor needs 7 rebounds to reach 200 for his career.
• Jaret Valencia is 94 points shy of 600 and 7 blocks away from 100 career blocked shots.

ON THIS DATE: JANUARY 7
• 1927 – The Harlem Globetrotters played their first game in Hinckley, Ill. Since that time, they have contributed greatly to the popularity of basketball throughout the world.
• 2015 – Wichita State held Bradley to just 43 points in a 63-43 win on the way to a 17-1 record in MVC play and a regular season championship. Darius Carter scored a game-high 19 points and Fred VanVleet dished out 9 assists.
• 2018 – Wichita State trounced South Florida, 95-57, in the first meeting as AAC members. Wichita State shot 62.7% from the field and 60% (12-for-20) from beyond the arc. The 60% three-point percentage was 6th best in school history.

A SHOCKER WIN WOULD...                                                                     
... Make them 10-6 this season and 2-1 in American Conference play.
... Improve their record to 8-1 at home this season.
... Move them to 5-1 all time vs. Rice and be their fifth straight win over the Owls.
... Make Paul Mills 44-40 as Wichita State head coach.
... Give Mills 150 career coaching victories.
... Run their record to 1,701-1,285 all time.

A SHOCKER LOSS WOULD...                                                                     
... Drop them to 9-7 this season and 1-2 in American Conference play.
... Make them 7-2 at home this season.
... Move them to 4-2 all time vs. Rice and snap a four-game win streak vs. the Owls.
... Make Paul Mills 43-41 as Wichita State head coach.
... Lower Mills' career record to 149-125.
... Drop their record to 1,700-1,286 all time.

GAME 17: NORTH TEXAS                                                               
• Wichita State leads the all time series with North Texas, 26-15, including a 16-6 mark in Wichita.
• The Mean Green have won each of the last four meetings, including three straight in Koch Arena.
• North Texas enters the matchup at 10-5 and 1-1 in American Conference play.
• Daniyal Robinson is in his first season as the head coach at UNT and owns a career record of 74-47.