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Capitol Plaza/AM 580 WIBW Holiday Classic
Topeka, Kan. • Lee Arena
Friday, November 23
Missouri Western vs Kansas Wesleyan • 6 p.m.
Washburn vs Missouri Baptist • 8 p.m.
Saturday, November 24
Missouri Western vs Missouri Baptist • 5:30 p.m.
Washburn vs Kansas Wesleyan • 7:30 p.m.
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Where: Topeka, Kan.
Arena: Lee Arena
Capacity: 4,179
Rankings:All teams unranked in major polls
WU Record: 2-1
MBU Record: 2-2
Series Record: WU leads 4-0 |
Last Meeting: WU 79-75 on 12/02/1995 (neutral)
KWU Record: 2-4
Series Record: WU leads 11-9-1
Last Meeting: WU 77-72 OT on 11/15/2006 (home)
Last KWU win: 80-75 in 1951-52
WU Coach Bob Chipman: 631-241 (.724) in his 29th season at WU and overall
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Ichabods set to begin home schedule with Holiday Classic this weekend
The Ichabods will look to keep their two-game winning streak alive as they play their home openers this weekend in the Capitol Plaza/AM 580 WIBW Holiday Classic Friday and Saturday in Lee Arena. Washburn (2-1) will begin with Missouri Baptist (2-2) at 8 p.m. on Friday and then conclude with Kansas Wesleyan (2-4) at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Washburn is 22-1 in home openers and has won 16 straight.
Washburn is coming off a busy week in which it wrapped up its exhibition season and started the regular season with four games in five days. The Ichabods played at Missouri-Kansas City Tuesday and then began the regular season with a loss at No. 4 Kansas. They then played at the Missouri Western Hillyard Classic, beating Lincoln last Friday and Upper Iowa Saturday.
About the Missouri Baptist Spartans
Missouri Baptist enters the weekend classic at 2-2 after dropping a pair of high-scoring games at the McKendree Classic last weekend. MBU scored 90 points Friday against Union (Tenn.) but gave up 111 in the loss. Brandon Bishop led the team that night with 23 points off 8-of-13 shooting and a 4-of-9 effort from 3-point range. As a team, MBU shot 48 percent from 3-point range and 52 percent overall. Bret Wilson scored 19 points.
Series notes
• Washburn leads the all-time series 4-0 with the two teams last meeting on December 2, 1995 in a 79-75 Washburn win in the High Desert Classic in Las Vegas, Nev.
• The two teams also met in the late 1970s and 80s with WU winning those three contests.
About the Kansas Wesleyan Coyotes
Kansas Wesleyan is 2-4 this year after dropping a game at 17th-ranked Bellevue (Neb.) Tuesday night. The Coyotes were led in that game by John Gray with 15 points. Trey Sims entered the week averaging 21.6 points a game to lead the team. Mike Davert begins his first year at KWU and his first year as a college head coach after spending three years coaching high school.
Series notes
• Washburn leads the series 11-9-1. The Ichabods won the last meeting last year, 77-72 in overtime to open the season.
• The two teams met in 2003-04 for a 122-57 Washburn win. That 65-point win was the largest in school history.
• Aside from those two games, all of the meetings came from 1951-52 and before. The one tie was a 51-51 affair in 1915-16.
A winning history
• The Ichabods are 1,336-925 (.591 in 2,261 games) and are in their 103rd season of basketball.
• Starting their 24th season in Lee Arena, the Ichabods are 308-55 (.849).
• In 18 seasons now as an NCAA II school, the Ichabods have 10 NCAA tournament appearances and nine MIAA titles.
• Washburn won the 1986-87 NAIA national championship with a 35-4 record under head coach
Bob Chipman in his eighth year as coach.
• The Ichabods suffered their first losing season in 2005-06 since 1976-77 and first of head coach
Bob Chipman's career. They also failed to advance to the MIAA tournament for the first time since joining the league in 1989-90.
Home openers good to Ichabods at Lee Arena
Washburn is 22-1 in its home opener every season at Lee Arena since it opened in 1984. The Ichabods have won 16 straight with the last and only loss coming in 1990-91 to Friends. They have opened with an NAIA opponent every year since then and this is the first time Missouri Baptist will be WU's first home opponent.
Ichabods picked to finish 9th in conference
Washburn was picked ninth in the MIAA preseason poll voted on by the league head coaches. The Ichabods are coming off an 8-19 season last year in which they finished last in the MIAA at 4-14.
Head coach
Bob Chipman will return for his 29th season at Washburn with four seniors on the team and three returning starters. Joining the six total returning letterwinners will be eight newcomers and a returning redshirt.
Northwest Missouri State was selected to repeat as league champions after sharing the title with Central Missouri last year. The Mules were selected second in the poll. Washburn received 26 points in the voting, one less than No. 8 Truman and four more than 10th-ranked Missouri Southern.
Ichabods finish 2006-07 seventh in the nation in average attendance
For the sixth straight year Washburn finished in the top 10 in NCAA Division II average attendance. With over 29,000 fans watching the Ichabods last year in 11 home games they averaged 2,652 fans per game, the seventh highest total. As a conference the MIAA finished second in the nation with an average of 1,894 fans per game and Washburn was the second highest ranked conference school. The Ichabods' season high attendance was January 3 when then-No. 8 Emporia State came to town and the two played in front of 3,750 fans.
Mario Scott leads the team in scoring
Sophomore guard
Mario Scott has reached double figures in two of three games and leads the team with 12.3 points a game. He's shooting 56 percent from the field. Against Lincoln he had a team-high 18 points off 7-of-10 shooting. Scott leads the team with nine steals and 3.0 per game and he's averaging 2.3 assists, third on the team.
Scott averaged 10.0 points a game as a freshman at Grand Rapids Community College while dishing out 7.8 assists.
Darnell Kimble solid in the post for Ichabods
Junior forward
Darnell Kimble was 6 of 9 from the field Friday against Lincoln for a season-high 14 points. For the season he is averaging 10.3 points a game off 42 per cent shooting. He is also pulling in 4.0 rebounds while blocking 1.0 shots.
Kimble led the Ichabods with 14 points in his Washburn exhibition debut at UNLV and then he scored 11 more at UMKC. He was 5 of 9 from the floor and 4 of 7 from the free throw line against the Rebels and then a perfect 4 of 4 against the Kangaroos and 3 of 3 from the line. Kimble is a transfer from Brown Mackie Community College where he scored 15.0 points a game with 8.0 rebounds last year. He scored in double figures 22 times with six double-doubles while shooting 58 percent from the field.
Byers moves up career blocking record chart
Junior forward
Paul Byers is ninth in school history with 49 career blocks. He needs eight more to move to eighth and 17 more will get him into the top five. He had 17 blocks last year and in 2005-06, his freshman year, he had 31, the eighth highest single-season total at Washburn. Byers begins the year fifth in school history with 0.9 blocks a game.
Byers has one block in three games this year while averaging 7.3 points and 5.0 rebounds. From the field he is 10 of 14 for 77 percent shooting. He has started all three game.
In the exhibition at UNLV he blocked two shots. He also led the team with 14 rebounds, enough to be a career high if it where a regular season game. His current career high is 11 against Barry last year. Byers averaged 9.0 points a game in the two exhibitions this year with 12 against UMKC and six against UNLV.
Meile returns after starting every game last year
Senior guard
Andrew Meile will return for his fourth season after being the only Ichabod to start all 27 games last year. He finished second on the team with 9.1 points a game and second with 2.0 assists. He led the team with 1.3 steals and 48 made 3-pointers.
This year he is scoring 7.0 points a game off 62 percent shooting . He is 5 of 10 behind the 3-point line.
Meile led the Ichabods in an exhibition against UMKC with 19 points and four assists. He scored two points against UNLV to average 10.5 while shooting 50 percent from the field (8 of 16) and 50 percent from 3-point range (5 of 10). He led the team in the two games with seven assists.
Bods and Ends
• Washburn set a school and MIAA record last year with five overtime games. The Ichabods went 3-2 in the games, taking two of them to double overtime.
• WU is 3-17 on the road in the last three years.
• The Ichabods are 30-24 all-time in overtimes with three wins and two losses last year. Washburn is 6-7 all-time in 13 games that went into at least double-overtime.
• The Ichabods reached approximately over 25,000 miles of travel last year dating back to the summer trip to China. That's about 23 miles longer than the equatorial circumference of the Earth.
Up Next
After a busy start to the season the Ichabods will take nine days off before hosting Central Oklahoma December 4 in Lee Arena.
