Opening Tip
•     The Washburn Ichabods men's basketball will be back in action on Saturday as they will wrap up non-conference play with Saint Mary on Nov. 28 at 3 p.m. on Schendel Court at Lee Arena.
•    The Ichabods are coming off a 85-78 win over Peru State improving to 3-1 on the season.
•    Saint Mary is coming off a 86-61 loss to Southwestern last time out on Nov. 24.
•    Washburn is 1-0 all-time against the Spires with the only meeting coming on Nov. 19, 2009 in Topeka in a 73-50 win by the Ichabods.
•    The Spires, who received votes in the latest NAIA national poll, defeated Missouri Western 84-73 in a regular season game on Nov. 21 in St. Joseph.
•    Washburn opens MIAA play with four of its first five games on the road starting on Dec. 2 at Fort Hays State before a Dec. 5 game at Nebraska-Kearney.
•    Washburn will open its MIAA home slate with Southwest Baptist on Dec. 12 before having road games at Pittsburg State on Dec. 16 and then at Missouri Southern on Dec. 19.

 Ichabods on Radio
Washburn games will be broadcast on KTPK radio with Jake Lebahn and Pat Strathman calling the action. Game will also be streamed live on the wusports.com website by following the listen live links on the men's basketball schedule page.

 The Coaches
Washburn Ichabod head basketball coach Bob Chipman 
•     is in his 37th season at the helm of the Ichabods.
•     a 1973 graduate of Kansas State earning both his undergraduate and master's degree in Manhattan.
•     is 776-331 overall.
•     has 534 wins since the Ichabods joined the MIAA, the most of any conference school since the 1989-90 season.
•    is the MIAA's all-time winningest coach by victories with 534.
•     has led the Ichabods to 12 MIAA regular season titles and a MIAA-coaching tops of five postseason MIAA tournament championships.
•     has led the Ichabods to 12 NCAA National Tournament appearances.
•     in home games, he is 454-86 going 403-75 in Lee Arena.
•     is second in all-time coaching victories in active NCAA Division II coaches.
•     his 776 coaching wins is 23rd in all-time NCAA coaches at all levels.
•     led the Ichabods to the 1987 NAIA National Championship and a 2001 NCAA National game, which was later vacated by Kentucky Wesleyan. 
•     Chipman played for legendary coach Jack Hartman earning two letters.

Saint Mary head basketball coach Troy Brown . . .
•    is 26-11 in his second season as the Spires' head coach.
•    led the Spires to a 22-9 record in 2014-15 as the interim head coach.
•     was a three-year assistant coach starting in 2011-12 and has been 86-36 while associated with the Spires team.

  Last Time Out For The Ichabods
Washburn 85, Peru State 78 -- Nov. 24, 2015
TOPEKA, Kan. -- A 17-4 run over midway through the second half propelled the Washburn Ichabod men's basketball team to an 85-78 win over Peru State on Tuesday night on Schendel Court inside Lee Arena. 
After trailing for 17:33 of the first half as the Bobcats took a 44-38 lead into the halftime break after hitting 7 of 14 3-pointers and leading by as many as 11, Washburn outscored the Bobcats 24-12 over the first 9:27 of the second half to take a 62-56 lead. 
Washburn (3-1) would built its lead to seven at 70-63 before the Bobcats came back cutting the lead to two at 73-71 with 2:28 to play on a jumper by Corday Sims, who scored a game-high 28 points. After a jumper by Tyas Martin and a lay up by Jeremy Lickteig the lead went back to six with 1:46 remaining.
Washburn would then hit 8 of 9 free throws in the final 57 seconds to pick up head coach Bob Chipman's 776th career win.
Javion Blake led the Ichabods with a season-high 18 points adding four rebounds and four assists hitting 8 of 9 free throws in the win. Lickteig recorded 17 points with a career-high eight rebounds. Brady Skeens had 14 points adding seven rebounds and Cameron Wiggins had nine points and a career-high seven assists.
Washburn finished 28 of 68 overall from the field for a 43 percent average while Peru State (3-5) was 28 of 63 for a 44 percent average. After hitting 7 of 14 from deep in the first half, the Bobcats were 0 of 9 in the second half. Washburn also outrebounded the Bobcats 45 to 40 recording 22 offensive rebounds leading to 19 second chance points and outscored Peru State 44 to 28 in the paint. 

 About Saint Mary
•    The Spires are 4-2 and 1-1 in the KCAC and received votes in the latest NAIA national poll.
•    They are coming off an 86-61 loss to Southwestern College on Nov. 24.
•    Grant Greenburg, a transfer from Northwest Missouri, leads the team averaging 27.0 points per game hitting 52 of 91 shots from the field and 49 of 58 free throws … he is ranked sixth in NAIA Division II in points per game.
•    The Spires also are ranked 11th in the nation in scoring averaging 94.6 points per game while allowing 83.0 points per game.
•    They have hit 52 of 133 3-point attempts and shoot 78 percent from the free throw line as a team hitting 111 of 143 attempts.

 Series History with Saint Mary
•    Washburn leads the all-time series 1-0.
•    The Ichabods won the only meeting 73-50 on Nov. 19, 2009 in Topeka.

 Last meeting with Saint Mary
(Nov. 19, 2009) TOPEKA, Kan. -- The Washburn Ichabods used a balance effort to improve to 2-0 on the season with a 73-50 win over Saint Mary in Lee Arena. 
Washburn trailed only once at 7-6 in the game while holding the Spires to 31 percent shooting in the opening frame building a lead as many as 14 in the first 20 minutes of action.
Leading by eight in the second half at 37-29, the Ichabods put together a 17-4 run over the next six-plus minutes to pull away from Saint Mary en route to a 23-point win.
Washburn placed three in double figures with William McNeill coming off the bench to score a team-high 13 points. De'Andre Washington and Logan Stutz each scored 12 points and Stutz also recorded his first Washburn double double in adding 13 rebounds with nine coming on the offensive glass. The 13 rebounds was also a career high for Stutz.
Eric Avant and Jeb Greenberg each had 14 to pace the Spires attack.
Washburn shot 41 percent for the game including an 18 of 39 (46 percent) performance in the second half. Saint Mary was 18 of 55 for the game for a 33 percent average.
Washburn recorded 18 assists on its 31 field goals with Virgil Philistin recording six. Nate Wallace added four steals in the game as the Ichabods forced 21 Spire turnovers leading to 20 points off turnovers for Washburn. The Ichabods also outscored the Spires 42 to 12 in the paint. 

 Last time out for Saint Mary
(Nov. 24, 2015) Saint Mary was held to 30 percent shooting as they fell 86-61 to Southwestern College.
Grant Greenberg led the Spires with 30 points going 12 of 23 from the field adding 10 rebounds and three assists playing 37 minutes.
The team hit 6 of 22 3-pointers and 11 of 18 free throws and were outrebounded 48 to 40.
 
 Ichabod basketball history
•     The Ichabods are 1,508-1,037-2 (.592) all-time in the 111th year in the program's history.
•     Washburn is the eighth-winningest program in NCAA Division II history by victories.
•     Washburn is the winningest MIAA program since the 1989-90 season with an overall record of 533-250 since joining the conference and the NCAA.
•    The Ichabods have recorded 25 20-win seasons and they have one 30-win seasons after going 35-4 during the 1986-87 NAIA Championship season.
•    Washburn has won 21 conference championships including 10 MIAA titles.
•    Washburn has received 12 NCAA Tournament bids going to three Elite Eight's appearing in the 2001 NCAA National Championship game.

 Home sweet home
•     The Ichabods are 403-75 (.848) all-time in Lee Arena.
•     The 2015-16 season marks the 31st season of play in Lee Arena.
•     The Ichabods recorded a school-best 28-game winning streak from Nov. 19, 1993 to Feb. 8, 1995 in Lee Arena.

 Up next
•    Washburn opens MIAA play with four of its first five games on the road starting on Dec. 2 at Fort Hays State before a Dec. 5 game at Nebraska-Kearney.