Opening Tip
•     The Washburn Ichabods men's basketball team will open the MIAA Tournament playing host to Fort Hays State on Monday night on Schendel Court at Lee Arena at 7 p.m.
•    The winner of the first round game will take on MIAA regular season champion Northwest Missouri at noon in Kansas City inside Municipal Auditorium on Thursday.
•    The Ichabods (15-15, 10-9 MIAA) are coming off a 63-48 win over Pittsburg State on Saturday night in Lee Arena.
•    The Tigers are (16-12, 9-10 MIAA) lost last time out at Northeastern State 79-77.
•    The Ichabods and Tigers split the two regular season meetings with Washburn winning in Topeka 68-58 on Jan. 31 while the Tigers won in Hays 87-79 on Feb. 18.
•    It is the second straight season the Ichabods have been the No. 8 seed in the MIAA Tournament.
•    All-time the Ichabods are 2-2 as the No. 8 team.
•    Washburn lost to Northeastern State last season in the MIAA Tournament in Topeka as the No. 8 seed 79-75.
•    All-time the Ichabods are 32-17 and have won an MIAA-best five tournament championships.
•    Ichabod head coach is 32-17 as well all-time in the MIAA Tournament, which is the most wins by any MIAA coach in the tournament.
•    In MIAA Tournament games in Topeka, Washburn is 19-4.
•    Against Fort Hays State, the Ichabods are 1-0 with the only meeting coming in the MIAA semifinals on March 3, 2012 in a 67-54 win in Kansas City.
•    The Ichabods won their 400th game last time out in Lee Arena in the win over Pittsburg State last time out. The Ichabods overall are 400-74 since the first game during the 1983-84 season.
•    Kyle Wiggins became the 22nd person to go over the 1,000-point mark for his career against the Mules and he now has 1,240 points in four years … his point total is 11th all-time at Washburn … next on the chart is Eric Carter who scored 1,241 points from 1997-2001 which ranks 10th on the all-time scoring chart at Washburn.
•    Kyle Wiggins went over the 100 career 3-point mark against Fort Hays State … he ranks 10th overall in 3-pointers at Washburn with 114.
•    Alex North became the 23rd Ichabod to reach 1,000 for his career against Fort Hays State and he enters the game with the ESU with 1,059 points which is 16th all-time at Washburn.
•    With Kyle Wiggins and Alex North going over the 1,000-point mark in a career it marked the first time Washburn had two different players go over the 1,000-point mark in the same season.
•    The Ichabods have 30 regular season games scheduled this season and also had three exhibition games against NCAA Division I members Kansas, Kansas State and Oklahoma to have 33 games before the MIAA Tournament starts.
•    The Ichabods have used 14 different starting line ups this season.
    
 Bod Notes
•    Alex North has recorded 15 double doubles in his career at Washburn with his last one coming against Northeastern State on Jan. 24 … he scored his 1,000th career point against Fort Hays State and has played in 116 games with 83 starts … he went over the 650-rebound mark for his career against Emporia State … he has 1,059 career points averaging 9.1 ppg in his career and 6.0 rpg … his 117 career 3-pointers at Washburn are ninth all-time … his 698 rebounds are fifth all-time at Washburn … he has reached double figure scoring in 49 games as an Ichabod … he also ranks sixth in minutes played (2,895), 14th in free throws made (244), eighth in games started (83), 20th in steals (83) and 23rd in assists (196) as an Ichabod …  he is one of 10 Ichabods to have recorded at least 1,000 points and 500 rebounds and with four more assists he would become the eighth Ichabod to record 1,000 points and 200 assists.
•    Kyle Wiggins has averaged 10.7 ppg in 116 games making 74 starts … he went over the 1,000-point mark against Central Missouri … he went over the 250-rebound mark against Northeastern State and for his career and has 265 and he went over the 200-assist mark in Hawaii and has 251 for his career … his 1,240 career points is 11th all-time at Washburn … he became just the seventh Ichabod to record at least 1,000 points and have 200 assists in a career  … he ranks fifth in minutes (2,999) at Washburn as well.
•    Ichabod junior Christian Ulsaker is averaging 6.5 points with 3.8 rebounds a game this season … he recorded his first career double double against Peru State with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
•    The Ichabods have hit at least one 3-pointer in 340 straight games … the last game the Ichabods did not hit a 3-pointer was Dec. 30, 2003 at Missouri Western … the Ichabods have not in a 3-pointer in only five games since the 3-point line came into existence prior to the 1986-87 season - a total of 878 of 883 games played at Washburn.
•    Algie Key had a season-high 25 points in the loss at Nebraska-Kearney adding three assists and three steals in 33 minutes … he hit a season-high 11 of 14 free throw attempts against Emporia State  in the first meeting … he is averaging 8.5 points and 3.8 rebounds a game this season … he had a career-high eight assists against Fort Hays State in the second meeting
•    Turon Parker is scoring 5.3 ppg this season adding 43 assists and 20 steals in his first season as an Ichabod … he had a season-high eight rebounds against Tabor.
•    Kevin House leads the team with 65 assists this season while adding 5.5 points and 2.0 rebounds per game … he had a career-high seven rebounds against Pittsburg State last time out … he is 53 of 62 from the free throw line this season for a team-high 86 percent and had a career-high 16 points against Northeastern State out on Feb. 14.
•    Jeremy Lickteig scored a career-high 19 points against Northwest Indian College going 9 of 10 from the field … he made his first career start against BYU-Hawaii … he tied a career-high with four rebounds against FHSU in the second game and tied a career-high with three blocks against Pitt State in the last game.
•    Korey Fisher has hit 31 of 92 3-pointers this season and has averaged 6.4 ppg this year … his is also 31 of 38 from the free throw line for an 82 percent average.
•    The Ichabods are 202 of 571 from 3-point range this season with Kyle Wiggins hitting a team-high 47 of 113 attempts for a 42 percent average … Alex North has hit 31 of 97 attempts and Andy Wilson has hit 33 of 84 attempts … Ichabod opponents are 232 of 615 from 3-point range this season.
•    Brady Skeens recorded a season-high 14 points in his second game of the season against Tabor after having his planned redshirt pulled prior to the Rockhurst game and recorded a season-high four blocks against Central Oklahoma.
•    David Salach has started 10 games this season has averaged 4.0 points a game this season and he is averaging 4.0 rebounds per game in MIAA play … he had a career-high 13 points against Central Oklahoma hitting six field goals and had a career-high two steals against Emporia State in the second meeting.
•    Washburn is 433 of 634 from the free throw line for a 68 percent average while its opponents are 452 of 632 hitting 72 percent of their charity stripe attempts … in MIAA play the Ichabods have improved to 286 of 398 from the line for a 72 percent average while opponents are 272 of 382 in MIAA play for a 72 percent average.
•    Washburn is +2.3 in rebounding margin and have been outrebounded in 10 games this season.
•    The Ichabods have outscored their opponents 982 to 884 in the first half of games and each team has scored 1,157 points in the second half of games.

 Ichabods on Radio
Washburn games will be broadcast on AM580 WIBW radio with Jake Lebahn calling the action and color commentary from Pat Strathman. 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 36th season at the helm of the Ichabods.
•     a 1973 graduate of Kansas State earning both his undergraduate and master's degree in Manhattan.
•     is 772-329 overall.
•     has 531 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 531.
•     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 451-85 going 400-74 in Lee Arena.
•     is second in all-time coaching victories in active NCAA Division II coaches.
•     his 772 coaching wins is 22nd 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.

Fort Hays State head basketball coach Mark Johnson
•      is 284-126 in his career, now in his 14th season at Fort Hays State. 
•      Johnson became just the third coach in FHSU history to reach 200 wins in men's basketball on February 5, 2011 with a win over Washburn in Hays. 
•      He joined Cade Suran (257) and Bill Morse (235) as the only coaches to reach 200 wins at FHSU. 
•      Johnson is the second-fastest to 200 wins among the three, as Morse reached the mark in just 241 games, while Johnson did it in 285 games. 
•      He is 12-9 against the Ichabods.

 Last Time Out For The Ichabods
Washburn 63, Pittsburg State 48 • Feb. 28, 2015
TOPEKA, Kan. -- The Washburn Ichabods wrapped up a first round MIAA Tournament home game after beating Pittsburg State 63-48 on Saturday in Lee Arena. Washburn will host Fort Hays State at 7 p.m. on Monday. 
In a close game in which neither team led by more than five points in the first half, Washburn (15-15, 10-9 MIAA) used a 7-0 burst to take at 15-11 lead halfway through the frame before the Gorillas cut it back to a 1-point Ichabod lead at 20-19 with 5:06 left in the half. Washburn would continue to lead the rest of the half taking a 26-24 advantage into the halftime locker room. Washburn hit 9 of 28 shots in the first half while the Gorillas were 11 of 30 overall, but 0 of 8 from 3-point range while Washburn was 3 of 11 and hit three more free throws.
Coming out of the break in the second half, the Gorillas (16-11, 12-7 MIAA) scored the first six points of the half building a 30-26 lead and a 32-28 lead before a 3-pointer by Andy Wilson cut the lead to one and the Ichabods regained the lead at 33-32 after a tip in by David Salach. After the teams traded baskets, the score would be tied at 39 with 11:58 to play before a 12-0 run by the Ichabods over the next 4:08 put Washburn up 12 and the Gorillas would not get any closer than nine the rest of the way as the Ichabods would go on to lead by as many as 18 in the half leading to the 15 point win.
Korey Fisher and Kyle Wiggins led a balanced Ichabod attack with 13 points and Wilson scored 12 hitting four 3-pointers. Alex North scored eight with six rebounds. Kevin House had nine points and a team high seven rebounds and dished our four assists.
Devon Brach scored 13 to lead Pitt State.
Washburn finished 13 of 29 in the second half en route to 39 percent from the field shooting while the Gorillas finished 37 percent overall going 20 of 54 from the field. The Ichabods finished 11 of 12 from the free throw line while Pitt State was 5 of 11 from the stripe.

 About Fort Hays State
•    The Tigers are 16-12 and 9-10 in the MIAA and have lost the last three games all on the road after beating the Ichabods on Jan. 31.
•    Leading scorer Craig Nicholson has missed the last 12 games for the Tigers after suffering a leg injury … he was averaging 14.9 ppg and 5.6 assists per game.
•    Dom Samac is averaging 10.7 ppg and James Fleming is scoring 10.2 ppg. Royce Williams is scoring 10.1 ppg and Achoki Moikobu is scoring 10.0 ppg.
•    The Tigers are +5.6 in rebounding average this season.
•    The Tigers are coming off a 79-77 loss at Northeastern State on Feb. 28.
•    FHSU is shooting 48 percent from the field hitting 744 of 1537 attempts and have hit eight more 3-pointers than its opponents have this season (203 to 195).
•    The Tigers are 13-3 in home games going 7-3 in league contests at Gross Memorial Coliseum and have gone 3-7 in road games and 0-2 in neutral site games.

 Series History with Fort Hays State
•    Washburn leads the all-time series 90-68 and Saturday's meeting will be the 159th between the two schools. 
•      The Ichabods have won seven of the last nine in the series.
•      The series is the third-most played for Washburn behind Emporia State (205) and Pittsburg State (175). 
•      Washburn is 19-5 against the Tigers in Lee Arena. 
•      Fort Hays State is 5-2 against WU in overtime games. 
•      The teams have only met once in the MIAA Tournament with the Ichabods winning 67-54 in the MIAA Tournament semifinals on March 3, 2012 in Kansas City.
•    The Ichabods have won the last four meetings in Lee Arena.
•    The Tigers' last win in Topeka was on Dec. 8, 2010 in a 70-58 win.
•    The Ichabods lost the last meeting in Hays by a score of 87-85 in overtime on Feb. 1, 2014.

 Last meeting with Fort Hays State
(Feb. 18, 2015) HAYS, Kan. -- The Washburn Ichabods ran into a 3-point shooting machine as the Fort Hays State Tigers hit nine first half 3-pointers and added six more in the second half as the Ichabods fell 87-79 in Hays in a game which saw 21 lead changes and 21 ties. 
In the first half, the Tigers hit 9 of 12 3-point attempts as they jumped out to a 40-37 lead at the break. Washburn was 5 of 13 in the opening half. Overall nine of the Tigers' 13 field goals in the opening stanza were from long range.
With the score tied at 77 with 2:10 to play after a 3-pointer by Alex North, the Ichabods called a timeout, the Tigers hit one of two free throws taking a one point lead.
The Tigers were whistled for a foul on the Ichabods' next possession but missed with 1:48 to play in the game and then FHSU called a timeout setting up their 15th 3-pointer of the night staking the Tigers to an 81-77 lead with 1:18 to play in the game. The Tigers tacked on a dunk on their next possession going up six at 83-77 with 1:04 to play.
Kyle Wiggins hit a pair of free throws with 59 seconds to play cutting the Tigers' lead to 83-79.
The Tigers missed both free throw attempts with 58 seconds to play, but Washburn came up empty on a 3-point attempt and after a foul sent the Tigers back to the line where they hit both free throws with 46 seconds to play going back up six at 85-79.
The Ichabods would get no closer as they would go the final 2:11 of the game without a field goal as the Tigers outscored Washburn 10-2 from that point on in the eight-point win.
Wiggins led the Ichabods with 17 points adding six rebounds. Alex North scored 13 followed by Jeremy Lickteig's 12 and Andy Wilson's 10 points. Algie Key dished out eight assists.
Jeremy Fleming led the Tigers with 22 points hitting 6 of 7 3-pointers and Ron Williams scored 15 going 5 of 8 from deep.
Washburn (13-15, 8-9 MIAA) finished 26 of 60 overall from the field hitting 12 of 29 shots from 3-point range. The Tigers (16-9, 9-7 MIAA) hit 26 field goals as well finishing with 15 3-pointers.

 Last time out for Fort Hays State
(Feb. 28, 2015) Fort Hays State men's basketball held a 15-point lead early in the second half, but turnovers proved costly down the stretch in a 79-77 loss at Northeastern State on Saturday (Feb. 28) in Tahlequah, Okla. In a game where the Tigers looked in control, shooting the ball at a 50 percent rate overall, 16 second-half turnovers proved to be their undoing against a RiverHawk team that needed a win to get in the MIAA Tournament. FHSU only had six first-half turnovers, but finished with 22 in the game. Northeastern State scored 28 points off turnovers in the game and turned the ball over only nine times.
The Tigers led by 12 points at halftime, 45-33, and the lead grew to 15 with 18:04 remaining in the game. FHSU then went scoreless for nearly four minutes and NSU used an 8-0 run to pull within seven. The RiverHawks continued to inch closer and closer until a 6-0 run gave it them the lead by one with 7:54 remaining. FHSU briefly took the lead back by one, but NSU went on an 8-0 run to go up seven with 6:05 to play. FHSU immediately went on a 5-0 burst to get back within two, but could never overtake the RiverHawks the rest of the way.
FHSU had a chance to get the game tied or take the lead on a possession with 10 seconds remaining, but turned the ball over with only two seconds to play. NSU missed each of its last two free-throws, but a last second half-court heave was off the mark for FHSU.
James Fleming finished with a team-high 20 points for FHSU. He hit four 3-point field goals and went 6-of-7 at the free-throw line. Royce Williams had the hot hand early for FHSU, hitting 5-of-6 first half 3-point attempts, but only shot one time beyond the arc in the second half. He finished with 19 points and went 7-of-9 from the field overall. Jake Stoppel added 13 points. Drew Kite pulled down a career-high 13 rebounds, helping the Tigers outrebound the RiverHawks by 13 overall.
NSU had four players reach double figures in scoring, led by Demone Harrison with 16. NSU shot 55.2 percent from the field in the second half after just 37.5 percent in the first half.

 Ichabods in the MIAA Tournament
• The Ichabods are 32-17 all-time in the MIAA Championship Tournament.
• The Ichabods are 0-1 in first round games … 17-3 in the quarterfinals, 10-7 in the semifinals and 5-5 in championship games. 
• In games played in Kansas City, the Ichabods are 12-8. 
• In quarterfinal games played in Kansas City, the Ichabods are 7-2. In semifinal games played in Municipal the Ichabods are 4-3 and in championship games in Kansas City the Ichabods are 1-3.
• As the No. 1 seed, the Ichabods are 21-3, at No. 2 they are 4-3, at No. 3 they are 0-2, at No. 4 they are 2-3, at No. 6 the Ichabods are 3-3, at No. 7 they are 0-1 and as the No. 8 seed they are 2-2.
• Washburn has never been the No. 5 seed.
• Head coach Bob Chipman has won more MIAA Tournament games than any other coach. He has won 32 games going 32-17 recording a .667 winning percentage. 
• This season he is making his 23rd appearance on the Ichabod bench in the tournament, which is the most by any MIAA coach.
• Bob Chipman's five tournament titles is the most by any coach. Tom Smith (MWSU), Steve Tappmeyer (NWMSU) and Ron Shumate (Southeast Missouri) and Kim Anderson (UCM) each have four titles. 
• Overall, here's how the Ichabods have fared against MIAA opponents in the conference tournament by round and in Kansas City.
• First Round games were added for the MIAA Tournament starting in 2013 as the league expanded to 15 teams. The top four teams in the final standings received an automatic bye to Kansas City for the quarterfinals.

Team     1st Rnd      Quarters       Semis    Finals    In KC    Total
UCM    —         4-0            1-1         —             3-1         5-1
ESU         —         4-1           —           —             3-1         4-1
FHSU        —         —              1-0         —             1-0         1-0
MSSU        —         1-0            2-1         0-1           1-1         3-2
MWSU        —         —              2-2         1-2           1-1         3-4
NSU                0-1         —              —           —             —           0-1
NWMSU       —         2-1            0-2         1-1           0-2         3-4
PSU         —         1-0            2-0         2-0           2-0         5-0
SBU         —         1-0            1-1         1-0           —           3-1
UCO         —         0-1            —           —    0-1    0-1
--- vs former members
MS&T        —         1-1            —           —     1-0         1-1
UMSL        —         1-0            —           —             —           1-0
SEMO        —         —              —           —             —           —
TSU         —         2-0            1-0         —    —           3-0
UNO         —         —              —           0-1    0-1         0-1
Totals     0-0        17-4           10-7        5-5    `12-8        32-17
 
 Ichabod basketball history
•     The Ichabods are 1482-999-4 (.591) all-time in the 110th 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 530-245 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 400-74 (.848) all-time in Lee Arena.
•     The 2014-15 season marks the 30th 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
•    The winner of the first round game between the Ichabods and the Tigers will take on MIAA regular season champion Northwest Missouri at noon in Kansas City inside Municipal Auditorium on Thursday.