Opening Tip
•     The Washburn Ichabod men's basketball squad will look to get back to its winning ways wrapping up a two-game Oklahoma road trip with Central Oklahoma on Jan. 9 in Edmond with tip scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
•    The Ichabods (9-4, 5-3 MIAA) are coming off a 75-65 loss to Northeastern State on Jan. 7 in Tahlequah.
•    Central Oklahoma (6-8, 2-6 MIAA) who opened the MIAA slate with seven-straight road games, topped Emporia State 84-74 at home on Jan. 7.
•    Central Oklahoma leads the series 13-10 while the Ichabods have won the last two.
•    Overall the Ichabods are 3-4 in games against UCO in Edmond.
•    In Washburn's nine wins this season they are averaging 79.4 ppg while allowing 70.9 ppg … in the four losses they are averaging 66.0 ppg while allowing 81.0 ppg.
•    In Washburn's wins they are +10.9 in rebound margin, while in the losses they are -10.7 on the glass.
•    From the field in the Ichabod wins, they are shooting 47 percent while opponents are shooting 39 percent … from the free throw line the Ichabods are 65 percent in the wins and 69 percent in the losses.
•    From 3-point land the Ichabods are shooting 52 of 147 (35 percent) in the wins and only 25 percent in the losses (15 of 60).
•    The Ichabods are averaging 15.9 ppg off opponent's turnovers compared to 13.4 ppg opponents are scoring off the Ichabods.
•    Ichabod head coach Bob Chipman recorded his 782nd win against Lincoln moving him into 15th all-time on all-time NCAA coaching list passing former Arizona Wildcat head coach Lute Olson and Lou Henson who coached at Illinois and New Mexico State.
•    Next up on the all-time NCAA coaching chart is Lefty Driesell and Jim Smith with 786 wins.
•    Washburn's bench is averaging 22.4 ppg compared to 25.5 ppg for its opponents.
•    Washburn is scoring 33.7 ppg in the paint compared to 22.8 ppg for its opponents.
•    In Washburn's nine wins this season, they have overcome deficits of 14 against Augustana, 11 against Peru State, Fort Hays State and Lincoln, eight against Pittsburg State, six against Lindenwood, five against Southwest Baptist and four against Saint Mary.
•    Washburn's only win they led from start to finish was against Tabor.
•    The eight point lead against Northeastern State was the largest lead the Ichabods had in a loss.

 Ichabod Notes
•    Overall the Ichabods have a balanced scoring attack with four players averaging at least 9.2 points per game and they have six averaging at least 6.1 ppg.
•    Washburn is ninth in the MIAA in scoring at 75.3 ppg and sixth in scoring defense allowing 74.0 ppg.
•    Washburn is second in the MIAA in field goal percentage defense holding opponents to 41 percent shooting.
•    The Ichabods are +4.2 in rebound margin this season, which is third in the MIAA.
•    Christian Ulsaker has played in 100 games at Washburn in his career.
•    Brady Skeens has had four blocks in each of the last three games.
•    Brady Skeens' 29 blocked shots is ranked 13th on the single season chart and his 2.2 blocks per game ranks first on the single season chart ahead of Dan Buie's 1.7 blocks per game (27 games) in 1995-96 … his 41 career blocked shots is 15th on the career chart and his 1.6 career blocks per game average is second.
•    Javion Blake recorded his first career block against Northeastern State.
•    The 18 field goal attempts by Cameron Wiggins was a career high as were his 10 3-point field goal attempts.
•    Andy Wilson had a career high four free throws against Northeastern State en route to 10 points.
    
 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 782-334 overall.
•     has 540 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 540.
•     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 459-86 going 408-75 in Lee Arena.
•     is third in all-time coaching victories in active NCAA Division II coaches.
•     his 782 coaching wins is 15th 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.

Central Oklahoma head coach Tom Hankins . . .
•      is 6-8 in his first year at Central Oklahoma
•     is 0-0 against Washburn.
•    took over the reigns last  May, coming to UCO after spending the previous 18 seasons in the Division I ranks.
•    is a native of Tulsa and was an assistant coach for 15 years at Oral Roberts before serving the last three seasons as associate head coach at Southern Illinois-Carbondale.
•    helped ORU capture five Summit League championships and made three NCAA Division I national tournament appearances during Hankins' tenure there.  
•    went to SIU in 2012 as associate head coach and recruiting coordinator, spending three seasons there before coming to UCO.

  Last Time Out For The Ichabods
Northeastern State 75, Washburn 65 -- Jan. 7, 2016
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. -- The roadtrip to face Northeastern State continued to be a House of Horrors as the Ichabods fell to 0-3 all-time in Tahlequah as they fell 75-65 to the RiverHawks. Washburn will be back in action on Saturday afternoon against Central Oklahoma.
With 1:45 to go, Washburn cut the RiverHawk lead to 69-65 on a 3-pointer by Cameron Wiggins, who led the Ichabods with 20 points. After the RiverHawks hit 1 of 2 free throws with 1:25 to play stretching the lead back to five at 70-65, the Ichabods missed on their next trip down the court and a foul sent the RiverHawks back to the line where they hit both going up six with 1:08 to play. 
Washburn came up empty on its next trip with under a minute to play and would not get any closer as Northeastern State would go on for the 10-point win.
The Ichabods trailed 37-35 at the break after a 3-pointer at the buzzer put the RiverHawks on top heading into the locker room. The Ichabods led by as many as eight points in the first half and for the last time at 27-19 after a bucket by Javion Blake with 6:19 remaining. The RiverHawks then went on a 13-2 run taking a 32-29 lead.
In the second half with Washburn leading by six at 45-39, the Northeastern State responded with a 15-2 run over the next 4:45 to take a 54-47 lead with 10:25 to play as the Ichabods would not get any closer than three at 62-59 the rest of the game.
Following Wiggins' 20 points, Andy Wilson scored 10 off the bench. Brady Skeens scored seven with a team-high nine rebounds adding four blocks for the third-straight game. Randall Smith had nine points with four assists. 
Trey Mohair led the RiverHawks with 21 points.
Washburn was outrebounded 54 to 39 as the RiverHawks entered the game with an even rebound margin.
The Ichabods (9-4, 5-3 MIAA) finished the game shooting 19 of 53 for a 36 percent clip going 8 of 28 in the second half while the RiverHawks (3-9, 2-6 MIAA) finished 23 of 68 overall for a 34 percent average. The Ichabods were 23 of 37 from the free throw line while NSU was 22 of 32 from the charity stripe.  
 
 About Central Oklahoma
•     Central Oklahoma is 6-8 on the season, 2-6 in the MIAA
•    They are tied for 11th in the MIAA in scoring at 73.1 ppg and eighth in scoring defense allowing 75.4 ppg.
•    On the glass, UCO is ninth in the MIAA in rebound margin at -0.3 ppg.
•    Cornell Neal leads the team in scoring at 13.7 ppg (19th in the MIAA) and Kendahl Amerson is averaging 13.5 ppg ranking 21st in the MIAA.
 
 Series History with Central Oklahoma
•    Saturday's meeting will be the 24th in the series history. 
•    The Bronchos lead the series 13-10 … the Ichabods have won the last two in the series.
•    The Ichabods snapped a four-game losing streak in Edmond with the win on Jan. 22, 2015  at UCO. The win was the first by an Ichabod team in Hamilton Field House since a 101-94 win on Nov. 20, 2004.
•    The Ichabods lost the first match ups as MIAA schools on Jan. 5, 2013 67-72 in Edmond and in the MIAA tournament quarterfinals on March 3, 2013 99-88 in Kansas City.
•    Washburn's two highest-scoring combined games in school history came against UCO. In 1992 the two teams scored 246 points (132-114, UCO) and in 1998 they scored 218 points (111-107, UCO).
•    WU has scored at least 100 points against UCO three times and the Bronchos have done so twice.
•    Bob Chipman is 9-9 coaching against UCO.     

 Last meeting with Central Oklahoma
(Feb. 12, 2015) TOPEKA, Kan. -- The Washburn Ichabods had four players reach double figures as they swept the regular season series with Central Oklahoma after picking up a 71-65 win Thursday night in Lee Arena.
In a nip-and-tuck game which neither team led by more than seven at any point in the game, Washburn (12-14, 7-8 MIAA) used an 8-0 run midway through the first half to take a 22-18 lead with 6:27 to go capped by back-to-back 3-pointers by Kyle Wiggins helping the Ichabods take a 35-31 lead into the break.
The Bronchos (15-9, 8-7 MIAA) came back in the second half to take no more than a 1-point lead twice, with the final time coming at 6:08 to go in the game before back-to-back 3-pointers by Kevin House with a 3-pointer by UCO in between put Washburn up two at 57-55 with 5:45 to go. The Bronchos tied the score one more time at 57 on their next possession before a tip-in by David Salach and a lay-up by Andy Wilson put Washburn up four with 3:28 to go.
UCO cut the lead to two with 3:10 to go before a dunk by Salach and a lay-up by Wiggins up Washburn up six with just under two minutes to play and UCO would not get closer than four the rest of the way as the Ichabods hit six of seven free throws down the stretch to preserve the win.
Wiggins led the Ichabods with 19 points and Salach had a career-high 13 points adding nine rebounds with seven offensive boards. Both Wilson and House scored 11. House also had career highs of three 3-pointers and six assists. 
Seth Heckart led the Bronchos with 16 points hitting four 3-pointers.
Washburn shot 39 percent from the field hitting 25 of 64 shots and hit 11 of 28 3-pointers. UCO finished at 45 percent going 24 of 53 overall and 9 of 26 from 3-point land. Washburn held a 41 to 34 advantage on the glass including 20 offensive rebounds leading to 19 second chance points.   

 Last time out for Central Oklahoma
(Jan. 7, 2016) Cornell Neal and Kendahl Amerson led a sensational first-half rally that sparked Central Oklahoma to an 84-74 victory over Emporia State Thursday night at Hamilton Field House.
 Neal scored 11 points and Amerson 10 over the final 13 minutes of the opening half as the Bronchos turned a seven-point deficit into an 11-point lead and UCO led by as many as 22 in the second half before surviving some anxious moments down the stretch.
 It was the first home game in more than a month for the Bronchos, who shot a season-high 57.4 percent (31-of-54) from the field to end a three-game Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association losing streak in improving to 6-8 on the season and 2-6 in the league.  The Hornets fell to 6-8 and 3-5.
 Neal hit 8-of-10 shots with a pair of 3-pointers and 4-of-6 free throws to finish with a season-high 22 points while adding five rebounds and five assists.  Amerson ended up with 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting with one trey.
 The Bronchos also got a huge game from Jarred Bairstow, who made 6-of-8 field goals with one 3-pointer and all four foul shots in tying a career high with 17 points to go with six rebounds.  Garen Wright chipped in 11 points, six boards and four assists, with Corey Alpough contributing 11 points and two steals.
 UCO got off to a slow start and was down seven (16-9) at the 13:17 mark before Neal scored nine points during a furious 14-3 run that had the Bronchos on top 23-19 just three minutes later.
 It was tied at 27-all when Amerson got in the act with back-to-back buckets to ignite another 14-3 spurt that gave UCO a 41-30 halftime advantage.
 Bairstow opened the second half with a 3-pointer from the top of the key to make it 44-30 and the Bronchos eventually pushed the lead to 22 (60-38) on a short Bairstow jumper with 12:44 remaining.
 UCO appeared ready to cruise in from there and still had an 18-point lead at 72-54 with 5:28 left before a barrage of turnovers allowed the Hornets to make things interesting.
 ESU went on an 18-6 run to pull within six (78-72) with 1:07 left, but Bairstow made four clutch free throws and Neal added a fast-break layup off a Wright feed to help the Bronchos close the deal. 
 
 Ichabod basketball history
•     The Ichabods are 1,514-1,040-2 (.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 540-253 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 408-75 (.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
•    After facing the Bronchos, the Ichabods will then start a three-game homestand with Missouri Western on Jan. 13, Northwest Missouri on Jan. 16 and Emporia State on Jan. 23.