Opening Tip
• The Washburn Ichabod basketball team returns to Lee Arena for the home opener as well as the home debut for head coach Brett Ballard as Washburn will play host to Baker University on Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
• Ballard spent two seasons as the head coach of the Wildcats prior to joining Danny Manning at the University of Tulsa as an assistant coach.
• Washburn is 1-1 this season after falling 69-57 to Northern State on Nov. 10 before picking up the first win of the Ballard era with an 84-75 win over Winona State at the Hillyard Classic in St. Joseph, Mo.
 
Ichabod notebook
• Brett Ballard is the 15th coach in Washburn men's basketball history and only the third since 1966.
• Javion Blake leads the Ichabods in scoring this season through two games averaging 13.0 points a game.
• Brady Skeens is averaging a double double with 10 points and 11 rebounds per game while recording 2.5 blocks, 2.0 assists and 2.0 steals per contest shooting 57 percent from the field hitting 8 of 14 shots.
 
Ichabods on Radio
Washburn games will be broadcast on KTPK 106.9 FM radio with Jake Lebahn and Dan Lucero 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.

Coaches
Washburn Ichabod head coach Brett Ballard …
• is 1-1 in his first season as the Ichabods' head coach and 34-31 overall in his third year as a head coach.
• was named the Washburn Ichabod men's basketball head coach on April 6, 2016 after spending the 2014-15 to 2016-17 seasons as an assistant coach with the Wake Forest basketball program after working under head coach Danny Manning 2014-17 seasons and at the University of Tulsa during the 2012-14 seasons.
• he helped Wake Forest to its first NCAA Tournament appearance since the 2009-10 season following the 2016-17 season. 
• while at Tulsa, the Golden Hurricane played in the postseason both years, including earning a No. 13 seed in the 2014 NCAA Tournament. Tulsa also participated in the 2013 CBI, finishing that season with a winning record of 17-16 overall.
• before joining Manning at Tulsa, Ballard spent two seasons as the head basketball coach at Baker University going 34-31 overall, including a 21-12 mark in his final season at the helm in 2011-12. 
• prior to taking over the head coaching position at Baker, Ballard spent seven years on Bill Self's staff at Kansas, his alma mater. 
• he played two years for the Jayhawks under head coach Roy Williams from 2000-02 after transferring from Hutchinson Community College in his hometown of Hutchinson, Kan. In his two seasons as a Jayhawk, the team reached the 2001 NCAA Sweet Sixteen and appeared in the 2002 NCAA Final Four in Atlanta.
• he earned his bachelor's degree in secondary education from Kansas in 2003 earning an Academic All-Big 12 selection as a senior for his efforts in the classroom.
• has never faced Baker.
 
Baker head coach Sean Dooley …
• is 70-85 in his seventh season as a head coach.
• has never faced Washburn.
 
Last Time Out For the Ichabods
Washburn 84, WInona State 75 -- Nov. 12, 2017
ST. JOESPH, Mo. --- Fueled by seven double-figure scorers, the Washburn men's basketball gave head coach Brett Ballard his first victory as head coach as the team downed Winona State, 84-75 in the final day of the Hillyard Classic in St. Joseph, Mo.
Javion Blake finished with a team-best 13 points, while Brady Skeens and Randall Smith followed with 12 apiece. Tyas Martin and Tyler Geiman each added 11 with Cameron Wiggins and David Salach netting 10. Skeens also pulled down a game-high 11 boards for a double-double. Geiman also had a game-high as he dished out five assists.
The Ichabods trailed Winona State (1-1) for the entirety of the first half with seven points as its largest deficit of the game coming midway through the period. During the opening 20 minutes, the Warriors outshot Washburn from the field, .480-.419, three-point distance, .375-.231, and from the line, .750-.667 and narrowly won the rebound battle in the first, 36-35.
Salach's eight point led the scoring for Washburn in the first as he knocked four jumpers, the last coming at the 2:53 mark to trim the WSU lead to 32-31. The Warriors though responded with a 4-1 spurt while eating 1:46 from the clock. Trailing, 36-32, Smith found Martin wide open up in the corner allowing him to bury a trey before the halftime buzzer cutting the Winona State advantage to 36-35 as the team headed back to the locker rooms for the break.
Washburn forced the first tie of the contest at the 18:56 mark of the second as Skeens leveled the score at 39 with a layup. The Ichabods knotted the score twice more before taking their first lead of the night with 13:28 remaining as Martin nudged them ahead 52-50.
After WSU tied the game for the fifth and final time at 52, Washburn began surging behind an 8-2 run, giving it a 60-54 lead with 11:33 to go. The run was sparked with a three-pointer from Wiggins before adding two more from the charity stripe, while Skeens filled out the balance.
WU's largest lead of the contest came with 2:57 remaining on the clock thanks in part to a 9-2 run pushing it ahead 84-71.
Collectively, the Ichabods' shooting improved in the second as they converted 51.5 percent from the field, with 37.5 percent from behind the arc. The Washburn defense meanwhile held the Warriors to 42.9 percent from the floor while completing shutting down their attempts from distance as they went 0-for-4. WU also dominated the glass in the final 20 minutes outrebounding Winona State, 23-14, including 15 defensive boards.
Skeens and Blake leading the second half charge as each dropped in 11 points with Wiggins putting up 10.
 
About The Opponents
Baker
• The Wildcats are 3-0 this season with wins over Ottawa (79-72), Kansas Christian (85-59) and Haskell (89-73).
• Brock Mick leads the team with an 18.0 ppg average and Tyree Peter is scoring 9.0 ppg with a team high 10.0 rebounds per game. Clae Martin (13.0), Stephen Edwards (12.0) and Vandy Hopson (11.7) also average double figure points for the Wildcats.
• Baker University was picked eighth in the HAAC Coaches Poll and earned 91 votes in the NAIA DI Preseason Coaches' Top 25.
• Wednesday's game will count as an exhibition game for the Wildcats.
 
Series History with Baker
• The Ichabods lead the all-time series 55-20-1 against Baker 
• Wednesday's meeting will be the 76th which dates back to the 1905-06 season. 
• The teams have met 14 times since the Ichabods joined the NCAA ranks and the Ichabods have won all 14 meetings and overall the Ichabods have won the last 28 meetings. 
• The last five games in the series have gone in Washburn's favor by an average of 35.0 points. 
• Baker last beat the Ichabods, 83-75 on Dec. 28, 1954 and have not beat the Ichabods in Topeka since a 40-23 win on Feb. 11, 1942.
• The Ichabods won the last meeting 100-60 on Nov. 28, 2009 in Topeka. 
 
Last Meeting with Baker
(Dec. 31, 2014) -- TOPEKA, Kan. -- The Washburn Ichabod men's basketball team wrapped up the 2014 calendar and its non-conference schedule with a 74-47 win over Baker on New Year's Eve. 
The Ichabods (7-8) led from start to finish and for all but 23 seconds of the game when it was tied at 0-0 jumping out to a 7-0 lead and never looked back. In the first half, Baker (7-5) cut the lead to two twice and to one point once at 13-12 with 12:32 to play, but the Ichabods would go on a 23-8 run over the final 12:24 of the half taking a 36-20 advantage into the locker room at the break. Washburn shot 39 percent in the first half but went 6 of 12 from 3-point range building the 16-point margin at halftime. The Ichabods also held the Wildcats without an offensive rebound in the first stanza as well. 
In the second half, Washburn stretched its lead out to as many as 32 with 7:58 to play in the game as Baker trailed by at least 24 points the final 12:36 of the game. 
Washburn was led by Kyle Wiggins with a game-high 18 points moving himself to 977 career points in 101 games. Andy Wilson had a career-high 16 points going 5 of 6 from the field including hitting all four 3-point attempts. Alex North had 12 rebounds to take game-high honors. Kevin House had five assists and no turnovers adding eight points. Christian Ulsaker was held scoreless recording three rebounds and two assists with a block and a steal in his first action since Dec. 6 after breaking his jaw against Missouri Southern. 
Tryome Parker led the Wildcats with 11 points. 
Washburn outrebounded the Wildcats 40 to 32 and forced 20 turnovers leading to 28 Ichabod points. Washburn also outscored Baker 28 to 14 in the paint and 19 to 10 in second chance points.
 
Last time out for Baker
(Nov. 11, 2017) -- The Baker University men's basketball team ended the Baker Classic on Saturday afternoon with an 89-73 victory over Haskell Indian Nations University inside the Collins Center.
The 'Cats jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead in the first half before Haskell got on the board to make the score 7-2, with 17:18 left until halftime.
Baker took a nine-point halftime lead into the locker room and remained ahead for the rest of the second frame. The 'Cats outscored the Fighting Indians 42-33 in the first half, and 47-40 in the second half.
Haskell was led offensively by Keith Moore, who recorded 19 points on five of nine from the three-point line.
Baker senior guard Brock Mick had another outstanding game, as he recorded 24 points, four rebounds, two steals, and one assist.
Three other 'Cats made it into double digit scoring on the afternoon as Clae Martin, Vandy Hopson, and Stephen Edwards recorded 20, 13, and 11 points respectively.
Baker outrebounded Haskell, 33-29 while Nathan Guscott grabbed a career high 10 rebounds.
The Wildcats shot 53.7 percent from the field, while also nailing 14 three pointers on 60.9 percent shooting from behind the arc.
 
Washburn Ichabod Basketball HIstory
•   The Ichabods are 1,541-1,060-2 (.592) all-time in the 114th year in the program's history.
•   Washburn is the fifth-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 567-267 since joining the conference and the NCAA.
•   The Ichabods have recorded 26 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 422-85 (.848) all-time in Lee Arena.
•   The 2017-18 season marks the 33rd 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 will head back on the road for a game at Rockhurst on Nov. 18 in Kansas City against the Hawks. Washburn will then have a non-conference game against Northwest Missouri at 8 p.m. in Kansas City at Municipal Auditorium as the final game of three joining Central Missouri versus East Central at 4 p.m. and Pittsburg State against Newman at 6 p.m.