• The Washburn Ichabods return to action on Saturday evening in Kearney, Neb., as they will face the Nebraska-Kearney Lopers at 5 p.m. inside the Health and Sports Center.
• The Ichabods are coming off an 80-78 thrilling win over Fort Hays State in their season opener as Jalen Lewis connected on a 3-pointer at the buzzer for the game-winner.
• Washburn was picked third in the MIAA preseason coaches poll that was released on Nov. 10.
• The Lopers fell in their season opener to Emporia State 69-57 on Thursday night in Kearney.
• The Lopers lead the all-time series with the Ichabods 25-20 with the Ichabods winning four of the last five games.
• UNK won 79-51 last season in Kearney.
• Washburn will open its home slate on Nov. 30 against Central Oklahoma. The Ichabods will then have an exhibition game at Kansas on Dec. 3 returning to MIAA play against Newman on Dec. 5 in Lee Arena.
• The 2020-21 season marks the 116th season of Ichabod basketball.
  • The 2020-21 Washburn Ichabod basketball season will be one for the record books as the 22-game schedule will consist of only games against MIAA opponents as regional crossovers and non-conference matchups have been scrapped thanks to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
• From a 16-13 team last season, Washburn returns four starters and 91 percent of its scoring, 86 percent of its rebounding, 94 percent of assists and 89 percent of minutes played a year ago while adding a returner from the 2018-19 season who returns from an injury.
• With Tyler Geiman and Drew Maschoff each scoring 20 points last time out against Fort Hays State, it marked the first time since Feb. 27, 2017 that two Ichabods both scored at least 20 points … Brady Skeens scored 23 and Cameron Wiggins scored 21 in an Ichabod 89-70 win over Southwest Baptist - a total of 62 games. • The Ichabods return high percentages in all major categories for the 2020-21 season.
Percentage of Scoring ________________ 91.1 (1956/2147)
Percentage of Rebounds _______________ 86.0 (892/1037)
Percentage of Field Goals _____________ 90.8 (1542/1699)
Percentage of 3-Point FGs ______________ 88.6 (233/263)
Percentage of Free Throws ______________ 88.7 (309/348)
Percentage of Assists ___________________ 94.1 (398/423)
Percentage of Steals ____________________ 87.7 (150/171)
Percentage of Blocks _____________________ 89.4 (84/94)
Percentage of Minutes _______________ 89.1 (5191/5825)
  WASHBURN ICHABOD HEAD COACH BRETT BALLARD
•  is 63-31 in his fourth season as the Ichabods' head coach and 96-61 overall in his seventh year as a head coach.
•  has led the Ichabods to two NCAA postseason appearances in both seasons at Washburn.
•  was named the Washburn Ichabod men's basketball head coach on April 6, 2017 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 33-30 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.
•  is 4-1 against Nebraska-Kearney.
 
NEBRASKA-KEARNEY HEAD COACH KEVIN LOFT
•   is in his 16th year as head coach at Nebraska-Kearney after being promoted from co-head coach.
•   in his sixth season as the lone head coach on the squad, he has gone 83-68.
•   has recorded a 239-193 overall mark at UNK in his 16th season.
•   is 9-6 against Washburn.

LAST TIME OUT FOR THE ICHABODS
WASHBURN 80 (11-0)
FORT HAYS STATE 78 (0-1)
NOVEMBER 19, 2020 - HAYS, Kan. – HAYS, Kan. – Jalen Lewis' 3-pointer at the buzzer sent the Washburn Ichabods to an 80-78 win over Fort Hays State as Washburn opened the 2020-21 season with a bang in its conference opener.
The Tigers hit a 3-pointer with nine seconds to play in the game by Jared Vitztum putting FHSU up 78-77. But after a timeout by the Ichabods, a deflection put the ball out of bounds with 2 seconds to play setting up the game-winner by Lewis, who finished with 15 points in the game. The Ichabods were 3 of 3 from deep the final 2:19 of the game going 3 of 4 from the field overall.
The lchabods led at the break 38-34 after building a lead of 14 at 27-13 with 8:04 to play in the opening half. The Tigers then used a 12-2 run cutting the lead to four at 29-25 with 4:23 remaining in the half. The Ichabods pushed the lead back to as many as eight prior to the Tigers hitting back-to-back 3's trimming the lead back to four. Washburn hit 3 of its first 5 3-point attempts before going 4 of 10 to end the opening frame.
The Ichabods (1-0) shot 54 percent in the second half going 7 of 14 from the 3-point line finished 14 of 29 overall from deep. The Tigers (0-1) were 11 of 20 from deep and 10 of 11 from the free throw line going 13 of 14 overall. The Ichabods were 10 of 19 from the free throw line.
Washburn was led by Tyler Geiman and Drew Maschoff who each had 20 points. Geiman finished with nine assists and five rebounds while Maschoff had a team-high six rebounds and three steals.
Vitztum led the Tigers with 16 points.
The Ichabods will be back in action on Saturday at Nebraska-Kearney with a 5 p.m. tip.
  • Neb.-Kearney went 16-13, 10-9 in the MIAA last season to finish a game out of fifth place in the conference standings.
• The Lopers must replace four senior starters from last year's squad.
• The Lopers fell 69-57 to Emporia State on Nov. 19 in their season-opener.
• Cedric Johnson had a team-highs in points (16) and assists (five) to lead the Lopers against ESU. 
• RJ Pair hit three treys to tally 11 with Darian Nebeker going all 40 minutes and supplying seven points, seven rebounds and three assists.
• Wamego product T.J. Fritz came off the bench and was 3 of 6 from downtown to score nine in 16 minutes of work. •    Saturday's meeting will be the 46th in the series and the Lopers lead 25-20.
•    The Ichabods had their four-game winning streak in the series snapped in the Lopers' 79-51 win in the last meeting.
•    All-time in games in Kearney, the Ichabods are 7-17.
•    Washburn leads 13-6 in games played in Topeka.
•    The two teams have only played twice in the MIAA Tournament with the teams splitting a pair of games.   
  Jan. 16, 2020 -- KEARNEY, Neb. -- Nebraska-Kearney put the end to a four-game losing streak to Washburn in a 79-51 victory over the Ichabods on Thursday night in Kearney.
The Ichabods (8-7, 3-3 MIAA) trailed by as many as 17 points in the first half with 6:18 to play using a 14-5 run the rest of the half hitting 6 of 11 shots while holding the Lopers to 1 of 9 from the field to climb back under single digits. Washburn had nine turnovers in the opening half while the Lopers (11-5, 5-2 MIAA) committed only four. Washburn was also 6 of 13 from the free throw line in the opening half.
In the second half, Washburn was outscored 40 to 19 as the Lopers shot 65 percent from the field in the frame while the Ichabods were 9 of 29 and 0 of 6 from 3-point range.
The 51 points was a season low for the Ichabods as were the two 3-pointers and eight assists.
Jonny Clausing led the Ichabods with 13 points adding seven rebounds all coming in the first half. Jalen Lewis finished with 12 as the only Ichabods to reach double figures.
The Lopers had four in double figures led by Kyle Juhl with 16 points.
Washburn finished 38 percent from the field hitting 21 of 56 overall while the Lopers were 30 of 56 overall for 54 percent. UNK scored 27 points off of 18 Ichabod turnovers.
The Ichabods suffered their largest lost in the 45-game series with the Lopers topping the previous mark of 19 in a 92-73 loss to the Lopers on Jan. 24, 1981 in Kearney. In 2019 in Topeka, Washburn had the largest victory margin in the series at 31 in a 89-58 win on Jan. 16, 2019.
  •  The Ichabods are 1603-1090-2 all-time in the 116th year in the program's history.
•  Washburn is the 10th-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 620-287 since joining the conference and the NCAA.
•  The Ichabods have recorded 28 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.
  •  The Ichabods are 455-94 (.848) all-time in Lee Arena.
•  The 2020-21 season marks the 37th 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.
  • Washburn will open its home slate on Nov. 30 against Central Oklahoma. The Ichabods will then have an exhibition game at Kansas on Dec. 3 returning to MIAA play against Newman on Dec. 5.