•The No. 13 (NABC)/No. 12 (D2SIDA) Washburn Ichabods will wrap up their second three-game road trip of the season as they will face Central Oklahoma on Jan. 30 in Edmond at 3:30 p.m.
•The Ichabods (11-2, 11-2 MIAA), fell to No. 13 from No. 7 in the latest NABC Coaches Poll and were ranked 12th in the D2SIDA poll.
•The Ichabods cruised to a 95-69 win over Newman on Thursday night handing the Jets their fifth loss in a row to Washburn.
•The Bronchos (4-5, 4-5 MIAA) are coming off a 73-61 win over Emporia State on Jan. 28 at home and have won three of their last four games.
•The Ichabods won the first meeting of the season with the Bronchos in Topeka on Nov. 30. in an 81-71 win.
•With their win in the last meeting in Topeka, the Ichabods tied the all-time series between the two schools at 16-16 with Washburn winning the last three overall and six of the last seven.
•The meeting on Saturday will be the 33rd meeting between the two schools.
•The Ichabods are 9-3 in home games against the Bronchos and 4-6  against Central Oklahoma in games played in Edmond having lost 2 of the last 3 meetings.
•The Ichabods lead the MIAA in scoring at 83.3 ppg and the Bronchos are ranked eighth in scoring defense at 74.2 ppg.
•The Ichabods are ranked third in the MIAA in scoring defense allowing 71.2 ppg while the Bronchos are tenth in the league in scoring offense at 72.4 ppg.
•The Ichabods are ranked second in the league in opponents field goal percentage at 41.6 percent while the Bronchos are last in the league in shooting percentage at 41.2 percent.
•The 2020-21 season marks the 116th season of Ichabod basketball.
  •Tyler Geiman leads the team in scoring (19.8 ppg - 3rd in the MIAA), assists (6.0 apg - 1st in the MIAA and is 3rd in the NCAA), rebounds (6.4 rpg - 13th in the MIAA), steals (1.7 spg - 8th in the MIAA) and minutes (36.3 mpg - 3rd in the MIAA) … his 100th game in an Ichabod uniform was last Saturday against Emporia State.
•Jonny Clausing is scoring 11.6 ppg with 4.1 rpg and a team-high 1.3 bkpg.
•Jalen Lewis is averaging 12.1 ppg hitting 33 of 63 3-point attempts this season (52.4 percent) coming off a career-high 26 points against Newman scoring 23 points in the second half.
•Tyler Nelson is scoring 9.3 ppg averaging almost 11 points a game in the last four since moving into a starting role.
•Levi Braun is averaging 8.2 ppg this season … all 33 of his field goals this season have been from 3 and he has attempted only three shots inside the 3-point line.
•Jace Williams is averaging 5.9 ppg with 3.8 rpg recording 12 blocks.
•Connor Deffebaugh is scoring 5.2 ppg with 2.7 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game.
•Rathen Carter is scoring 5.6 ppg with 2.8 rpg.
•Will McKee is scoring 3.1 ppg with 4.3 rpg.
•The Ichabod bench has outscored their opponents bench in nine of 13 games this season … the Washburn bench is averaging 23.2 ppg compared to 18.1 for its opponents bench per game.
•Tyler Geiman became the 26th member of Washburn's 1,000-point club at Missouri Western … his career total is 1,103 in 101 career games, which is 16th all-time on the Ichabod chart … passing Tom Carlson and Todd Alexander who were tied for 17th with 1,099 career points … next on the scoring chart is Mike Dickerson who scored 1,130 points sitting 15th.
•Washburn is 48 of 76 from the free throw line in the last five minutes of games (65 percent) compared to its opponents connecting on 67 of 97 attempts (82 percent).
•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. WASHBURN ICHABOD HEAD COACH BRETT BALLARD
•is 73-33 in his fourth season as the Ichabods' head coach and 106-63 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 4-2 against Central Oklahoma.

CENTRAL OKLAHOMA HEAD COACH BOB HOFFMAN
•is 15-23 in his second season as the Bronchos' head coach.
•comes to UCO from Mercer, where he led the Bears of Macon, Ga. to 209 wins in his 11-year stint there.
•Hoffman won 209 games at Mercer from 2008-19, including 119 conference games. He led the Bears to its first ever NCAA Tournament win in 2014 – a major upset of Duke in the opening round of March Madness. And he also became the first coach in NCAA history to win a tournament game in all four Division I postseason tournaments in a four-year span.
•  is 0-2 against Washburn.
 
LAST TIME OUT FOR THE ICHABODS
WASHBURN 95 (11-2, 11-2 MIAA)
NEWMAN 69 (2-10, 2-10 MIAA)
WICHITA, Kan. – The No. 13-ranked Washburn Ichabods returned to the win column in a 95-69 victory over the Newman Jets on Thursday night in Wichita notching their fifth win in a row over the Jets.
After the Jets scored the first three points of the game, the Ichabods poured in the next 11 points to go up 11-3 at the 14:23 mark of the first half. Washburn also added a run of 10-0 in the opening stanza to take a 44-25 lead into the break at halftime.
Rathen Carter paced the Ichabods in the first half scoring 11 points hitting all four field goal attempts and both free throw as Washburn shot 58 percent in the frame hitting 14 of 24 shots and 4 of 9 shots from deep building a lead of as many as 21.
In the second half, the Ichabods pushed the lead to 27 with 17:21 to play in the game and the Jets would get no closer than 20 the rest of the game as Washburn picked up the win as the Ichabods shot a blistering 68 in the second half leading to the win also hitting 8 of 13 shots from 3-point range (55 percent) as the Ichabods cruised.
Jalen Lewis led all scorers with 26 points scoring 23 in the second half recording a career-high in the game. Lewis was 8 of 14 from the field and 4 of 8 from deep. Tyler Geiman had 20 points on 8 of 12 shooting. Jace Williams had 11 points with a team-high seven rebounds.
The Jets were led by Joel Boyce who scored 25 points as the only Jet in double figures as they lost their sixth-straight game.
The Ichabods averaged 97.5 points a game this season against the Jets after topping Newman 100-61 in the first meeting in December. Washburn was outrebounded 30 to 25.
  •The Bronchos have won three of their last four games coming off a 73-61 win over Emporia State last time out entering the game with the Ichabods with a 4-5 record.
•Central Oklahoma returns 10 players from last year's squad, including three players that started at least 19 of the team's 29 games. Camryn Givens, Justin Nimmer, and Seth Hurd all started a majority of Central's contests last season.
•Camryn Givens leads the team in scoring at 13.3 ppg along with 6.7 rebounds per game. Callen Haydon is scoring 11.7 ppg and Isaiah Wade is scoring 10.5. •Saturday's meeting will be the 33rd in the series history.
•The series is tied 16-16 and Washburn has won six of the last seven meetings.
•The Ichabods lost the first match up as MIAA schools on Jan. 5, 2013  in a 72-67 loss in Edmond and in the MIAA tournament quarterfinals on March 3, 2013 in a 99-88 defeat 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).
•In the Jan. 13, 2018 meeting, the 49 points was the fewest by the Ichabods in a win in the shot clock era and the 96 combined points were the second fewest scored by Washburn and its opponent in the shot clock era.
•In 32 games, the Ichabods have averaged 76.4 points per game with the Bronchos.
•WU has scored at least 100 points against UCO three times and the Bronchos have done so twice.    
  Nov. 30, 2020 -- TOPEKA, Kan. -- The Washburn Ichabods rallied from a nine-point first half deficit to a 10-point win in their first home game of the season with an 81-71 over Central Oklahoma Monday night in Lee Arena. The win moved the Ichabods to 36-1 all-time in Lee Arena openers.
The Bronchos (0-3, 0-3 MIAA) jumped out to a 22-13 lead midway through the first half capping a 10-3 run stretching the lead to a game-high nine points before the Ichabods scored eight-straight points going onto a 17-3 run taking a 30-25 lead with 4:04 to play in the opening half as six different Ichabods scored during run. A bucket by UCO to end the half sent Washburn up three at 37-34 into the break. In the opening half the Ichabods took advantage of five UCO turnovers scoring 12 of their 37 points off of Broncho miscues.
To start the second half, UCO scored the first seven points of the frame going up four at 41-37 and pushed the lead to as many as five with 13:31 remaining before four 3-pointers in a row by the Ichabods, including three in a row by Tyler Nelson put Washburn back in front 58-54 with 8:30 to go. UCO trimmed the lead back to one at 62-61, but another 3-pointer by Nelson put Washburn up four and a 11-2 run by the Ichabods stretched the lead to 11 with 1:17 to go and UCO would get no closer than six the rest of the way as the Ichabods picked up the win.
Nelson led the Ichabods in his first start of the season with a career-high 23 points going 8 of 10 from the field overall and 7 of 8 from deep. Tyler Geiman had 18 points with six assists, six rebounds and two steals and Connor Deffebaugh had 11 points of 5 of 5 shooting fro the field.
Isaiah Wade led the Bronchos with 18 points pacing four UCO players in double figures followed by Callen Haydon and Colt Savage with 12 and Justin Nimmer with 10. Wade also added a game-high 12 rebounds.
Washburn finished 31 of 63 from he field at 49 percent and UCO was 24 of 52 for a 46 percent average. Washburn hit 13 of 28 3-pointers (46 percent). UCO outscored the Ichabods from the free throw line hitting 17 of 22 compared to 6 of 11 for the Ichabods. Washburn outrebounded the Bronchos 34 to 27 and turned 11 offensive rebounds into 11 points. The Ichabod bench outscored the UCO bench 24 to 18 led by Deffebaugh's 11 points and then Jace Williams' seven points and seven rebounds.
  • The Ichabods are 1612-1092-2 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 631-289 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 460-94 (.848) all-time in Lee Arena.
• The 2020-21 season marks the 37th season of play in Lee Arena.
• The Ichabods are 36-1 all-time in home openers.
• The Ichabods recorded a school-best 28-game winning streak from Nov. 19, 1993 to Feb. 8, 1995 in Lee Arena.
  •Washburn returns home to face Rogers State on Feb. 4 and Northeastern State on Feb. 6 and Lincoln on Feb. 9 (a rescheduled game from Dec. 19) in Lee Arena.