•The (No. 11/NABC)/(No. 11/D2SIDA) Washburn Ichabods return to the court for their first true road game facing William Jewell on Wednesday in Liberty, Mo. starting at 7:30 p.m.
•The Ichabods are coming off a 1-1 weekend at the Central Regional Challenge topping No. 17 Northern State 86-65 before falling to Augustana on Saturday 72-58.
•The Ichabods lead the all-time series with William Jewell 12-5 and have won the last two meetings.
•The game will be the first time the Ichabods and Cardinals have played each other since Dec. 11, 1998 in Topeka.
•The match-up will be the first in Liberty since Dec. 1, 1988.
•The Ichabods have won the last four meetings played at William Jewell.
•The last loss at William Jewell for the Ichabods was on Feb. 10, 1970 in a 58-40 defeat.
•The first meeting in the series was on Feb. 3, 1911 in Liberty with the Cardinals winning 19-17.
•The 2021-22 season marks the 117th season of Ichabod basketball.
•Washburn was picked second both the MIAA Coaches and Media preseason polls. •Tyler Geiman led the team in scoring last season (20.8 ppg - 3rd in the MIAA), assists (6.2 apg - 1st in the MIAA and is 3rd in the NCAA), rebounds (6.5 rpg - 10th in the MIAA), second in steals (1.6 spg - 6th in the MIAA) and minutes (36.0 mpg - 2nd in the MIAA and 2nd in the NCAA) … he also ranked 11th in the MIAA in field goal percentage (.518).
•The Ichabods are led this season by Jalen Lewis and Michael Keegan who are each scoring 12.5 ppg.
•McNeese State transfer Jeremy Harrell is scoring 10.5 ppg.
•Tyler Geiman became the 26th member of Washburn's 1,000-point club at Missouri Western last season … his career total is 1,394 in 116 career games, which is ninth all-time on the Ichabod chart … next on the chart is Dan Buie who scored 1,484 in two seasons from 1995-97.
•Jalen Lewis is currently 20th on the Ichabod all-time scoring chart with 1,041 career points in 90 career games. WASHBURN ICHABOD HEAD COACH BRETT BALLARD
•is 83-39 in his fifth season as the Ichabods' head coach and 116-69 overall in his eighth year as a head coach.
•has led the Ichabods to three NCAA postseason appearances in four full 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 0-2 against William Jewell both coming while the head coach at Baker.
 
WILLIAM JEWELL HEAD COACH CHRIS MCCABE
•is now in his third season at the helm of the Cardinal program.
•the 14th coach in program history will look to get Jewell back to the GLVC Tournament for the first time since 2018.
•has never coached against Washburn.
  •The Cardinals are 1-1 this season topping Purdue Northwest 76-71 in their opener before falling to Davenport 75-67 at the GLIAC/GLVC Challenge.
•Jordan Jermain leads the team scoring 20.0 ppg with Heri Tshiyoyo is scoring 13.5 ppg and Kobe McKinley is scoring 12.5 ppg. Mason Alexander is scoring 11.5 ppg.
•The Cardinals enter their 123rd season of collegiate basketball winning 1,668 games during that span.
•Jewell returns eight letterwinners who appeared in at least 14 games a year ago, led by senior guard Mason Alexander. The southpaw from Kansas put in a career best 12.6 points per game last winter, second on the team, while shooting nearly 42% from the field and better than 82% from the free throw line.
•Also back is sophomore forward Grant Stubbs who put in 10.6 points and 6.7 rebounds on his way to earning GLVC All-Freshman Team honors. He posted three double-doubles in his debut campaign.
•Two players, Jordan Jermain and Trey Shannon, were extremely strong down the stretch of last season and are now expected to be key parts of the Cardinal cog in their second and third years respectively. The former averaged 12.6 points over the final 10 games of the year and 9.9 overall on the season while shooting 40% from three. Similarly, Shannon was superb from behind the arc (35%) averaging 6.4 points, including a streak of five straight career highs. KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Augustana Vikings jumped out to a 22-8 lead 9:20 into the game and never looked back as they handed the Ichabods their first loss of the season in a 72-58 loss.
The Ichabods trailed 43-21 at the break as the Vikings shot 16 of 30 in the first half while the Ichabods were 7 of 29 from the field. Augustana (2-0) also held a 27 to 8 advantage on the glass in the opening 20 minutes.
Washburn rallied in the second half to turn a deficit of as many as 25 to 11 with just under four minutes to play but would get no closer.
After shooting 24 percent in the first half the Ichabods improved to 44 percent in the second half going 14 of 32 from the field while outscoring the Vikings 37 to 29.
Michael Keegan and Kevaughn Ellis led the Ichabods with 12 points as the only Washburn players to reach double figures. Isaac Fink led the Vikings with 23 points pacing three in double figures.
Washburn finished 34 percent from the field for the game and went 6 of 21 from deep and 10 of 11 from the free throw line. Augustana was 25 of 56 over all for a 45 percent average hitting 9 of 23 3-pointers and 13 of 20 from the charity stripe.
The Vikings had a 44 to 26 advantage on the glass.
 
 SERIES HISTORY WITH WILLIAM JEWELL
•The Ichabods lead the series 12-5 and have won the last two meetings.
•Wednesday's meeting will be the first time the Ichabods and Cardinals have played each other since Dec. 11, 1998 in Topeka.
•The match-up will be the first in Liberty since Dec. 1, 1988. TOPEKA, Kan. -- Dec. 11, 1998 - The Washburn Ichabods shot 62 percent in the first half and never looked back as they defeated William Jewell 98-61 improving to 8-2 on the season dropping the Cardinals to 9-3.
Ewan Auguste led four Ichabods in double figures with 22 points going 11 of 14 from the field adding eight rebounds in the win. Lonnie Alexander scored 17 while Keldrick Brooks had 14 off the bench and Larry Framer scored 10.
Washburn led 47-37 at the break but shot an even better 65 percent in the second half while holding the Cardinals to six field goals on 23 attempts for a 26 percent average.
The Ichabods had a 41 to 25 advantage on the glass and force 18 Cardinal turnovers. William Jewell did finish 21 of 28 from the free throw line compared to 7 of 12 for the Ichabods.
  • The Ichabods are 1622-1098-2 all-time in the 117th 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 640-295 since joining the conference and the NCAA.
• The Ichabods have recorded 29 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 15 NCAA Tournament bids going to three Elite Eight's appearing in the 2001 NCAA National Championship game.
  • The Ichabods are 465-95 (.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.
  •The Ichabods will finally have a home game as they open the Lee Arena slate with Baker at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 20.