•    The Washburn Ichabods will travel back toward the greater Kansas City area for their third game of the season when they will take on the William Jewell Cardinals on Wednesday in Liberty, Mo.
•    Washburn enters the match up with a 1-1 record after splitting a pair of games at the Central Regional Challenge last weekend in Kansas City's Municipal Auditorium.
•    The Ichabods opened the season with an 82-80 win over Sioux Falls on Nov. 11 before falling to Minnesota State Moorhead 79-77 the following day.
•    William Jewell is 2-0 this season after picking up a 73-68 win over Purdue Northwest last time out. The win marked the 1700th in program history, becoming the sixth program in NCAA Division II to reach the milestone. 
•    The Cardinals' other win was an 86-57 over Davenport in their season opener.
•    Washburn was 14-15 last season and return three starters in Andrew Orr, a third-team all-MIAA pick, who averaged 13.9 ppg and 5.9 rpg. Also back are Michael Keegan (8.0 ppg, 5.6 rpg) and Levi Braun (8.6, 2.0 rpg) from last year's starting five.
•    The Ichabods improved to 83-35-1 all-time in season openers and 5-2 in season openers under head coach Brett Ballard with their win over Sioux Falls this season.
•    The Ichabods have recorded 30, 20-win seasons and four under Ichabod head coach Brett Ballard in his six seasons receiving four NCAA postseasons berths.
•    The 2023-24 season marks the 119th season of Ichabod basketball. •    Andrew Orr, leads the Ichabods in scoring this season pacing five Ichabods averaging double figures at 17.0 ppg while adding 5.5 rpg.
•    Brady Christiansen is scoring 15.5 ppg with a team-best 7.0 rpg coming off a career-high 18 points against MSU-Moorhead last time out.
•    Jake Schadegg is scoring 12.0 ppg going 6 of 9 from 3-point range all off the bench.
•    Jack Bachelor is scoring 11.5 ppg off the game adding 3.0 apg and 2.5 rpg off the bench.
•    Sam Ungashick is scoring 10.0 ppg with 5.0 apg and 4.0 rpg and 2.0 spg.
•    Michael Keegan is scoring 4.5 ppg with 5.0 rpg and 2.0 bkpg.
•    Jarmell Johnson is averaging 4.5 ppg and 4.0 rpg with 2.0 spg.
•    Three other Ichabods (Zaid Dajani, Emmanuel Byrd and Bradyen Shorter) are averaging 2.0, 1.5 and 1.0 ppg respectively.
•    The Ichabods lead the nation in 3-point shooting at 53.1 percent hitting 17 of 32 attempts.
  WASHBURN ICHABOD HEAD COACH BRETT BALLARD ...
•    is 119-65 in his seventh season as the Ichabods' head coach and 151-94 overall in his ninth year as a head coach.
•    has led the Ichabods to four NCAA postseason appearances in six 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 and Tulsa basketball programs after working under head coach Danny Manning 2012-17 seasons.
•    he helped Wake Forest to its first NCAA Tournament appearance since the 2009-10 season following the 2016-17 season.
•    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.
•    he has never faced Sioux Falls or Minnesota State Moorhead.
 
WILLIAM JEWELL HEAD COACH CHRIS MCCABE ...
•    Chris McCabe is in his five season at the helm of the Cardinal program.
•    is 47-63 overall going 19-41 in GLVC games.
•    earned his undergraduate degree in social science at Kansas State and a master's in educational administration from Northwest Missouri State
•    is 1-1 against the Ichabods.
  •    William Jewell is 2-0 this season after opening the year with a 73-68 win over Purdue Northwest last time out. The win marked the 1700th in program history, becoming the sixth program in NCAA Division II to reach the milestone.
•    William Jewell won its opener 86-57 over Davenport.
•    Kobe McKinley leads the team in scoring at 18.5 ppg pacing four other Cardinals averaging in double figures followed by Jordan Jermain at 17.0 ppg, Grant Stubbs at 14.0 ppg and Trey Shannon at 10.5 ppg.
•    In the GLVC preseason coaches poll, William Jewell were picked to finish fourth, their highest spot since joining the league.
  •    The Ichabods lead the series 13-6 winning the last meeting 70-63 in Topeka on Nov. 16, 2022.
•    The Ichabods are 5-3 in road games and 8-3 in home contests and have won 8 of the last 10 overall.
•    The first meeting in the series was a 19-17 loss by the Ichabods on Feb. 3, 1911 in Liberty.
  (Nov. 16, 2022) TOPEKA, Kan. – The Washburn Ichabods men's basketball team won its 32nd home opener in a row in Lee Arena on Wednesday night in a 70-63 win over William Jewell improving to 2-1 on the season. 
The Ichabods started cold from the field hitting only 2 of their first 13 shots in the first eight minutes of the contest falling behind 14-4 as William Jewell (1-2) was 6 of 10 including a pair of 3-pointers taking the 10-point lead. A Jarmell Johnson 3-pointer jump started the Ichabod offense igniting a 13-2 run over the next 4:41 as Washburn pushed in front 17-16.
The teams traded baskets with neither squad going up by more than four until a 10-4 run by the Ichabods to end the half capped by a 3-pointer by Connor Deffebaugh put the Ichabods up 32-27 heading into the break.
Washburn used a 7-0 out of the locker room to move the cushion to 10 points at 39-29. William Jewell cut the lead back to three at 41-38 with 14:54 to go and would get within four at 56-52 (the score of last year's game in Liberty with an Ichabod loss) with 6:24 to play but the Ichabods would go 8 of 11 from the free throw line from that point on and 6 of 8 the final 4:29 of the game preserving the win.
Johnson led the Ichabods off the bench with 14 points adding three rebounds. Andrew Orr scored 13 followed by Deffebaugh's 11 points (with six assists) and Michael Keegan's 10 points. Brady Christiansen recorded a monster night on the glass with 19 rebounds, including 11 offensive boards adding nine points. The 19 rebounds were the most by an Ichabod since Brady Skeens recorded 22 in two different games in 2017.
Washburn finished 25 of 72 from the field and 15 of 18 from the free throw line. William Jewell was 21 of 51 overall and 16 of 27 from the free throw line. Washburn outrebounded the Cardinals 50 to 33 and 21 to 7 on the offensive glass turning the 21 offensive rebounds into 16 second chance points. Washburn's bench also held a 29 to 10 advantage in scoring.
  (Nov. 12, 2023) KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Washburn Ichabods battled back from a 10-point deficit with 3:46 to go in the game and had a chance to tie the score with under a second to go but the Ichabods came up short in a 79-77 loss to Minnesota State Moorhead in its final game of the Central Regional Challenge on Sunday afternoon in Municipal Auditorium.
With the Ichabods (1-1) down 73-63, Andrew Orr scored on a layup and after the teams traded free throws, Michael Keegan scored three-straight points for Washburn. The first coming on a free throw with 2:35 to go and then on a driving lay up with 1:49 remaining cutting the lead back to five at 74-69.
Sam Ungashick hit a lay-up of his own with 1:20 to play trimming the lead down to three at 74-71. After a Dragons (2-0) free throw with 41 seconds to play that stretched their lead back to four, Orr connected on another lay-up pulling Washburn back to two points down with 29 seconds to go.
After two more charities by the Dragons to go up 77-73, Jarmell Johnson hit a free throw followed by a free throw by MSUM pushing the lead back to four at 78-74. Brady Christiansen hit a guarded 3-pointer with five seconds to go as Washburn cut the lead back to one point. After a foul by Washburn, the Dragons hit one of two free throws and Johnson was fouled on a drive with 0.3 seconds to play. The Ichabods missed the first free throw and intentionally missed the second, but did not secure the ball in the 2-point loss. Overall, the Dragons hit 4 of 6 free throws in the final 21 seconds.
The game was tied at 36 at the break as the Ichabods shot 50 percent from the field and hit 6 of 8 3-pointers, but committed 13 turnovers in the first half and 21 for the game compared to eight for the Dragons overall.
Christiansen led the Ichabods with 18 points adding six rebounds going 4 of 6 from deep pacing five Washburn players in double figures. Sam Ungashick scored 13 with six points and Jack Bachelor had 11 points and a game-high five assists. Orr finished with 10 points and eight boards and Jake Schadegg had 10 points.
Jacob Beeninga led the Dragons with 20 points.
Washburn finished the game shooting 51 percent from the field on 25 of 49 shooting connecting on 52 percent in the second half on 12 of 23 shooting. Washburn was 14 of 24 from the free throw line in the second half going 18 of 30 overall.        •    The Ichabods are 1,659-1,124-2 all-time in the 118th year in the program's history.
•    Washburn is the 10th-winningest program in NCAA Division II history by victories.
•    Washburn is 675-317 since joining the conference and the NCAA.
•    The Ichabods have recorded 30 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 16 NCAA Tournament bids going to three Elite Eight's appearing in the 2001 NCAA National Championship game.
  •    The Ichabods are 487-102 (.848) all-time in Lee Arena.
•    The 2022-23 season marks the 38th season of play in Lee Arena.
•    The Ichabods are 37-1 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 have their home opener will be on Nov. 18 when they will take on Rockhurst at 2 p.m. in Lee Arena.