•    The Washburn Ichabods will open the home slate on Saturday at 2 p.m. when they will face Rockhurst in Lee Arena.
•    The Ichabods are coming off a 85-70 loss at William Jewell on Wednesday night in Liberty.
•    Rockhurst fell to 1-2 afer dropping a 92-76 loss to Missouri Western on Wednesday.
•    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. •    Sam Ungashick leads five Ichabods averaging in double figures this season at 15.0 ppg while averaging 5.0 assists and 1.0 steals per game. He is coming off a career-high 25 points against William Jewell last time out where he went 10 of 12 from the field connecting on all five of his 3-point attempts.
•    Andrew Orr is scoring 13.3 ppg this season going a perfect 10 of 10 from the free throw line.
•    Brady Christiansen is averaging 13.0 ppg with a team-high 7.0 rebonds per game hitting 7 of 14 3-point attempts.
•    Jake Schadegg is averaging 10.3 ppg shooting 7 of 10 from 3-point range.
•    Jack Bachelor is also scoring 10.3 ppg off the bench adding 2.0 rpg and 2.7 apg.
•    Michael Keegan is scoring 4.0 ppg with 4.3 rpg and 1.7 bkpg.
•    Jarmell Johnson is averaging 3.7 ppg and 3.7 rpg with 1.6 spg.
•    Three other Ichabods (Emmanuel Byrd, Bradyen Shorter, and Zaid Dajani) are averaging 3.3, 2.0 and 1.3 ppg respectively.
•    The Ichabods lead the nation in 3-point shooting at 52.9 percent hitting 27 of 51 attempts.
•    Ichabod associate athletic director Matt Hutchinson served as the Assistant to the Athletic Director / Assistant Men's Basketball coach at Rockhurst prior to coming to Washburn. He played basketball for the Hawks from 2012-2015, earning both his undergraduate and MBA degrees from the university.
  WASHBURN ICHABOD HEAD COACH BRETT BALLARD ...
•    is 119-66 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 is 1-3 against Rockhurst.
 
ROCKHURST HEAD COACH DREW DIENER ...
•    is in his ninth season on the Rockhurst bench and has gone 110-115 and 278-158 in his 15th season as a head coach.
•    he was coach for six seasons at Cardinal Stritch University where he was 169-44.
•    qualified for the national tournament in each of Diener's six seasons. The Wolves won the NAIA Division II national championship in 2013, and advanced to the Elite Eight in 2012 and the Sweet 16 in 2014 and 2015.
•    is 4-2 against the Ichabods.
  •    Rockhurst is 1-2 this season after falling at home to Missouri Western on Wednesday 92-76.
•    Miles White leads the team in scoring at 16.0 ppg hitting 10 of 17 3-pointers. This season, 10 of his 17 field goals have been 3-pointers and 17 of his 30 overall field goal attempts have been from deep.
•    Timaris Brown is scoring 11.0 ppg adding 5.0 rpg.
•    In the GLVC preseason coaches poll, William Jewell were picked to finish fourth, their highest spot since joining the league.
  •    Saturday's meeting will be the 64th in the all-time series.
•    Washburn leads the all-time series 32-31.
•    Rockhurst has won the last two meetings, three of the last four and five of the last seven.
•    The Ichabods are 20-9 in meetings in Topeka and have gone 10-21 in games played in Kansas City against the Hawks.
  (Nov. 18, 2022) KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Washburn Ichabods never led falling in a non-conference contest at Rockhurst on Friday night falling 79-70.
The Ichabods trailed by 10 at the half trailing 37-27 after starting the game 4 of 12 from the field falling behind by as many as 13 at 31-18 with 5:15 to play in the frame.
Trailing at 59-46 with 10:08 to go in the game, Washburn ripped off an 11-1 run over the next 3:13 cutting the lead to 60-55 with 7:11 to play. Rockhurst came back with an 8-2 run of its own pushing the lead back to 11 just before the final media timeout.
The Ichabods' Andrew Orr scored the third of his three straight baskets as Washburn pulled within 72-67 with 1:41 to play, but the Hawks hit a 3-pointer on their next possession and hit their final four free throws preserving the win.
Connor Deffebaugh had 17 points to lead the Ichabods adding four assists and Jordan Vincent had season bests of 12 points, six assists and five rebounds off the bench. Andrew Orr scored all 10 of his points in the second half.
Rockhurst was led by Jake Auer who had a career-high 20 points taking game-high honors.
Washburn finished 26 of 64 from the field and 7 of 26 from 3-point range hitting 11 of 17 free throws while Rockhurst was 26 of 57 from the field and 9 of 21 from deep and hit 18 of 23 free throws including 12 of 16 in the second half. Washburn was outrebounded 42 to 33 with 11 offensive rebounds turning into six points for the Hawks (2-2).
  (Nov. 15, 2023) LIBERTY, Mo. – Too many turnovers and a hot-shooting William Jewell squad was too much for the Ichabods to overcome as the men's squad fell 85-70 to the Cardinals on Wednesday in Liberty, Mo.
The Ichabods trailed 42-34 as the Cardinals closed the half on a 6-0 run while shooting a blistering 59 percent from the field going 17 of 29 overall and 6 of 12 from deep. The Ichabods were also hot from the field in the opening 20 minutes going 14 of 27 from the field and 6 of 11 from deep. Sam Ungashick scored 13 points in the first half going 5 of 5 from the field and 3 of 3 from deep. However, nine Ichabod turnovers leading to 14 points for the Cardinals pushing William Jewell to the eight-point halftime advantage.
Coming out of the intermission the Ichabods cut the Jewell lead to six at 47-71 after a 3-pointer by Michael Keegan and a floater by Ungashick with 16:49 to play, but then the Cardinal erupted for a 16-0 over the next 3:32 building a 63-41 lead.
Washburn (1-2) responded with a 7-0 run of its own cutting the difference back to 15 with 10:18 to play, Washburn cut the lead to 13 with under six minutes to play but would get no closer the rest of the game.
Ungashick led the Ichabods with a career-high 25 points on 10 of 12 shooting going 5 of 5 from the field adding five assists as the lone Ichabod to reach double figures. All five of the Cardinals (3-0) starters reached double digits led by Grant Stubbs' 18 points.
Washburn outshot the Cardinals from the field hitting 29 of 53 shots for a 55 percent clip compared to 29 of 57 for William Jewell. The Ichabods finished 10 of 19 from 3-point range while Jewell was 12 of 23. Washburn finished 2 of 6 from the free throw line while William Jewell was 15 of 17 on the backs of a 17 to 11 foul difference.
In all, 18 Ichabod turnovers led to 28 points for the Cardinals. Washburn tallied 12 points off of 10 Jewell turnovers.        •    The Ichabods are 1,659-1,125-2 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.
  •    Washburn will be back in action on Oct. 21 hosting Ottawa at 7:30 p.m. and then wrap up the non-conference slate with Avila on Nov. 25 before opening MIAA play on Dec. 2 at Emporia State.