• The Washburn Ichabods will finish off the home slate on Thursday night as they will host Missouri Southern at 7:30 p.m. in Lee Arena.
• It will also be the final home game for Ichabods Tyler Nelson and Connor Deffebaugh, who will be honored in a pregame ceremony.
• The Ichabods are 13-13 and 10-10 coming off a 65-53 win over Central Missouri on Saturday.
• The Lions (16-10, 12-8 MIAA) are coming off an 84-70 loss at Fort Hays State in their home finale on Feb. 18.
• The Lions won the first meeting of the season between the two teams on Jan. 12 in Joplin in a 70-50 win.
• The Ichabods lead the all-time series 51-37 winning the last two games played in Topeka.
• The Ichabods are 31-12 against the Lions in games played in Topeka  and 24-10 in games played in Lee Arena.
• Washburn is 9-3 in home games this season.
• The Ichabods are coming off the program's 30th 20-win season and the fourth under Ichabod head coach Brett Ballard in his five seasons reaching their fourth NCAA postseason in five years under head coach Brett Ballard in 2022-23.
• The 2022-23 season marks the 118th season of Ichabod basketball. • Andrew Orr leads the Ichabods in scoring at 13.7 ppg while averaging 14.3 ppg in MIAA contests. Orr recorded his second double double of the season against Newman when he had 14 points and 10 rebounds. He is third on the team in rebounds at 5.6 per game. Orr is 11th in the MIAA in scoring average and third in the MIAA in field goal percentage at 60 percent and has hit double figure scoring in nine of his last 10 games.
• Tyler Nelson is averaging 11.6 ppg overall scoring 12.1 ppg in MIAA contests. He tied a career-high with 25 points against Nebraska-Kearney and has reached double digits in his last 10 of his last 13 games averaging 14.3 ppg.
• Levi Braun is scoring 9.3 ppg and has hit 58 of 132 3-pointers (44 percent). He tied a career-high with seven rebounds against Missouri Western. Of his 78 field goals this season, 58 have been from 3-point range.
• Jarmell Johnson is scoring 8.1 ppg with 3.2 rpg. Johnson scoring 8.7 ppg with 3.5 rpg in MIAA games tying a season-high with 16 points at Newman. He has reached double figures in five of the last six games averaging 11.7 ppg.
• Michael Keegan is scoring 7.9 ppg with 5.7 rpg with 20 steals and 23 blocks. He scored a career-high 21 points against Newman going 8 of 11 from the field adding nine rebounds. In MIAA games he is scoring 8.4 ppg with 5.4 rpg … he is seventh in the MIAA in blocks per game.
• Connor Deffebaugh is scoring 6.8 ppg adding 2.5 assists per game.
• Jaden Monday is scoring 5.5 ppg and has gone 23 of 72 from 3-point range this season.
• Brady Christiansen is scoring 5.4 adding 6.8 rpg which leads the team scoring a career-high 16 against Central Oklahoma. He is ranked fifth in the MIAA in rebounds. In MIAA games is he averaging 5.7 ppg with 6.3 rpg. This season, Christiansen has 177 rebounds, which is third on the Ichabod all-time freshman chart. His 6.8 rpg average would be fifth on the chart if the season ended today.
• Jordan Vincent is scoring 4.1 ppg with 1.1 rpg and 2.0 apg. He has gone 18 of 23 from the free throw line this season.
• Zaid Dajani is scoring 2.6 ppg in 17 appearances.
• Jake Schadegg has scored 10 points appearing in seven games while Emmanuel Byrd has scored eight points in seven games. Zach Davidson has played in seven games and Kevin Eman has appeared in two.
  WASHBURN ICHABOD HEAD COACH BRETT BALLARD
• is 117-62 in his sixth season as the Ichabods' head coach and 150-92 overall in his eighth year as a head coach.
• has led the Ichabods to four NCAA postseason appearances in five 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.
• is 4-6 against Missouri Southern.
 
MISSOURI SOUTHERN HEAD COACH SEAN McMAHON
• is 16-10 in his first season as Missouri Southern's head coach.
• he is in his second stint roaming the sidelines at the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center as he served as an assistant and later associate head coach for the Lions for six seasons.
• he was an assistant coach at Division I Southeast Missouri for the past two seasons.
• is 1-0 against Washburn.
  • The Lions are 16-10 going 12-8 in the MIAA.
• The Lions have three players averaging double figures led by Winston Dessesow at 12.7 ppg. Vinson Sigmon, Jr., is scoring 12.1 ppg and Avery Taggart is scoring 12.0.
• The Lions are averaging 74.2 ppg while allowing 69.5 per game and they are +6.0 in rebound margin.
  (Jan. 12, 2023)  JOPLIN, Mo. – The Washburn Ichabods were held to a season-low 50 points as the Missouri Southern Lions won their seventh-straight game in a 70-50 win over the Ichabods. 
The Ichabods (5-9, 2-6 MIAA) trailed 38-25 at the break after going 7:33 off the clock without a point. After Michael Keegan connected on a 3-pointer with 15:37 to go putting the Ichabods up 10-9, the Ichabods went 0 of 12 from the field as the Lions (11-4, 7-2 MIAA) went on a 16-0 run to build a 25-10 lead with 8:57 to go in the half. Washburn responded with a 9-3 run of its own trimming the lead to nine at 28-19 but did not get any closer entering the locker room.
Washburn was 10 of 31 from the field in the first half as the Lions hit 15 of 26 shots overall and were outrebounded 20 to 14.
In the second half, Washburn cut the lead to 10 at 42-32 with 15:05 to go in the game but would not get any closer the rest of the game as the Ichabods struggled from field shooting 29 percent in the second half in the loss hitting 10 of 34 shots and 2 of 11 from deep.
The Ichabods were led by Jarmell Johnson's 15 points setting a career-high as he went 6 of 11 from the field. Andrew Orr had eight points and Michael Keegan and Tyler Nelson each had seven. Brady Christiansen led the Ichabods with eight boards.
Christian Bundy led all scorers with 16.
For the game the Ichabods were 31 percent from the field hitting 20 of 65 shots and finished 5 of 24 from 3-point range while going 5 of 12 from the free throw line. The Lions finished at 50 percent for the game connecting on 28 of 56 attempts. The Lions outrebounded the Ichabods 44 to 33 and outscored the Ichabods 42 to 24 in the paint.
  • Thursday's meeting will be 89th between these two schools in a series that dates back to 1968-69.
• Washburn leads the all-time series 51-37 … the Ichabods have averaged 78.2 points a game against the Lions in the 88 previous meetings.
• Washburn is 31-12 against the Lions in home games and 19-22 in road contests.
• The two teams have met at least once a year since 1976-77.
• The Ichabods are 3-2 against the Lions in the MIAA Tournament.
• In games played in Lee Arena, the Ichabods are 24-10.
• The teams have met three times in the NCAA Tournament - on March 10, 2000 when the Lions picked up a 79-73 overtime win in Joplin and on March 12, 2011 when the Lions topped the Ichabods in overtime again 82-79 in Edmond, Okla., and March 16, 2019 in Maryville, Mo. with the Lions winning 101-100. (Feb. 18, 2023) WARRENSBURG, Mo. – The Washburn men's basketball team led for 37:25 of the game as they picked up a 65-53 win over Central Missouri on Saturday in Warrensburg, Mo.
After the Mules (11-15, 6-13 MIAA) scored the first four points of the game, the Ichabods (13-13, 10-10 MIAA) came back with eight-straight points. Central Missouri doubling up the Mules.  Washburn led the Mules at 21-20 with 7:33 in the first half and then would finish the half outscoring Central 13-6 to take a 34-26 lead into the break.
The Mules outscored the Ichabods 14-9 over the first eight minutes of the half cutting back the Washburn lead to 43-40 but a 16-4 spurt by the Ichabods stretched the lead to 15 at 59-44 and UCM would get no closer than 11 the rest of the way.
Washburn was led by Andrew Orr who scored 17 points adding eight rebounds on 7 of 12 shooting. Six of his rebounds were on the offensive ends. Tyler Nelson had 12 points and Jarmell Johnson had 10 points off the bench.
Jack Chapman led the Mules with 12 points off the bench as the only Mule to reach double figures.
Washburn shot 39 percent in the game hitting 18 of 22 free throws going 21 of 54 shots from the field and 5 of 16 shots from deep. The Mules were 23 of 58 shooting 40 percent from the field going 3  of 23 from deep and 4 of 4 from the free throw line during the game.
Washburn outrebounded the Mules 38 to 33 and forced 16 UCM turnovers turning them into 16 points. Washburn also had 17 second chance points.    • The Ichabods are 1,657-1121-2 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 673-315 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 485-102 (.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 end the regular season at Emporia State on Feb. 25.