•    For only the third time in program history, the Washburn Ichabods will play in the NCAA National semifinals as they will face No. 2-ranked Nova Southeastern on Thursday, March 27 in Evansville, Ind.
•    The Ichabods are making their fourth trip to the NCAA Elite Eight joining the 1993, 1994 and 2001 Washburn squads.
•    No. 5  Washburn (30-3) advanced to the national semifinals after topping No. 10-ranked Lenoir-Rhyne 90-78 on Tuesday night.
•    Nova Southeastern is 34-1 this season winning its last 21 games.
•    The Sharks, who are the No. 1 overall seed at the NCAA Elite Eight, beat Assumption 102-93 to advance to the final four.
•    The Ichabods are 20-16 all-time in NCAA Tournament.
•    Washburn is 4-3 at the Elite Eight and now 3-1 in the national quarterfinals games while going 1-1 in the NCAA National Semifinal game. Washburn beat Western Washington on March 22, 2001 96-90 in Bakersfield, Calif. to advance to the 2001 national championship game.
•    The Ichabods have never faced a team from the Sunshine State Conference in the NCAA Tournament.
•    The last time the Ichabods hosted the NCAA Regional it was the South Central Bracket and a six-team regional. After a first-round bye, Washburn defeated West Texas A&M 86-61 on March 9, 2001 in an 86-61 win and then on the following night, the Ichabods defeated Northwest Missouri 67-61 in front of more than 4,000 in attendance to advance to the Elite Eight and then eventually to the national championship game.
•    The Ichabods clinched their 11th MIAA regular season championship after their 90-60 win over Rogers State on Senior Day on Feb. 22.
•    The Ichabods' 29 wins this season is tied for second on the Ichabod program single-season chart.
•    The Ichabods' single season record for wins in a season is 35 when the Ichabods won the NAIA National Championship in 1987.
•    The Ichabods recorded a program-best 17 wins during the MIAA season this year.
•    The Ichabods have been in the top five in the national rankings for 16-straight weeks for the first time in program history.
•    The Ichabods finished the 2023-24 season with a 19-11 record advancing to the MIAA Tournament semifinals.
•    The Ichabods have recorded 31, 20-win seasons and five under Ichabod head coach Brett Ballard in his eight seasons receiving  four NCAA postseason berths.
•    The 2024-25 season marks the 120th season of Ichabod basketball.
  •    The Ichabods recorded their 1,700th all-time program against Rogers State earlier this season. The Ichabods are the seventh NCAA D2 program to reach the 1,700 win mark.
•    Andrew Orr became the 28th member of the Ichabod 1,000 point club with a free throw at Fort Hays State earlier this season … he now has 1,348 career points sitting in 11th all-time … in collecting his now 519 career rebounds, Orr became the 13th member of the Ichabod 1,000-point/500 rebound club.
•    Michael Keegan went over the 1,000-point mark in his Washburn career against Harding in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament and now has 1,011 becoming the 29th member of the Ichabod 1,000 point club … in 129 career games as an Ichabod, he is third on the career blocks chart with 104… he is also second all-time in steals with 165 trailing all-time leader Will McNeill who had 247 from 2008-13 … Keegan also went over the 200-assist mark the earlier this season … in reaching 1,000 career points, Keegan is now the second Ichabod to have at least 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 100 blocks, 100 steals and 100 assists joining only Ewan Auguste … he is also now the third member of the Ichabod 1,000 point / 100 block list joining Ewan Auguste and Brady Skeens … and he is now the 14th member of the 1,000 point / 500 rebound chart and the ninth member of the 1,000 point / 100 steals grouping.
•    Jack Bachelor is 11th in the nation and leading the MIAA in assist to turnover radio at 3.02 and he is sixth in total assists at 187 and 13th in assists per game with 5.7.
•    The Ichabods are third in the nation in rebound margin at +10.0, seventh in the nation in field goal percentage at 51.0 percent, 22nd in scoring defense allowing 66.9 ppg, third in scoring margin at +20.2 and eighth in free throws made per game at 18.4.
•    Jacob Hanna is ninth in the nation in free throws made with 180 and fourth in attempts with 249 leading the MIAA.
•    Andrew Orr is 10th in the nation in field goal percentage at 64.4 leading the MIAA.
•    Michael Keegan is 14th in the nation and leading the MIAA in steals with 71 and he is ranked 21st in the nation in steals per game at 2.26 per game.
•    Brayden Shorter is fourth in the nation in 3-pointers per game at 3.58 and he's first in total 3-pointers made at 118 … his 118 3-pointers is the most in program history on the Ichabod sophomore record chart passing Todd Alexander who hit 83 during the 1990-91 season and his total is the Ichabod overall single-season chart passing Maurice Lamar … Shorter's 314 3-point attempts is the Ichabod single season record.
•    Brady Christiansen is 39th on the Ichabod all-time 3-pointers chart with 73 and tied for 12th all-time in rebounds with 573.
•    Dillon Claussen tied a career-high with 17 points against Lenoir-Rhyne in the national quarterfinal game after hitting all seven field goal attempts tying a season-high with 22 minutes played.
•    The Ichabods have recorded their 31st, 20-win season and fifth under Ichabod head coach Brett Ballard in his eighth season at the helm earlier this season and only the program's second 30-win season this year joining the NAIA National Championship team from 1986-87 to reach 30 wins.
  •    Jack Bachelor's .861 (93-109) free throw percentage is ninth on the Ichabod single season chart  and his 187 assists this season is fourth on the single season chart … Bachelor is the only Ichabod not named Jordan Canfield or Tyler Geiman to be in the top eight of the Ichabod single-season assist chart.
•    Michael Keegan's 72 steals this season is fourth on the Ichabod single season chart trailing Bobby Sumler (73 in 1986-87), Will McNeill (76 in 2011-12) and McNeill again with 82 in 2012-13.
•    Jacob Hanna's 180  free throws made this season is eighth on the Ichabod single season chart … the single season school record is 249 by Dan Buie during the 1996-97 season … Hanna's 249 free throw attempts is fifth trailing Buie's 371 from the 1996-97 season.
•    The Ichabod scoring average of 87.2 is third all-time on the Ichabod single season chart behind the 1991-92 team with 88.1 and the 1994-95 team with 89.5 ppg.
•    The Ichabod defensive scoring average of 66.6 is 12th all-time on the Ichabod single season chart.
•    The Ichabod scoring margin of 20.0 this season is the best in program history ahead of the 14.9 scoring margin from the 1991-92 team.
  WASHBURN ICHABOD HEAD COACH BRETT BALLARD ...
•    is 167-78 in his eighth season as the Ichabods' head coach and 200-111 overall in his 10th year as a head coach.
•    has led the Ichabods to five NCAA postseason appearances in eight seasons at Washburn as well as the 2021 MIAA Tournament Championship and the 2025 MIAA Regular season title.
•    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 coached against Nova Southeastern.
 
NOVA SOUTHEASTERN HEAD COACH JIM CRUTCHFIELD ...
•    is making his tenth trip to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight, having guided the NSU Men's Basketball team to the tournament in each of the last four seasons.
•    is 202-25 in his seventh season at Nova Southeastern and has a career record of 561-86 in 20 seasons as a head coach.
•    is 0-0 against the Ichabods.
  •    The Sharks are 34-1 and winners of their last 21 games.
•    The Sharks are led by JM Iraldi averaging 23.5 ppg. Ryker Cisarik is scoring 18.8 ppg followed by Ross Reeves at 13.2 ppg, Dallas Graziani at 12.7 ppg and Tyler Eberhart at 12.4 ppg.
•    The Sharks are averaging 102.7 ppg while allowing 78.86 ppg and have hit 37 percent of their 3-point attempts this season hitting 296 of 809 tries … The Sharks are averaging 42.5 rpg while allowing 34.9 rpg and have forced 653 turnovers compared to committing 368 themselves.
  •    The Ichabods have never faced Nova Southeastern in basketball.
  (March 25, 2025) EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The No. 5 Washburn Ichabods moved into the NCAA National Semifinals with a 90-78 win over Lenoir-Rhyne sending the Ichabods to the final four of the national tournament on Thursday night at 8:30 pm CST against No. 1-ranked Nova Southeastern.
The Ichabods led from start to finish thanks to a hot start coming out of the gate pulling in front of the No. 10-ranked Bears 13-4 lead after Brayden Shorter scored nine points in the early going.
Washburn pushed its lead to 13 after a traditional 3-point play from Jacob Hanna putting the Ichabods up 27-14 with 11:48 remaining in the first, but the Bears (29-6) chipped away trimming their deficit to five less than 60 seconds later before a pair of Hanna free throws, a 3-pointer from Shorter and a Hanna bucket in the paint pushed the margin back to 10.
The lead stayed in double digits until the Bears used a 9-0 run pulling within three again at 40-37. Back-to-back layups from Dillon Claussen and Michael Keegan stretched the lead back to seven before LRU hit three free throws with 37 seconds left, but Jack Bachelor's jumper sent the Ichabods to the locker room with a 46-40 lead.
In the second half, the Ichabods went up by 20 at 64-45 with 14:42 to play and to as many as 21 before the Bears came back again.
The Bears eventually cut the lead to five with 3:14 to go, but two jumpers in a row from Dillon Claussen put the margin at 11 and the Bears did not get closer than nine the rest of the way.
The Ichabods had six players in double figures led by Shorter's 18 points. Claussen came off the bench to score a season-high-tying 17 points (recorded against Harding in the NCAA Regional Quarterfinals) on 7 of 7 shooting. Both Hanna and Bachelor finished with 12 points as Bachelor dished out nine assists. Hanna also added six boards and five assists. Brady Christiansen finished with 12 points and four boards and Andrew Orr had 10 points and three boards. Keegan tallied four points, six rebounds, two assists and a steal.
Junior Hodnett led the Bears with 19 points.
Washburn finished 53 percent from the field going 31 of 58 and 10 of 21 from deep also hitting 18 of 21 free throws. The Bears shot 41 percent connecting on 17 of 20 free throws and 9 of 24 from 3-point range.
Washburn held a 36 to 29 advantage on the glass and outscored the Bears 40 to 34 in the paint and 24 to 5 in fast break points.
  • The Ichabods became the second team in program history to reach the 30-win mark joining the 1986-87 NAIA National Championship team who were 35-4.
• Ichabod head coach Brett Ballard won his 200th career game as a coach against the Bears.
• With his five 3-pointers, Brayden Shorter became the Ichabods' all-time single season leader passing Maurice Lamar who hit 113 in the 1991-92 season.
• The Ichabods will be playing in their third NCAA National Semifinals game going 1-1 overall.
• The 1993-94 team fell to CSU-Bakersfield 67-64 in the semfinals in Springfield, Mass.
• The 2000-01 team topped Western Washington 96-90 to reach the national championship game.
• The Ichabods have never faced Nova Southeastern.
• Jack Bachelor's 187 assists this season moved into third on the Ichabod single season chart.
• The 33 starts through the NCAA National Quarterfinals by Bachelor, Orr, Keegan and Hanna are eighth on the single-season chart … the Ichabod single season record is 39.
• The 275 3-pointers made this season is third on the Ichabod single-season chart … the school record is 293 shared by the 2020-21 and 2018-19 teams.
• The 763 3-point attempts is second on the Ichabod single season chart, trailing the 2021-22 who attempted 778.
•    The Ichabods led the NCAA D2 ranks in cumulative attendance this season with 35,633  and also led the nation in average attendance at 2,229 per game.
•    Washburn has a 16-game home court winning streak which is tied for the fifth-longest fin the D2 ranks.
•    Only Washburn equipment manager Ron Wessel has been on the Ichabod staff for all four NCAA Elite Eight appearances starting at Washburn in 1980. •    The Ichabods are 1,706-1,136-2 all-time in the 119th year in the program's history.
•    Washburn is the seventh-winningest program in NCAA Division II history by victories.
•    Washburn is 710-328 since joining the conference and the NCAA.
•    The Ichabods have recorded 31 20-win seasons and they have two 30-win seasons after going 35-4 during the 1986-87 NAIA Championship season and after the 2024-25 season.
•    Washburn has won 22 conference championships including 11 MIAA titles.
•    Washburn has received 16 NCAA Tournament bids going to four Elite Eight's appearing in the 2001 NCAA National Championship game.
  •    The Ichabods are 515-104 (.831) all-time in Lee Arena.
•    The 2024-25 season marks the 40th season of play in Lee Arena.
•    The Ichabods are 39-1 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 winner of the Ichabod / Sharks contest will face the winner of the Dallas Baptist/Cal. St. Dominguez Hills on Saturday at 2 p.m. in the NCAA Division II Championship game.