SOUTH DAKOTA STATE (4-5) vs. WICHITA STATE (7-2)
Saturday, Dec. 9 | 6:00 p.m. CDT
Wichita, Kan. | INTRUST Bank Arena
TV: None
Radio: KEYN 103.7 FM with Mike Kennedy & Dave Dahl
Note: Gates open one hour before tipoff.
OPENING TIPS
• Wichita State heads downtown for its annual game at INTRUST Bank Arena where the Shockers face the South Dakota State Jackrabbits on Saturday at 6 p.m.
• A win would move the Shockers to 8-2 and would be the best start since 2019-20 when they also started the season 8-1.
• Wichita State is 14-3 all time when playing on Dec. 9.
• Wichita State is 3-0 all time vs. South Dakota State with all three wins coming in Charles Koch Arena.
• South Dakota State is 4-5 this season, coming in off a loss to Kent State at home on Tuesday. The loss snapped a three-game win streak.
• With the exception of 2020-21 (due to COVID-19) , Wichita State has played its annual downtown game in every season since 2010-11. The Shockers are 8-4 at INTRUST Bank Arena.
• Wichita State is coming off its first road loss of the season at Missouri, 82-72.
• Wichita State committed 18 turnovers at Missouri after 14 in the previous two games combined.
• Harlond Beverly has 19 assists over his last three games. He recorded his first double-double at Missouri with 12 points and a career-high 17 rebounds.
• Beverly now leads the team in assists with 30.
• Colby Rogers (16.6 ppg; leading scorer) has made a three-pointer in all nine games this season and multiple in eight of the nine. He ranks 19th nationally in FG attempts, 36th in 3-pt attempts, 42nd in 3-point FGM and 45th in field goals.
• Rogers eclipsed 1,000 career points on Wednesday vs. Richmond with a game-high 19 points.
• Xavier Bell and Rogers have scored in double figures in eight of the nine games this season, and they both have a pair of 20-point games to their name.
• Wichita State ranks 4th nationally in defensive rebounds per game, 7th in rebounds per game, 14th in rebound margin and 24th in field goal defense.
• Quincy Ballard ranks 12th nationally in blocks (22). He had a career-high 7 vs. Norfolk State.
• Paul Mills is only the fifth coach in school history to start 7-2 or better in his first nine games. Wilmer Elfrink won his first nine games in 1920.
• Wichita State celebrated the 20th anniversary of Charles Koch Arena on Wednesday, Nov. 29.
• Wichita State checks in at No. 82 in the first week of the NET rankings.
• Wichita State is guaranteed to have a winning non-conference record for the 26th consecutive season.
• Wichita State returns only 20.3 percent of its scoring from a season ago, having lost its top four scorers. Pohto is the only returner to average more than 4.0 points per game. Craig Porter Jr., James Rojas, Gus Okafor and Isaiah Poor Bear-Chandler exhausted their eligibility, and four others exited via the transfer portal.
• The 2022-23 Shockers ranked 230th in adjusted tempo, but that will most certainly change under Mills’ leadership. His Oral Roberts squad was 40th in tempo last season.
• Wichita State ranked near the very bottom in the NCAA when it came to 3-point shooting a season ago. Converting on just 30.9 percent of its attempts from beyond the arc, that ranked 324th nationally. Mills’ Oral Roberts squad on the other hand attempted nearly 400 more and shot 36.5 percent, which ranked 56th in the country.
• Oklahoma transfer, Bijan Cortes, had his NCAA waiver denied and will sit out at least the first semester. There is still a chance he could have a waiver approved for the second semester. In two seasons at Oklahoma, Cortes averaged 2.6 points, 1.5 rebounds and 1.7 assists per game. He appeared in 59 career games with the Sooners and was a career 50 percent 3-point shooter. In his final season he posted career highs of 3.2 points, 2.0 assists and was 13-of-27 from beyond the arc.
• Ronnie DeGray III is another transfer who is currently sitting out due to NCAA transfer rules. The former Missouri Tiger and UMass Minuteman is a two-time transfer and awaiting a decision on an NCAA waiver to see if he will be eligible to play this season in the Black and Yellow.
BEVERLY’S BOARDS
• Harlond Beverly was a rebounding machine in Wichita State’s road tilt at Missouri on Dec. 3. Beverly grabbed a career-high 17 rebounds – 10 of those coming in the first half.
• His previous career high was 11, which he did all the way back on Nov. 29, 2020 at Miami.
• Beverly’s 17 rebounds were the most by a Shocker since Ramon Clemente had 17 against UMKC on Nov. 19, 2008.
LEAD GUARDS
• Colby Rogers and Xavier Bell have formed a potent 1-2 scoring attack for Wichita State through nine games. Rogers leads Wichita State in scoring at 16.6 per game and Bell is right behind at 14.8.
• The duo of Rogers and Bell make up 39.5 percent of Wichita State’s scoring as they’ve accounted for 282 points.
• Both players have scored in double figures in eight of the first nine games and they each have a pair of 20-point outings to their name.
SCOUTING SOUTH DAKOTA STATE
• Led by fifth year head coach Erich Henderson, South Dakota State enters the matchup at 4-5.
• Henderson’s squads have won at least a share of the Summit League regular season title in three of four seasons at helm of the program.
• South Dakota State has reached the postseason four times with Henderson on the staff. That includes three NCAA Tournament berths (2017, 2018, 2022) and an NIT appearance in 2019.
• Over the last decade, South Dakota State has won 226 games, ranking 28th nationally.
• South Dakota State has played in eight of the last 10 postseasons, excluding the 2019-20 season when the COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancellation of all postseason tournaments. The Jacks have been to six NCAA tournaments, a pair of National Invitation Tournaments (NIT) and one trip to the College Basketball Invitational (CBI).
• The Jackrabbits were picked to win the Summit League in the Preseason Poll, receiving 27 first place votes.
• Zeke Mayo was tabbed the Summit League Preseason Player of the Year, and was joined on the first team by Luke Appel. William Kyle II was named to the second team.
• Mayo is off to stellar start this season, averaging 17.9 points, 6.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game. The Lawrence, Kan. native has scored 20 or more four times this season, including back-to-back 28-point outings to begin the season. He has a pair of double-doubles to his name as well.
• Mayo recently surpassed 1,000 career points, becoming the 53rd Jackrabbit to accomplish the feat.
• Appel is a 47 percent shooter overall and 42 percent from long range and puts in 12.1 points per game.
• Kyle grabs 5.6 rebounds to go with 11.8 points as a sophomore forward. He’s registered a combined 43 points his last three outings across 63 minutes
• Charlie Easley averages 11.0 points, 5.8 rebounds and is converting on more than 44 percent of his three-point attempts. Easley went scoreless against Towson, but grabbed a career-high nine rebounds and dished out five assists. He followed up a scoreless outing with 17 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals vs. Kent State.
ALL-TIME SERIES VS. SOUTH DAKOTA STATE
• Wichita State has won all three meetings in the series, which dates back to 1977. All three have been played in Wichita as well.
• The series was renewed back in 2016 and 2017 when the Jackrabbits visited Charles Koch Arena in consecutive seasons.
• In 2016, Landry Shamet paced five Shockers in double figures with a game-high 21 points on 6-of-10 shooting from beyond the arc. Wichita State cruised to an 89-67 win.
• Wichita State shot a blistering 54 percent from the field and 15-of-34 (44.1 percent) from three-point range.
• Markis McDuffie added 17 points, 7 rebounds and 5 steals.
• South Dakota State legend Mike Daum scored 20 points in his first visit to Charles Koch Arena.
• Nearly a year later the two programs met again, and a high scoring contest broke out in the Roundhouse.
• South Dakota State raced out to a 50-42 halftime lead, but Wichita State reversed the trend outscoring the Jackrabbits, 53-35, after halftime to win 95-85.
• Daum lit up the Shocker defense to the tune of 31 points on 7-of-12 from downtown.
• The two teams combined to shoot 24-for-58 from beyond the arc and both teams shot 50 percent or better from the field.
• Shamet once again poured in a team-high 21 points to go with 8 assists, 4 rebounds and a pair of steals.
• Shaq Morris was nearly perfect from the field, scoring 20 points on 9-of-11 field goal tries.
• Conner Frankamp and Darral Willis Jr. added 16 and 13, respectively.
CONNECTIONS
• Head Coach Paul Mills is no stranger to the Jackrabbits, having faced South Dakota State every year over the past six seasons while at Oral Roberts. Mills’ 2022-23 Oral Roberts team swept South Dakota State in the two regular season meetings.
• Mills posted a 4-9 record against South Dakota State during his tenure with the Golden Eagles.
• Kansas natives Zeke Mayo (Lawrence) and Nate Barnhart (Lenexa) represent the Sunflower State on Jackrabbit roster.
BETTER CALL PAUL
• Head Coach Paul Mills has the Shockers at 7-2 through his first nine games on the bench.
• Mills is off to the best coaching start through nine games at Wichita State since Randy Smithson was 7-2 in 1996. Only Wilmer Elfrink has had a better nine-game start to a career.
• Wichita State’s 7-2 start is the best since 2019 when the Shockers started 8-1.
ACCESS DENIED
• Wichita State has an elite rim protector in Quincy Ballard. His season was cut short in 2022-23 due to injuries, so he’s only played 19 total games in his Shocker career. In those 19 games he has 36 blocked shots. Twenty-two of those have come in the first 9 games.
• Through 9 games his 22 blocks rank 12th nationally and his 2.44 blocks per game rank 19th.
• He has multiple blocks in all but one game this season.
A SHOCKER WIN WOULD…
… Make them 8-2 this season and 9-4 all-time at INTRUST Bank Arena.
… Improve their record to 2-1 on a neutral court.
… Make them 15-3 all time on Dec. 9.
… Give Paul Mills 114 career coaching victories.
… Run their record to 1,665-1,247 all time.
… Make them 4-0 vs. South Dakota State all time.
A SHOCKER LOSS WOULD…
… Make them 7-3 this season.
… Make Paul Mills 7-3 as Wichita State head coach.
… Be their third straight loss at INTRUST Bank Arena.
… Lower their neutral court record to 1-2 this season.
… Drop them to 14-4 all time on Dec. 9.
… Drop their record to 1,664-1,248 all time.
… Make them 3-1 all-time vs. South Dakota State.
UP NEXT
GAME 11: VS SOUTHERN ILLINOIS
• Southern Illinois is 5-2 under fifth year head coach Bryan Mullins.
• The Shockers close out the home portion of their non-conference schedule next Saturday vs. former Missouri Valley Conference rival, Southern Illinois.
• Southern Illinois leads the all-time series with Wichita State by one game, 48-47.
• Wichita State is 32-17 vs. the Salukis in Wichita and the Shockers have won the last nine meetings to close the gap.
