#13/13 MEMPHIS (14-2, 3-0) at WICHITA STATE (8-7, 0-2)
Sunday, Jan. 14 | 12:00 p.m. CT
Wichita, Kan. | Charles Koch Arena
TV: ESPN2 with John Schriffen & Tim Welsh
Radio: KEYN 103.7 FM with Mike Kennedy & Dave Dahl
Promotions
Stripe Out The Roundhouse – Koch Industries is helping us Stripe Out the Roundhouse for a marquee matchup with Memphis!
Giveaway – Free T-Shirts in coordination with your section’s assigned color presented by Koch Industries
Ticket Offer – All college students with a valid student ID from their institution can receive a free GA ticket as a part of our Home for the Holidays initiative.
Halftime Act: Rolla Bolla
OPENING TIPS
• After a week off, Wichita State prepares to host No. 13 Memphis in Charles Koch Arena on Sunday at 12 p.m. on ESPN2.
• Wichita State is 21-14 all time when playing on Jan. 7.
• Memphis has won the last six meetings in the series and holds an 18-12 lead in the all time series.
• Memphis is ranked No. 13 in the AP and Coaches Poll at 14-2 overall and 3-0 after winning its first three conference games by a combined 12 points.
• Memphis is led by David Jones who leads the American Athletic Conference in scoring at 21.0 points per game, while adding 6.9 rebounds and nearly 2 steals a game.
• Wichita State is coming off a fourth straight loss after falling at Temple last Sunday, 68-61.
• Wichita State has lost its last five games against ranked opponents and is 0-1 this season against teams ranked in the Top 25.
• Since joining the American Athletic Conference, Wichita State is 3-11 against ranked teams.
• Bijan Cortes made his Wichita State debut Dec. 21 vs. Kansas State after sitting out the first 11 games.
• Ronnie DeGray III made his Wichita State debut Dec. 16 vs. Southern Illinois after sitting out the first 10 games due to NCAA transfer rules.
• Harlond Beverly has 35 assists over his last nine games. Beverly now leads the team in assists with 46.
• Colby Rogers (15.9 ppg; leading scorer) has made a three-pointer in all 15 games this season and multiple in 12 of the 15. He leads the AAC in three-pointers per game (2.67) and three-pointers made (40).
• His streak of 15 straight games with a made three-pointer is tied for the 10th longest in school history.
• In 10 of the 15 games Rogers has tallied 15 points or more – a team best.
• Wichita State ranks 10th nationally in defensive rebounds per game and 9th in rebounds per game.
• Quincy Ballard ranks 20th nationally in blocks (34). He had a career-high 7 vs. Norfolk State on Nov. 25.
• Ballard has scored 10 or more points in three of the last four games. He had three total in the first 11 games of the season. In the last four games, he’s 17-for-20 (85.0%) from the field.
• Wichita State posted a winning non-conference record for the 26th consecutive season, and has the league’s seventh-best NET ranking.
• Per KenPom the American Athletic Conference is ranked the 9th best conference in the NCAA.
• 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.
SCOUTING MEMPHIS
• Led by sixth year head coach Penny Hardaway, Memphis enters the matchup at 14-2 and 3-0 in league play.
• In five seasons since returning to his alma mater as head coach, Hardaway, has led the Tigers to a 121-54 record, five-straight 20-win seasons, the 2021 National Invitation Tournament championship, the 2023 AAC tournament championship and two consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament in 2022 and 2023.
• Hardaway’s 110 wins entering the season are second-most among 14 first-time NCAA Division I head coaches hired prior to the 2018-19 season and tied for third-most among Tiger head coaches in their first five seasons. Only three of Memphis’ 16 head coaches since World War II have won 20 games in each of their first five seasons at the helm, now including Hardaway.
• In his tenure, Hardaway has mentored two first-round NBA Draft picks, three American Athletic Conference Freshmen of the Year, seven all-conference selections, five all-freshman honorees and an AAC Tournament MVP. The Tigers have won eight games against ranked opponents, been ranked inside the top-10 on two occasions and twice had the nation’s number-one recruiting class.
• Memphis was picked to finish 2nd out of 14 teams in the Preseason American Athletic Conference Coaches Poll.
• In mid December, Memphis won three straight games over Top 25 teams (Texas A&M, Clemson and Virginia).
• Memphis is one of only two teams in the country that has seven combined wins against Quad 1 and Quad 2 programs. Of their 14 wins this season, eight have come against Power 5 opponents.
• The Tigers have four wins against Power Five programs this season away from their home floor.
• David Jones is the only player in the nation that is averaging at least 20.0 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.0 steals per outing, with more than three games played.
• He leads the American Athletic Conference and ranks 10th in the nation with a 21.0 scoring average.
• Jones has led the Tigers in scoring 12 times this season, and has posted an AAC-high eight games with 20+ points.
• Memphis’ newest addition has only been on the roster for about a month in the way of Kansas State transfer Nae’Qwan Tomlin. In five games with the Tigers, Tomlin is averaging 10.2 points and 6.2 rebounds.
• Alabama transfer Jahvon Quinerly scores 13.6 points, dishes 4.4 assists and grabs 3.1 rebounds a game. Quinerly was a Preseason All-AAC First Team selection.
• Memphis is one of the nation’s best teams at getting to the free throw line and connecting on those attempts. They rank 15th nationally in free throws made per game, 18th in free throw attempts per game and 78th in free throw percentage.
• The Tigers score 79.9 points per game on 45.5% shooting. They are converting on 34.0% of their attempts from beyond the arc.
• Defensively, the allow 73.6 points and opponents are converting 40.6% of their field goal attempts.
THE SERIES VS. MEMPHIS
• This is the 31st meeting all-time. Memphis leads 18-12 (8-2 AAC era) with six-straight victories.
• Wichita State’s last win came Jan. 9, 2020 in a battle of nationally-ranked teams at Charles Koch Arena.
• This is only the second time Memphis will enter the matchup nationally ranked as members of the American.
• Wichita State is 8-6 against Memphis in Wichita (1-3 AAC era). All 14 matchups have taken place at the Roundhouse.
• Since Wichita State joined the American in 2017-18, Wichita State and Memphis have played each other twice in every season but two (2018, 2021). The only reason they didn’t in 2021 was due to COVID canceling the game.
• The Shockers won on their first visit to FedExForum (Feb. 6, 2018) but have since dropped five-straight. They’re 3-12 all-time against the Tigers in Memphis.
• Wichita State does own two other wins at FedExForum as part of its run to the 2019 AAC semifinals.
• Wichita State is 1-8 against Penny Hardaway.
• The Tigers swept the 2021-22 series, winning by 18 in Wichita and by 24 in Memphis.
• The series in 2022-23 was much closer, but the Shockers still found themselves on the wrong side of the scoreboard.
• Memphis needed 29 points from DeAndre Williams to defeat the Shockers by 10 in Memphis on Jan. 19. One month later, Memphis outlasted the Shockers in Charles Koch Arena, 83-78.
• The only neutral site meeting between the two schools came in 2014 when they meet at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Fall, S.D. to begin the 2014-15 season.
• Ron Baker scored a game-high 21 points and added five rebounds, six assists and two steals to lead Wichita State to a comfortable 71-56 win in front of a sellout crowd.
CONNECT THE DOTS
• A familiar face resides on the Memphis roster this season in the way of senior Jaykwon Walton. Walton departed Wichita State after last season where he led the Shockers in scoring at 13.9 points per game. He entered the transfer portal last spring and proceeded to find two different homes (Alabama and UCF) before finally landing at Memphis late summer.
• He has made 13 starts this season and is averaging 9.0 points and 3.9 rebounds on 38.9% shooting.
REINFORCEMENTS COMING
• Wichita State received an early Christmas present in the form of Ronnie DeGray III and Bijan Cortes being cleared to play by the NCAA for the remainder of the season.
• DeGray III made his long awaited Wichita State debut on Saturday, Dec. 16 vs. Southern Illinois. DeGray sat out the first 10 games due to NCAA two-time transfer rules, but is cleared to play the remainder of the season.
• DeGray played nearly 19 minutes off the bench and finished with two points and four rebounds – all offensive.
• Cortes (Academics) missed the first 11 games before making his Shocker debut on Dec. 21 vs. Kansas State. He played 24 minutes off the bench and finished with three assists and two rebounds.
LEAD GUARDS
• Colby Rogers and Xavier Bell have formed a potent 1-2 scoring attack for Wichita State through 15 games. Rogers leads Wichita State in scoring at 15.9 per game and Bell is right behind at 13.1.
• Rogers ranks 7th in the American in points and 9th in points per game.
• The duo of Rogers and Bell make up 39.4 percent of Wichita State’s scoring as they’ve accounted for 434 points.
• Bell and Rogers have both scored in double figures in 12 of the first 15 games. They each have multiple 20-point outings to their name (Rogers – 4, Bell – 3).
COLBY ROG333333333333333RS
• Colby Rogers is riding a streak of 15 straight games with at least one made three-pointer to start the season.
• He has multiple three-pointers in 12 of the first 15 games, including nine of the last 11.
• Rogers is attempting 6.9 three-pointers per game, which currently stands as the third most in school history behind Tyson Etienne (8.30 in 2021-22; 7.55 in 2020-21).
• His 2.67 three-pointers made per game are currently the third-most in school history.
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 25 total games in his Shocker career. In those 25 games he has 48 blocked shots. Thirty-four of those have come in the first 15 games.
Through 15 games his 34 blocks rank 20th nationally and his 2.27 blocks per game rank 19th.
He has multiple blocks in all but four games this season.
BOARD OF APPROVAL
• Through the first 15 games of the season Wichita State has been among the nation’s top rebounding teams. Wichita State ranks 9th nationally in rebounds per game, 10th in defensive rebounds per game and 45th in rebound margin.
• Wichita State has four players averaging 5.0 or more rebounds per game (Dalen Ridgnal – 7.8; Kenny Pohto – 7.4; Quincy Ballard – 6.4; Harlond Beverly – 5.0).
• Wichita State has been outrebounded five times this season with three of those coming in the last four games.
• Wichita State has pulled down 40 or more rebounds in 9 of the 15 games, including three games of 50+.
• Wichita State has grabbed 73.8% of its possible defensive rebounds this season. That number would be the seventh best in school history.
A SHOCKER WIN WOULD…
… Make them 9-7 this season.
… Make them 1-2 in AAC play.
… Be their first ranked win since 2021 vs. #6 Houston.
… Snap a four-game losing streak.
… Make them 22-14 all time on Jan. 7.
… Give Paul Mills 115 career coaching victories.
… Run their record to 1,666-1,252 all time.
… Make them 13-18 vs. Memphis all time.
… Snap a 6-game losing streak vs. the Tigers.
A SHOCKER LOSS WOULD…
… Make them 8-8 this season.
… Drop them to 0-3 in AAC play.
… Be their fifth straight loss.
… Make Paul Mills 8-8 as Wichita State head coach.
… Drop them to 21-15 all time on Jan. 7.
… Drop their record to 1,665-1,253 all time.
… Make them 12-19 all-time vs. Memphis.
… Be their 7th straight loss vs. the Tigers.
UP NEXT
GAME 17: at FLORIDA ATLANTIC
• Florida Atlantic is 12-4 and under sixth year head coach Dusty May.
• The Owls are ranked No. 24/25 in the AP and USA Today Coaches Polls.
• This will be the first regular season meeting as members of the American Athletic Conference.
• Wichita State leads the all-time series, 1-0.
