MBB Preview: at Temple (Jan. 3)

WICHITA STATE (10-3, 0-0) at TEMPLE (8-5, 0-0)
Friday, Jan. 3 | 6:00 p.m. CDT
Philadelphia, Pa. | Liacouras Center
 
TV: ESPN2 with Mike Corey & Phil Martelli
Radio: KEYN 103.7 FM with Mike Kennedy & Bob Hull
 

OPENING TIPS
• Wichita State opens conference play on the road in Philadelphia against Temple Friday night on ESPN2.
• Wichita State wrapped up non-conference play with an 87-72 win over Friends on Dec. 29.
• The Shockers finished the non-conference slate at 10-3, its best out of conference record since 2019-20 when the Shockers went 12-1 vs. non-league members.
• Wichita State is 3-4 in conference openers since joining the American Athletic Conference, but has dropped its last three league lid-lifters.
• Xavier Bell scored a career-high 29 points vs. Friends. He’s averaging 20.2 ppg over his last five games, including three straight 20-point performances.
• Bell scored 21 of his 29 points in the first half, joining former Shocker Colby Rogers as the last two Shockers to score 20+ in a single half.
• Bell reached 1,000 career points on Dec. 17 vs. Kansas City. He’s one of two 1,000-point scorers on the roster along with Justin Hill.
• Quincy Ballard notched his second straight double-double with 17 points and a career-high 16 boards.
• Wichita State finished the month of November 6-1. In his two seasons, the Shockers are 13-2 under Mills in November games.
• Wichita State is 15-11 all time on Jan. 3.
• Wichita State ranks 16th nationally in defensive rebounds per game (28.85).
• Ballard leads the American Athletic Conference in blocks per game (2.08) and ranks 24th nationally. His 25 total blocks also lead the league, while ranking 31st in the NCAA.
• Ballard shattered the single season school record for field goal percentage and also had top five marks in blocks per game and total blocks in 2023-24.
• Ballard moved into 4th on the Wichita State career blocks list vs. K-State with 113. He’s on pace to shatter the WSU career record for blocks per game at 2.02.
• At No.105 in the KenPom rankings, Wichita State ranks 4th out of the 13 teams in the American.
• Senior forward Ronnie DeGray III continues to be sidelined for the next few games after suffering a fractured wrist vs. Monmouth on Nov. 18.
• Eight student-athletes on Wichita State’s roster have NCAA Tournament experience: Quincy Ballard (Florida St.), Xavier Bell (Drexel), Harlond Beverly (Miami), Ronnie DeGray III (Missouri), Justin Hill (Longwood), AJ McGinnis (UNCG), Zane Meeks (San Francisco) and Corey Washington (St. Peter’s).

SCOUTING TEMPLE
• Led by second year head coach Adam Fisher, Temple enters the matchup at 8-5.
• In his first season with Temple, the Owls won 16 games and advanced to the AAC Championship game for the first time, making an impressive run winning four games in four days. Included in the stretch were victories against third-seeded Charlotte and second-seeded Florida Atlantic.
• A 2006 Penn State alumnus, Fisher was instrumental in helping the Nittany Lions win five straight games before falling to No.5 Purdue, 67-65, in the finals of the Big Ten tournament. Penn State would earn an at-large bid to the 2023 NCAA Tournament and, as the No.10-seed, defeated seven-seed Texas A&M (76-59) before ending its season against second-seed Texas (71-66).
• Fisher helped lead Penn State to 23 wins and the second round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament as the program’s Associate Head Coach.
• Temple became just the sixth program in NCAA Division I history to win 2,000 games on December 18. The Owls overcame a double-digit deficit in the second half to defeat Davidson, 62-61, and join five other programs in the exclusive 2,000-win club. Temple joins UCLA, Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina and Duke as the only schools to accomplish the feat.
• Temple was picked to finish 6th out of 13 teams in the Preseason American Athletic Conference Coaches Poll.
• New Mexico transfer Jamal Mashburn Jr. was named to the Preseason American Athletic Conference First Team.
• Mashburn ranks third in the American in scoring at 20.1 points per game. He’s connecting on 43.2 percent of his three-point attempts and gets to the free throw line more than six times a game.
• Steve Settle leads the team in rebounding (6.8 rpg), assists (2.0) and blocks (18) and ranks second in scoring (12.1 ppg). Settle converts 43.8 percent of his field goal attempts and 36.0 percent of his three-point tries.
• Zion Stanford is the third Owl averaging double figures at 11.3 points per game. He chips in 3.4 rebounds and 2.0 assists.
• Temple ranks 41st nationally and second in the American in turnovers per game, committing just 10.4 a game.
• The Owls are also one of the best teams in the country at getting to the free throw line. They rank 13th in free throw attempts (25.8) and 25th in free throws made (18.3).
• Temple ranks near the bottom in assists. Their 11.5 assists per game rank 321st.

SERIES WITH TEMPLE
• Temple grabbed a 8-6 lead in the all-time series after sweeping the regular season series a year ago.
• The Owls snapped Wichita State’s three-game win streak with a win in Philadelphia on Jan. 7, 2024. Temple has now won back-to-back games vs. the Shockers for the first time as league members.
• This season marks the fourth time in eight seasons that Wichita State and Temple will face off only once during the regular season. The Owls do not make the return trip to Wichita in 2025.
• Closely contested games have been the norm in this series. Eight of the 12 have been decided by six points in either direction and three have gone to overtime.
• Wichita State won the lone matchup in 2023, 79-65, in Philadelphia. Four players finished in double figures, including a double-double for James Rojas with 11 points, 11 rebounds and 5 steals.
• Both teams made 10 three-pointers, combining to go 20-for-50.
• Wichita State led by 8 at halftime, but Temple fought back to behind a 13-0 run to take a 62-58 lead with 6:23 to go. From there Wichita State would close the game on a 21-3 run to win going away. Temple went more than 5:00 minutes without a score, as the Shockers scored 15 straight points.
• The Shockers have twice eliminated the Owls from the American Athletic Conference Championship with quarterfinal wins. They did it in back-to-back seasons (2018 and 2019).
• Behind 24 points from Landry Shamet (6-of-8 3FG), Wichita State knocked out Temple in the 2018 quarterfinals, 89-81.
• In the 2019 quarterfinals, 6th-seeded Wichita State upset 3rd-seeded Temple, 80-74, thanks to 34 points from Markis McDuffie.
• The teams played three times prior to Wichita State’s move to The American, including twice in the 1980s under the late John Chaney. On Dec. 22 1983, Temple ended Wichita State’s 22-game home winning streak (a school record that stood for more than three decades) with a 78-73 victory. Junior All-American Xavier McDaniel played all 40 minutes and tallied 24 points and 18 rebounds.
• A year later (Jan. 27, 1985), the Owls squeezed out a 62-60 win in the championship game of the Pizza Hut Shoot Out. The Shockers held a 51-42 advantage with 8:56 remaining, but Tim Perry‘s three-foot jumper at the buzzer capped a furious Temple comeback.
• In the 2011 Puerto Rico tipoff, the Shockers battled back from down eight at the 7:00-mark to force overtime, but Temple won 78-74 in extra time behind 23 points from Ramone Moore. • Toure’ Murry scored a game-high 24 for the Shockers, who went on to win 25 of their next 27 games en route to an NCAA bid.
• A Wichita State player has topped 20 points in nine of the 11 AAC era meetings with Temple. Jaykwon Walton was the eighth different Shocker to do it, scoring 21 in Wichita State’s Feb. 16, 2023 win in Philly.

CONNECT THE DOTS
• Former Wichita State standout Toure’ Murry now calls Philadelphia home after his professional career. Murry is a Player Development Associate Coach on the staff for the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers. Murry had NBA stints during his playing days with the New York Knicks, Utah Jazz and Washington Wizards.
• Wichita State’s Harlond Beverly and Temple head coach Adam Fisher spent two seasons together at Miami. Beverly was coached by Fisher who was an assistant coach on the Hurricanes’ staff.

NO LEAD IS SAFE
• The team leading at halftime has lost eight of the 12 American era matchups between the schools.
• The Shockers lost their first Liacouras Center visit on Feb. 1, 2018 (81-79 in OT). WSU led by eight at the intermission and by seven with 5:02 to go  but managed just two more points in regulation. Shizz Alston Jr. made a game-tying layup with seven seconds left plus two go-ahead free throws with 18 seconds to play in overtime.
• Two weeks later in Wichita (Feb. 15, 2018), the Shockers rallied from a 14-point halftime deficit for a 93-86 win, overcoming Temple’s arena record 16 triples.
• The following year in Wichita (Jan. 6, 2019), the Shockers led by 13 at the break and by 11 with just over 3:00 to play. Temple scored the last 11 points of regulation to force overtime and went on to win, 85-81.
• Alston hit a three ahead of the halftime buzzer in a 2019 AAC quarterfinal matchup, but WSU rode Markis McDuffie‘s career-high 36 points to an 80-74 upset.
• Jan. 15, 2020 in Philly, the Shockers led by six at halftime but scored just six points in the first 10 minutes of the second half. Temple roared back to win by 12.
• Feb. 27, 2020 in Wichita, WSU erased a seven-point deficit in the last 4:00 with an 11-1 run.
• The Feb. 7, 2021 meeting between the teams featured 20 lead changes (most since CKA’s 2003 renovation).
• Temple nearly blew a 9-point halftime lead in the Jan. 7 matchup in 2024, as Wichita State came back from 17 down to tie the game late before Temple pulled away in the final minutes.
• A month later, however, Temple overcame a 10-point halftime deficit in Wichita to steal a win in overtime on the Shockers’ home floor.

ON THIS DATE: JAN. 3
• 1985 – Xavier McDaniel became Wichita State’s all-time leading rebounder in a home win over West Texas State, passing Robert Elmore. Rebound No. 1,040 came with 13:02 to play in the first half.
• 2016 – Wichita State pounced all over Bradley in the first half and never looked back. The Shockers led by 24 at halftime and cruised to an 85-58 win in Peoria. No Shocker played more than 27 minutes and all 15 players played at least 2 minutes. Markis McDuffie led a balanced scoring attack with 14 points off the bench.

MILESTONE WATCH
• Quincy Ballard is 12 blocks away from 125 in his Wichita State career.
• Harlond Beverly is 26 points shy of 1,000 career points.
• Bijan Cortes is 40 assists away from 250 for his career.
• Justin Hill  is 37 assists shy of 500 for his career.
• AJ McGinnis is 99 points away from reaching 1,000 for his career.

FRIENDS LEFTOVERS
• Wichita State improved to 41-11 all-time vs. Friends and won its eighth straight over the Falcons.
• The Shockers are now 16-12 when playing on Dec. 29.
• Under Paul Mills, Wichita State is 11-2 when scoring between 80-89 points.
• Wichita State shot better than 50 percent from the field for the third straight game.
• Wichita State’s 14 offensive rebounds tied a season high.
• Wichita State’s 18 turnovers were a season high.
• Wichita State moved to 8-1 this season when leading at the half.
• Xavier Bell set a season high for the third straight game, while also setting a new career high with 29 points. He now has scored 20+ in three straight games.
• It was his ninth game in double figures this season and 33rd of his career at Wichita State.
• It marked his sixth career 20-point game as a Shocker and second straight game with 20 or more.
• Corey Washington came off the bench and totaled 16 points, 7 rebounds and a season-high tying 3 steals.
• Washington has nine games in double figures.
• He’s averaging 8.7 rebounds over his last six games.
• Quincy Ballard recorded his second straight double-double and third of the season with 17 points and a career-high 16 rebounds.
• AJ McGinnis registered his third game in double figures this season behind 11 points on 3-of-5 three-pointers.

OLD TIMERS
• With COVID still impacting eligibility, several schools around the country have multiple student-athletes on their rosters playing in their fifth, sixth and even seventh seasons. Wichita State is tied for second in the country with seven student-athletes in their fifth year or higher of collegiate basketball.

A SHOCKER WIN WOULD…                                                                     
… Make them 11-3 this season.
… Make them 1-0 in conference play.
… Snap a three-game losing streak in conference openers.
… Up their record to 2-1 on the road this season.
… Move them to 7-8 all time vs. Temple.
… Snap a two-game losing streak to the Owls.
… Make Paul Mills 26-22 as Wichita State head coach.
… Give Mills 132 career coaching victories.
… Run their record to 1,683-1,267 all time.

A SHOCKER LOSS WOULD…                                                                     
… Make them 10-4 this season.
… Drop them to 0-1 in conference play.
… Be their fourth straight loss in conference openers.
… Drop them to 6-9 all time vs. Temple.
… Be their third straight loss to the Owls.
… Make Paul Mills 25-23 as Wichita State head coach.
… Lower Mills’ career record to 131-107.
… Drop their record to 1,682-1,268 all time.

GAME 15: SOUTH FLORIDA                                                             
• Wichita State is 9-2 all-time vs. South Florida.
• The Shockers and Bulls met only once a season ago.
• The Bulls are 8-6 to begin the 2024-25 season and 1-0 to begin conference play.
• South Florida is led by interim head coach Ben Fletcher.