19 UIndy Greyhounds
at Maryville Saints
Thursday, Feb. 20, 7:30 p.m., St. Louis, MO
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19 UIndy Greyhounds
at Missouri S&T Miners
Saturday, Feb. 22, 7:30 p.m., Rolla, MO
Watch | Live Stats | Listen

ON TAP
The UIndy men's basketball team will make one final trip to the state of Missouri this weekend with four regular season games remaining on the schedule. 

The Greyhounds will face Maryville University on Thursday evening in St. Louis before heading southwest for Missouri S&T for a Saturday afternoon tilt. UIndy holds an all-time record of 20-3 against the two programs, including an 11-2 mark against Missouri S&T.

ABOUT MARYVILLE
The Saints have had a down season in 2019-20, winning just five games compared to their 18 losses. With three contests against NCAA DII programs, Maryville has topped Tiffin, Lincoln (MO) and McKendree.

Freshman Parker Long leads the Saints with 14.0 ppg, while shooting 42.4 percent from 3-point range. Jalen Gant ranks second on the team in scoring with 12.1 ppg, but is grabbing a team-high 5.6 rpg. Owen Long joins Long as a viable deep threat, sinking 40.8 percent of his 3-pointers on a team-high 103 attempts.

Head coach Marc Stricker is in his third season with Maryville. The Saints won 20 games in 2017-18, his first campaign in St. Louis.

ABOUT MISSOURI S&T
The Miners have not had much more success than their travel-partner Saints this season, compiling five wins with just four of them coming against DII programs. Missouri S&T has won three GLVC contests through the first 16: two against Maryville and one versus McKendree. 

Missouri S&T defeated Northeastern State back on Dec. 17 for its first of two road wins thus far. 

Dulan Scott paces the Miners in scoring with 15.8 ppg, but is shooting just 40.2 percent from the floor as a senior. S&T's sole 3-point threat is Jordan Newt, who has hit 44.0 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc, with 48 of his 61 field goals this season coming from deep. 

Bill Walker is in his first season as the head coach in Rolla. He previously served in the same capacity at GLVC rival Illinois Springfield. 

LAST TIME OUT
The Greyhounds won their fourth in a row last Saturday, as Jimmy King beat the buzzer with a driving layup to give his team an electric 83-82 victory over Truman. The Bulldogs entered play in first place in the GLVC and were coming off a 61-60 win at Bellarmine on Thursday. 

King was held scoreless for nearly 16 minutes before kissing the backboard with his left-handed layup at the buzzer. He finished with 14 points, with Jacob Polakovich leading the team with 17 tallies. UIndy leading scorer Trevor Lakes scored 12 points - including three 3-pointers - but was most impressive on the defensive end with seven rebounds and four steals.

CROWNING THE KING
Senior Jimmy King is on the verge of UIndy history, as he sits just seven assists from becoming the second Greyhound ever to hand out 500 helpers. The Roncalli product is now second all-time in the category after passing Rob Kent on Saturday against Truman. King is 54 dimes from matching Ron Rutland's all-time record.

Albeit a lofty goal, King currently has 352 career rebounds inside a Greyhound uni, and would become the first-ever UIndy men's basketball player to end his tenure with 1,000+ points, 500+ assists and 400+ boards. 

HITTING THE TRIFECTA
During the first half in the win at Rockhurst last Thursday, junior Trevor Lakes became just the sixth Greyhound ever to reach 200 career 3-pointers. The Lebanon, Ind., native is now just  three triples from matching Eric Davidson (214) and 36 from Kyle Persinger (247).

At his current points-per-game mark of 15.1, Lakes would need just nine more games to join teammate Jimmy King to surpass 1,000 career points this season. With just four games left on the regular-season schedule, that would potentially mean a deep NCAA tournament run.

PLAYING THE PERCENTAGES
A well-balanced attack has been the key to success all season for the Greyhounds, who top the GLVC with 82.7 ppg. Three players, including UIndy leading scorer Trevor Lakes, rank inside the top 30 among league members in individual scoring, while Jimmy King sits atop the assist leaders with 6.3 helpers per game. 

Sophomore big man Jacob Polakovich still leads the conference with a 69.9 field-goal percentage, while the team as a whole is second at 49.5 percent. Marcus Latham and Cory Miller currently sit sixth and eighth, respectively, from the charity stripe.

REGIONAL RENDEZVOUS
The NCAA releases three regional poll prior to the Selection Sunday, with the first set of rankings released later today. Per advanced metrics (can be found to your right), UIndy looks to be the probable top seed in today's poll, as the Greyhounds top all teams in all major categories. 

UIndy ranks second in overall region wins (17) behind Grand Valley State and Southern Indiana, but is tied with Ashland in victories over nationally-ranked opponents (4). 

WE GROW BASKETBALL HERE
On March 25, 2020, the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame will announced its annual induction class. UIndy hall of famer and basketball great Dick Nyers, a 1952 graduate of Manual High School, will become the fourth Greyhound inducted into the prestigious shrine. 

Nyers' name is scattered across the program record book, most prominently featured as the seventh leading scorer with 1,754 career points as a Greyhound. Among other categories, Nyers ranks second all-time in free-throw attempts, second in free throws made and 11th in field goals made. The Manual alum also holds the single-season free throws made record with 180 successful attempts from the charity stripe.

LIVING LEGACY
UIndy freshman guard Ben Nicoson is a fourth-generation Greyhound, following in the footsteps of Angus (great grandfather), Dan (grandfather) and Brent (father). Nicoson Hall, home of UIndy basketball, is named after Angus, who is the program's all-time leader with 483 victories as a coach.

Ben is currently averaging 6.6 minutes per game in his freshman season, and drew his first-ever start against Lake Superior State back on Dec. 17.

GLVC POINT RATING SYSTEM
For the third straight season, the GLVC will determine its conference standings by using a designated point rating system. Points shall be awarded for each conference contest.

The eight teams with the highest ratings at the end of the regular season will qualify for the postseason tournament. There are no automatic qualifying bids to divisional champions, nor is there a number of tournament bids allocated for each of the three five-team divisions. Team ratings, which will be determined by total points divided by league games played, may not be comparable with other teams in the league given each team's bye this season. A given team's win or loss early in the conference season will have an assigned point value based on their opponent's winning percentage, although that point value is likely to fluctuate should that opponent improve or weaken throughout the remainder of the conference season.

7 points – win over a .750 or better team on the road
6.5 points – win over a .750 or better team at home
6 points – win over a .500 or better team on the road
5 points – win over a .500 or better team at home
4.5 points – win over a .250 or better team on the road
4 points – win over a .250 team or better at home
3.5 points – win over an under .250 team on the road
3 points – win over an under .250 team at home
2.5 points – loss at home or on the road to a .750 or better team
2 points – loss to a .500 or better team at home or on the road
1 point – loss to a .250 or better team at home or on the road
.5 points – loss to an under .250 team on the road
0 points – loss to an under .250 team at home