In the words of Evansville Coach Marty Simmons, "An afternoon game at Hinkle Fieldhouse. It doesn't get any better than that." Actually, it would get better if the Aces break Butler's recent stranglehold on the series. The two old rivals meet Saturday at 1:00 CST (2:00 Indianapolis time) in the 114th game between the two Hoosier universities. Plenty of good seats in the Evansville section will go on sale at 11:30 CST Saturday at the Hinkle Fieldhouse box office.

Both teams are 3-0. Butler plays its fourth game of the season Wednesday at home against Northwestern. Here's a look at Saturday's game:

1. Evansville still leads the 88-year-old series against Butler, 60-53, but the Bulldogs are 9-1 in the last 10 games against the Purple Aces. UE’s only win since 1994 came at home on Dec. 2, 2000 by a score of 74-73.

2. The Aces are 3-0 for the first time since 1999. They haven't been 4-0 since 1986-87.

3. In 32 years of Division I basketball, Evansville has been 3-0 seven times previously. Each time, the Aces went on to finish with a winning record. Hopefully that bodes well because UE has suffered through eight straight losing seasons.

4. Reaching 4-0 will obviously require a victory at Hinkle Fieldhouse. The Aces are 0-5 there since beating the Bulldogs in a Midwestern Collegiate Conference tournament game in March of 1994. That was the final year in which the two competed in the same conference.

5. Two central Indiana natives make their last appearance in Indianapolis Saturday. Senior Shy Ely went to Speedway High School on Indianapolis's west side. Senior Jason Holsinger went to Lapel High School, about 40 miles northeast of Indianapolis. Holsinger is the MVC career scoring leader among active players with 1,089 points. Ely is number three with 883.

6. Senior forward Nate Garner totaled 26 points, 15 rebounds, 10 steals and four assists in Evansville’s two most recent games. His 20 points on Saturday against Buffalo were a career high, and his five steals in each game were the most by an Evansville player in the last five years.

7. In those same two games, freshman forward/center James Haarsma totaled 26 points, 19 rebounds and hit 10 of his 19 shots. Haarsma's first double-double came in Saturday's win over Buffalo, when he scored 13 points and grabbed 12 rebounds.

8. The Aces are 3-0 despite their three-point shooting. They are 8-for-35 (.229) behind the arc, lengthened by 12 inches this season to 20’9”.

9. Marty Simmons is making his first appearance at Hinkle Fieldhouse as Evansville’s head coach. As a player for the Aces in 1986-87 and ‘87-88, the Aces were 3-1 against Butler. In his 11 seasons as an assistant coach, the Aces were 10-6 against the Bulldogs. Butler won last season’s game at Evansville, 60-47, in Simmons’ first year as UE’s head coach.

10. This is one of only two non-conference road games for the Purple Aces. The other is Dec. 18 at number one ranked North Carolina.