EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Basketball season has officially arrived at the University of Evansville with the men's basketball team set to open exhibition play on Saturday against Mount St. Joseph. Set for a 1 p.m. tip, it will mark the first of two exhibition contests for the Purple Aces.
Setting the Scene
- Four starters highlight an experienced group that heads into the 2021-22 season with Evan Kuhlman, Noah Frederking, Jawaun Newton and Shamar Givance back in the lineup
- The lone starter to graduate as Jax Levitch, who started last season for UE as a graduate transfer
- Six newcomers join the team including four freshmen, a sophomore and a junior
Wrapping up 20-21
- Last season saw a rapid climb up the Missouri Valley Conference ladder for UE, who went from an 0-18 mark in 2019-20 to a 7-11 finish a season ago
- With its improvement, UE became just the second team in MVC history to follow a winless conference season with seven victories
- The 7-game improvement for UE is the best that the conference has seen since Loyola went from eight league wins in 2016-17 to 15 a season later
- Evansville is the first team to jump from 10th in the MVC standings to a top five seed since Drake went from 10th in 2017 to 4th place in 2018
- UE completed the regular season in 5th place, marking its MVC finish since 2016
Last Time Out
- Facing Indiana State in its Arch Madness opener in March, the Aces fell by a final of 53-43 at the Enterprise Center
- Evan Kuhlman and Noah Frederking led the way with 10 points apiece while Jawaun Newton totaled 9 rebounds
- The Sycamores held a 43-41 lead with 8:19 remaining in the contest before the defense held UE to just two points over the duration of the contest to seal the win
A Brief History Lesson
- While Saturday's exhibition contest does not count as an official game, this will mark the second meeting between the Aces and Lions
- On December 22, 2016, the teams met inside the Ford Center with UE taking a 68-55 win
- Evansville's star that game was Jaylon Brown, who totaled 33 points and 6 rebounds...he connected on 11 of his 16 field goal attempts
First Time for Everything
- Last season, Evansville became the first team in MVC history to average double digit 3-point makes in conference only games
- The Aces finished with 10.0 3-pointers per contest in its 18-game Valley slate...the closest any other team came was the 2007-08 Bradley squad, who finished with 9.8 triples per contest
Scouting the Opponent
- Limited to 12 games last season, Mount St. Joseph went 2-10 while dropping both of its Heartland Conference contests
- The Lions are led by a pair of double figure scorers in Brady Thomas and Tanner Clos
- Thomas led the squad with 14.4 points while Clos completed the season with 12.4 PPG
Using The 3
- One of the staples of the Evansville offense last season was its outside shooting, the 3-point shot accounted for 44.5% of the Aces offense - the second-highest tally in the NCAA
- As a team, UE has averaged 9.6 triples per game (20th in the nation) while hitting a total of 240 (29th in the country)
- Through the 25-game season, 49.0% of the Aces field goal attempts came from outside marking the third year in a row that over 40% of UE's field goal tries have come beyond the arc (43.7% in 2018-19, 42.4% in 2019-20)
What's on tap?
- In its season opener, the Aces will match up against the University of Cincinnati for the first time since 1990...the programs have met just five times in their history with the Bearcats winning three of those games
- UE opens the home schedule against IUPUI on Nov. 11...the teams last met on Nov. 30, 2019 in Indianapolis with UE grabbing a 70-64 road win
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