UNO GAME NOTES | BALL STATE NOTES | LISTEN LIVE | WATCH LIVE
MUNCIE, Indiana – The University of New Orleans men's basketball team will wrap up a four-game road swing on Saturday, Dec. 5, when the Privateers take on Ball State in John E. Worthen Arena. Tipoff is slated for 1 p.m. (CST) and will be broadcast live on
ESPN3. UNO fans can also listen to all of the action via the
UNO Showcase on
www.UNOPrivateers.com.
The Privateers head to Muncie, Indiana, 2-4 on the year and 1-2 in the current road swing. While the New Orleans roster does not feature any student-athletes from The Hoosier State, three members of the coaching staff hail from Indiana as head coach
Mark Slessinger and assistant
Bil Duany both grew up in Bloomington while assistant coach
Kris Arkenberg hails from Trafalgar.
"It's huge to be back here," Slessinger said of playing in Indiana. "Jody [Bailey] grew up across the river in Louisville [Kentucky]. Kris [Arkenberg], Bil [Duany] and I are all from this area. It's big to have family here. It's a great basketball state with very smart fan bases that understand the things that are good and bad about the game. And it's an area that we think that we can recruit well.
"UNO has an unbelievable history in this state going back to our first coach, Ron Greene, going back to Don Smith, going back to Monte Towe. That's three coaches right there that are Indiana guys and some of the best players in school history are from this state. We know we have an area that we're going to continue to work on and see if we can't sneak one or two really, really good guys out of here."
UNO comes into the Ball State contest looking to snap a two-game skid after dropping a 90-63 decision at Northwestern on Nov. 28 in Evanson, Illinois, and coming up just short at Tulane on Wednesday in uptown New Orleans.
As a team, New Orleans is averaging 69.8 points, 38.5 rebounds, 12.7 assists, 8.2 steals and 2.3 blocks per game. Junior guard
Christavious Gill leads a balanced Privateer offense with 12.2 points per game while junior guard
Nate Frye follows with a 10.7 average, sophomore wing
Michael Zeno adds 9.5 per outing and junior forward
Erik Thomas has an 8.3 point-per-game average.
Senior forward
Kevin Hill paces the team with 7.7 rebounds per game and sophomore
Travin Thibodeaux headlines the defense with six blocked shots. Frye leads the Privateers with 2.7 assists and Gill leads the squad with 2.7 steals per contest.
New Orleans is connecting at a .389 clip from the field, hitting 136-of-350 shots from the floor, and 33-of-84 tries from beyond the 3-point arc (.393), while allowing opponents to shoot .449 overall (146-of-325) and .305 from 3-point land (40-of-131). Privateer foes are averaging 72.7 points, 37.5 rebounds, 14.2 assists, 7.0 steals and 5.7 blocks so far in 2015-16.
"We came back in on Thursday morning, practiced at 7, came back in the afternoon and went again," Slessinger added. "It's hard coming off a loss that you wanted so bad on Wednesday night, but we had to let them know that the only way to fix what isn't going right is to work. You can't hope it. You can't wish it. You've got to work it.
"We left campus at 6:30 this morning to come here so it's been a long travel day. It's been a long day for us and to have a good practice with good energy and good spirit – their legs were good – is a positive sign of where we're at from a conditioning perspective but also from a basketball perspective."
Ball State, meanwhile, enters the weekend matchup 6-2 on the season and riding the crest of a five-game winning streak, including three consecutive home victories over IU Kokomo (90-54 on Nov. 25), Valparaiso (69-66 on Nov. 28) and IUPUI (61-58 on Dec. 1).
As a team, the Cardinals are averaging 72.1 points, 37.9 rebounds, 14.6 assists, 6.9 steals and 4.8 blocks per game. Ryan Weber leads three Ball State players averaging double figures offensively with 13.0 points per game while Franko House has 12.3 and Bo Calhoun follows at 11.4. Calhoun paces the team with 8.3rebounds per game and Trey Moses has 10 of the team's 38 blocked shots. Jeremiah Davis headlines the squad with 3.8 assists per game and Naiel Smith has a team-best 1.,57 steals per outing.
Ball State is hitting 44.2 percent of its shots from the field, connecting on 197-of-446 field goal attempts, including a 58-of-156 showing from beyond the 3-point line (.372). The Cardinals defense has allowed opponents to post a 39.4 shooting percentage (172-of-436) and a 33.3 clip from 3-point land (55-of-165). Ball State opponents are averaging 63.0 points, 33.4 rebounds, 12.6 assists, 5.6 steals and 1.9 blocks per game.
"They've got two really talented small forwards that can score at a high rate in Calhoun and in House," Slessinger said of the Cardinals. "They've got two great, great spot-up shooters that can both really shoot the ball and they've got really good point guard play. They really don't make a lot of mistakes and they don't kill themselves. We're going to have to be able to play our game, turn them over and rebound it at a high rate."
Saturday's game between New Orleans and Ball State marks just the fourth time the two teams will meet on the hardwood and the Privateers hold a 3-0 advantage in the all-time series.
The series dates back to UNO's first season of varsity basketball when the Privateers downed the Cardinals, 88-83, on Feb. 21, 1970. New Orleans also posted an 80-70 home win the last time the two teams met back on Dec. 8, 1994.
The only previous time UNO and Ball State played in Muncie was on Dec. 5, 1970, when the Privateers came away with a 103-87 victory. In that game, Butch Webster established school records with 48 points, 20 made field goals and 38 shots taken. All three records still stand today.
Following the game against the Cardinals, UNO returns to action on Saturday, Dec. 12, when the Privateers head back to Lakefront Arena to take on Williams Baptist at 6:15 p.m. Tickets to that game and future Privateer sporting events can be purchased by clicking
HERE or by calling the UNO Athletics Ticket Office at (504) 280-GAME (4263).
