Men's Basketball Notes: Truman vs. McKendree (Jan. 7; 7:30 p.m.)

Truman Men's Basketball Notes (January 7, 2016)
Twitter: @TrumanAthletics || @TSUBulldogHoops || #BewareofDog
Printable Game Notes (PDF)

Game #14: Truman (10-3, 2-1 GLVC) vs. McKendree (7-3, 0-2 GLVC)

When: Thursday, January 7, 2016 || 7:30 p.m. (CST)
Where: Kirksville, Mo. || Pershing Arena
Audio: 104.7 FM KRES (Brad Boyer, Play-by- Play; Hank Janssen, Analyst) || Online Feed
Live Stats || Live Stats (Media) || Live Video

Series Record: Truman leads, 2-0.
Series Streak: Truman- W2
Series Record in Kirksville: Truman leads, 1-0.

Last Meeting: January 8, 2015 – Truman won, 75-71 in Lebanon, Ill.
Last McK Win vs. TSU: None

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. - - The Truman men's basketball team jumps back into conference play on Thursday night, as an early-season league homestand continues with the Bulldogs welcoming McKendree University to Pershing Arena at 7:30 p.m.

The Bulldogs (10-3, 2-1 GLVC West) come into Thursday night as winners of six straight, dating back to an early December home loss against Rockhurst, while McKendree (7-3, 0-2 GLVC East) comes in having won back-to-back non-conference affairs, bookending the turn of the calendar to January. Truman is coming off a 103-64 victory against NCAA Div. III program Iowa Wesleyan on Sunday, as the Bulldogs shook off the holiday rust with a 37-9 run to close out the final 8-plus minutes of the first half to pull away from the Tigers. Six players scored in double-figures for Truman, led by freshman Jake Velky's 19 points off the bench.

Thursday night's cross-division matchup will be just the third all-time between the two schools, with both previous contests coming since Truman joined the GLVC in the 2013-14 season. The Bulldogs walloped the Bearcats 91-60 in the teams' first-ever meeting on January 11, 2014, in Kirksville, before edging out a 75-71 victory last season on January 8, 2015, in Lebanon, Illinois. Truman hit 10 three-pointers a season ago against McKendree, getting a combined 33 points from former players Seth Jackson and Reed Mells, along with a 13-point, six-rebound effort off the bench by current senior, Cole Myers. On the flip side, McKendree's top two scorers from that game also are gone, as Logan Carson scored 27 points to lead all scorers, and Arthur Williams chipped in a 14-point, 11-rebound double-double off the bench.

Chris Foster is in his second season as the head coach of the Bulldogs and is in his third season with the program overall. He has a career record of 30-13 (.698) and was a former standout guard at the University of Northern Iowa, where he ranks among the program's top-10 in games played, assists, and three-pointers. Foster was a member of UNI's 2003 and 2004 NCAA Div. I tournament squads. He is assisted by Mike Annese, who returned to the program this season after a one-year stint at Minnesota-Crookston, and graduate assistant Nik Koprivica.

About the Bulldogs:
Truman returns to conference play on quite a roll, winning six straight and becoming the first GLVC West division team to reach the 10-win mark on the season. During the recent streak, the Bulldogs have scored 89 points per game and shot better than 50% from the field overall.

Overall this year, the Bulldogs are shooting 48.0% from the floor overall, which includes a 35.0% mark from three-point range – a number that continues to rise after a slow start. Truman is shooting 70.3% from the foul line and has forced 218 turnovers while committing just 139 of its own.

Junior forward Connor Erickson leads an incredibly-balanced Bulldog lineup in scoring at 12.6 ppg, as six different Bulldogs range between 9.3 and 12.6 points per game. Redshirt junior guard Cory Myers is right on his tail at 12.5 ppg while also leading the Bulldogs in rebounding (4.9 per game), assists (3.5 per game), and steals (26). Junior guard Kyle Kanaskie (11.9 ppg) and senior guard Cole Myers (10.8) also are atop the 10-point plateau.

The Bulldogs sit in the GLVC's top-25% as a team in six categories, most notably as leaders in turnover margin at +6.1 per game. Truman is second in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.42-to-1), three-pointers per game (9.5), and steals per game (9.2), while ranking third in both scoring offense (84.2) and scoring margin (+11.8).

Individually, Erickson is 13^th in field goal percentage (54.5%), Kanaskie is 10^th in free throw percentage (88.6%), and both Myers twins (Cory, 2^nd, 2.0; and Cole, 7^th, 1.8) rank in the top-seven in steals. Velky is eighth in the conference in three-point shooting, connecting at a 51% clip with 26 makes in 51 tries.

Thursday's Three Keys:

Battle from Beyond: Both Truman (No. 2) and McKendree (No. 5) rank amongst the GLVC leaders in triples made per game; however, the teams rank 13^th and 16^th, respectively, in three-point percentage.
Turning the 'Cats Over: Truman's No. 1 turnover margin (+6.1) runs into what would appear to be a favorable matchup against a McKendree squad that has a -0.2 turnover margin on the year.
Limit the Charity: Truman has struggled lately at the foul line, hitting at just 70% on the season, while McKendree is one of the conference's best, sitting third at 75.3%.

Scouting the McKendree "Bearcats":

The Bearcats come into Thursday night at 7-3 overall, having won back-to-back games against Salem International (80-56 on Dec. 16) and Robert Morris-Peoria (79-70 on Jan. 2). McK is 0-2 in the GLVC after losing at Southern Indiana and Bellarmine on Dec. 3 and Dec. 5.
McKendree is 1-2 away from home this season, having won by six at Trevecca Nazarene to go with the losses at USI and BU.
The Bearcats rank third in the GLVC in offensive rebounding, averaging 12.0 per game. The team is seventh in scoring, eighth in scoring margin, and ninth in field goal defense.
JuCo transfer David Franklin (#10; 6-foot-5 guard) leads the team in scoring at 18.7 per game, having most recently dropped 35 on RMU-Peoria. Three other players average double-figures.
Harry Statham is the all-time wins leader in men's college basketball history and is in his 50^th season at McKendree in 2015-16. His 1,095 victories puts him just three behind Pat Summitt's all-time four-year coaching victory mark of 1,098.

Bulldog Tweet-ables (140 characters or less):

#MBBHistory: Thursday's game will mark the 2,219^th in program history. TSU has 1,140-1,078 overall record (.514) in 96^th season.
#80IsGravy: 'Dogs have won all 24 games under HC Foster when scoring at least 80 points (9-0 in 2015-16).
#UniWatch: Say hello to new purple uni's this year; 'Dogs are 8-2 in white's and 2-1 in purple's this yr. No gray sighting yet.
#GottaGetUp: Under HC Foster, Truman is 28-2 when leading at the half. Team just 2-11 when tied/trailing at break.
#WinTheGlass: The Bulldogs are 4-0 this year (15-0 in last two seasons combined) when they out-rebound opponents.

Hank's History Book – January 7:

Truman is 12-16 all-time in games played on January 7. The Bulldogs' last win on Jan. 7 came in the 2005-06 season, when the 'Dogs defeated Missouri Southern 64-52 in Pershing Arena as part of its 20-9 year.
January 7, 2006 – In that victory against MSSU, the Bulldogs improved to 13-2 on the season with the 12-point victory. Andy Calmes scored 14 points and added nine rebounds, while Grant Agbo netted 11 points and grabbed nine boards off the bench. That game's starters: Calmes, Derek Lindsey, Garrett Grimm, Chip Sodemann, and Austin Kirby.

I Get By with a Little Help from My Friends:
Truman has been incredibly generous with the rock this season, averaging more than 15 assists per game overall. The Bulldogs, who have topped the 20-assist mark in a game three times this season, are 6-0 this year and 19-3 during the past two seasons when they dish out at least 15 assists in a game.

Among the Career Charts:
Both senior guard Andrew Vander Zwaag and senior guard Cole Myers have made their ways onto a pair of Truman's career individual charts.

Vander Zwaag ranks 9^th in three-pointers attempted (420) and trails Boyd Printy's eighth-most total of 447 (1989-92) as the next-in-line. He recently passed Mike Peterson's 10^th-most total of 385, set from 1997-2001.

Vander Zwaag also needs just one more three-pointer (currently: 160) to tie Mike Peterson (1997-2001) for 10^th on the all-time triples made chart. A hot game could also shoot him past Jason Ramthun's total of 164 (1996-2000) into ninth-place.

Myers, meanwhile, just passed recent team-member Reed Mells for ninth on the all-time steals chart, as his 118 puts him just eight back of Gary Bussard's 1980-83 total of 126. His brother, Cory, is just outside of the top-ten, sitting at 109 in his third full season.

"Three"sy-Peesy:
Truman has seen sustained success from distance throughout program history, with the Bulldogs having made at least one three-pointer in every game since Feb. 12, 2003 – a stretch of 348 consecutive games.

Four Peas in a GLVC Pod:
For the 2015-16 season, the GLVC will again be invoking a "pod" system for basketball scheduling, resulting in 18 league matches for all 16 of the conference's schools. While all 16 teams will fall under the East and West divisional standings with no delineation between pods, Truman will play Quincy, Rockhurst, and William Jewell twice each as part of one four-team grouping.

Drury, Missouri S&T, Maryville, and Missouri-St. Louis will link together as the second West division pod, while the quartets of Bellarmine—Illinois Springfield—McKendree—Southern Indiana and Indianapolis—Lewis—Saint Joseph's—Wisconsin-Parkside will comprise the two East division groupings.

At the end of the season, the top 12 teams will compete for the GLVC men's basketball championship. First-round games between seeds 5-12 will be played on Sunday, February 28, with the top-4 seed and first-round winners advancing once again to Family Arena in St. Charles, Mo., for the remainder of the tournament the next weekend.

Up Next:
The Bulldogs will host Illinois Springfield (5-6, 0-2 GLVC East) at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 9, in Pershing Arena. The Prairie Stars visit Quincy on Thursday night prior to Saturday's game in Kirksville.

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Players Mentioned

#02 Seth Jackson: G; 6' 4"; Senior

#04 Reed Mells: G; 5' 11"; Senior

#32 Connor Erickson: F; 6' 8"; Redshirt Junior

#22 Kyle Kanaskie: G; 5' 11"; Junior

#11 Cole Myers: G; 6' 3"; Senior

#12 Cory Myers: G; 6' 3"; Redshirt Junior

#30 Andrew Vander Zwaag: G; 6' 3"; Redshirt Senior

#24 Jake Velky: G; 6' 1"; Freshman

Players Mentioned

#02 Seth Jackson
: 6' 4"; Senior
: G

#04 Reed Mells
: 5' 11"; Senior
: G

#32 Connor Erickson
: 6' 8"; Redshirt Junior
: F

#22 Kyle Kanaskie
: 5' 11"; Junior
: G

#11 Cole Myers
: 6' 3"; Senior
: G

#12 Cory Myers
: 6' 3"; Redshirt Junior
: G

#30 Andrew Vander Zwaag
: 6' 3"; Redshirt Senior
: G

#24 Jake Velky
: 6' 1"; Freshman
: G