Game #15
UC Irvine (10-4) at #2 Kansas (10-1)
Tuesday, December 29, 2015 - 6:00 p.m. (PT)
Allen Fieldhouse (16,300) - Lawrence, Kansas
Series Record: First Meeting
TV: ESPNU (Dave Armstrong & Tim Welsh)
Audio / Video / Live Stats
ANTEATERS MEET JAYHAWKS FOR 1ST TIME: UC Irvine (10-4) faces Kansas (10-1) for the first time in history Tuesday night at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence. The Jayhawks are ranked No. 2 in the A.P. poll (Dec. 28).
Coach Bill Self's Jayhawks are the highest-ranked team that UCI has met since a 71-54 loss at No. 2 Arizona last season (11/19/14). Kansas has won 29 consecutive home games.
ROAD WEARY: Tuesday night's game culminates a span of seven out of eight games on the road for UCI in December.
Including the Wooden Legacy at Fullerton and Anaheim over Thanksgiving weekend, the Anteaters will have played 10 of their last 11 games away from Irvine.
UCI plays five of eight games in January at home, beginning with New Mexico State Saturday night at 7:30.
UCI WINS SUN BOWL INVITATIONAL: Coach Russell Turner's Anteaters won the championship of the Don Haskins Sun Bowl Invitational with an 80-62 win over Norfolk State last Tuesday night in El Paso, Texas.
The win was the 100th for Turner at UCI, where he is 100-84 in his sixth season.
Junior guard Luke Nelson was named tournament MVP after averaging 16.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists in the Anteaters' two wins. UCI defeated Sam Houston State, 63-53, in the tourney opener last Monday.
Mamadou Ndiaye, the Anteaters' 7-6 junior center, was named to the all-tournament team. He tied his career high with 21 points in the title game, hitting 8 of 9 shots, and added nine rebounds and five blocked shots.
UC IRVINE NOTES
● Coach Russell Turner's UCI teams are 75-45 since the start of the 2012-13 season.
● UCI has won 52 of its last 54 games when holding the opposition to 60 points or less, including 4-0 in those games this season.
● UCI is 8-0 this season when the opposition shoots under 40 percent from the field.
● UCI is 5-16 all-time vs. the Big 12 (past and present members).
● UCI started what is believed to be the tallest lineup in college basketball history as the Anteaters held off Chapman, 65-51, in non-conference action at the Bren Events Center Dec. 18 in UCI's only home game of the month.
● Coach Russell Turner sent out 7-6 Mamadou Ndiaye, 7-2 Ioannis Dimakopoulos, 6-10 Mike Best, 6-10 Jonathan Galloway and 6-8 Shawn Ray to start the game. That group totaled 420 inches (35 feet), 14 inches taller than any other college basketball starting five, according to STATS LLC in records kept since 1996-97.
● UCI senior point guard Alex Young needs two assists to become the Anteaters' career leader. He ranks second all-time at UCI with 474 assists, just one behind Raimonds Miglinieks, who registered 475 in his Anteater career.
● Young is the 25th player in Anteater history to reach 1,000 career points as he currently has 1,047, including a season-high 20 at Utah State Dec. 12.
● Young, in his third year as a team captain, is seventh in UCI history with 119 steals and 19th with 96 threes. He had a career-high nine rebounds in the Nov. 23 win over Santa Clara.
● Junior center Mamadou Ndiaye, in his UCI career, has 171 blocked shots and is shooting 68 percent from the field in his UCI career. His 171 rejections rank fifth in Big West Conference history.
● Ndiaye, who has four double-doubles this season, pulled down a career-high 14 rebounds in wins at Utah State (Dec. 12) and Pacific (Dec. 4).
● Ndiaye was named Big West Conference Player of the Week Dec. 14 after recording 17 points, 14 rebounds and four blocked shots in the Dec. 12 win at Utah State. The 14 boards tied his career high.
● Junior guard Luke Nelson is eighth in Anteater history with 149 threes and is tied for 14th with 272 assists. Nelson has scored 876 career points.
● Senior forward Mike Best, who averaged 3.4 points and 2.2 rebounds last season, is averaging 8.9 points and 4.2 boards this season.
● Senior Dominique Dunning has seven assists and just one turnover in 50 minutes over the last three games.
● In the NCAA statistics, through Saturday's games, Mamadou Ndiaye is fourth in total blocks with 40 and 14th in blocked shots per game (2.86). Alex Young ranks 12th in the nation in assist/turnover ratio (4.00).
● UCI ranks 28th nationally in field-goal percentage defense (.382) and 37th in blocked shots per game (5.4).
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