MACOMB, Ill. -Â The Fighting Leathernecks men's basketball team heads north to Madison, Wisconsin for their season-opening game this Friday, Nov. 13. Western Illinois will face #17 Wisconsin, who reached the NCAA National Championship game a season ago, inside the Kohl Center with tipoff slated for 8 p.m. The game will air live on the Big Ten Network.
WISCONSIN CONNECTION: Junior guard Garret Covington's sister Anya Covington is an assistant coach for the Wisconsin women's basketball team and his other sister Aaliyah Covington is a sophomore guard at Saint Louis... WIU's newest assistant coach, Mark Vershaw, was a member Wisconsin's 2000 NCAA Final Four squad and became just the sixth forward in Big Ten history to register at least 1,000 points, 400 rebounds and 300 assists over a career.
NATIONAL REACH:Â The Leathernecks have 14 games this season, seven at home and seven on the road, that are scheduled to air live nationally... Of the seven road contests, four slated to air on ESPN3, two on the Big Ten Network, and one on Fox Sports 2... The seven home games that will be available for a national audience will air on ESPN3.
EXHIBITION ACTION: The Western Illinois men's basketball team cruised to a 90-48 exhibition win over Knox College last Saturday afternoon (Nov. 7) inside Western Hall. The contest marked the Fighting Leathernecks' lone exhibition of the 2015-16 season... All of Western's 16 players saw action with 12 of them scoring and 14 of them grabbing at least one rebound... Junior guard Garret Covington led all scorers with 20 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field, 2-of-3 shooting from long range, and 8-of-10 from the free throw line. The Edwardsville, Illinois, native also grabbed seven rebounds, including a team-high four offensive boards, three assists and three steals... Grabbing a team-high 11 rebounds was 6-foot-11 freshman Brandon Gilbeck who also led the team with four blocks and scored seven points... Both junior Jabari Sandifer and senior J.C. Fuller added 13 points. Sandifer also led the team with four steals... Freshman guard Delo Bruster finished with a game-high four helpers and contributed eight points, six rebounds and two steals to the Leathernecks' winning effort.
SERIES HISTORY:Â Firday's contest marks the second meeting between the two programs... The first came on Dec. 7, 1989 at Wisconsin... The Badgers won that game 69-42.
COVINGTON TABBED PRESEASON FIRST TEAM: Western Illinois men's basketball junior guard Garret Covington, who earned Second Team All-Summit League honors following both his freshman and sophomore campaigns, was tabbed preseason All-Summit League First Team prior to the 2015-16 season... He was also tabbed preseason First Team All-Summit League by Athlon Sports, Blue Ribbon, NBC Sports and Sporting News.
SUMMIT LEAGUE PRESEASON POLL:Â The Fighting Leathernecks were picked to finish ninth in The Summit League's annual preseason poll with 126 votes... The preseason poll is voted on by the league's head coaches, sports information directors and select media members.
THE 2015-16 SCHEDULE: The Western Illinois men's basketball schedule features 13 home regular season contests...The Leathernecks' upcoming slate also includes a total of six games against in-state programs, as well as two road matchups against two Big Ten opponents and one Big East school... Head Coach Billy Wright on the team's schedule: "This season we have put together a tough nonconference schedule where the majority of our opponents have postseason tournament experience, not to mention our league from top to bottom gets better and better each year. As our program takes the next step forward it was important to schedule teams that not only have postseason experience, but to also schedule teams that offer a good competitive balance."
THE RETURNERS: Western returns 10 players that were on the roster a season ago... Four seniors, three juniors, two sophomores and one redshirt-freshman... The four seniors include: guards Jamie Batish (Melbourne, Australia/Sandringham College/Neosho CC) and J.C. Fuller (Sioux City, Iowa/East/Kirkwood CC), as well as forwards Tate Stensgaard (Rapid City, S.D./Stevens/Sheridan) and Jalen Chapman (Bronx, N.Y./Eagle Academy/Western Oklahoma State College)... The juniors returning are: guard Garret Covington (Edwardsville, Ill./Edwardsville), guard Jabari Sandifer (Naperville, Ill./Neuqua Valley) and forward Mike Miklusak (Dyer, Ind./Lake Central)... The 2015-16 sophomore class includes: forward Dalan Ancrum (Round Rock, Texas/Westwood) and guard DeVante Mayes (Peoria, Ill./Peoria Central)... Forward Jalen Morgan (Indianapolis, Ind./Pike), who was injured all of last season, is WIU's only redshirt-freshman.
THE NEWCOMERS: The Leathernecks have six newcomers for the 2015-16 season, all freshman... The list of newcomers includes: two guards in Noah Wells (Champaign, Ill./Champaign Central) and Ryan Maas (Pekin, Ill./Pekin), one forward in James Claar (Bolingbrook, Ill./Plainfield East), and two centers in Brandon Gilbeck (Spring Green, Wis./River Valley) and Jordan Hughes (Schaumburg, Ill./James B. Conant).
YEAR TWO FOR WRIGHT: Last season Billy Wright returned to the Fighting Leathernecks men's basketball program after being hired as the Leathernecks' 20th head coach in program history... Wright looks for WIU's program to improve during his second year at the helm after an injury-filled 2014-15 season... Prior to his return to Western, Wright spent the 2013-14 season at Ball State as an assistant coach... Before that he was WIU's associate head coach during the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons, and an assistant coach for Western for three seasons (2008-09, 2009-10, 2010-11).
LAST SEASON'S INJURY WOES: A year ago Western Illinois lost two starters to season-ending injuries during the season... Sophomore Mike Miklusak injured his knee versus Oral Roberts on Jan. 10, while junior forward Tate Stensgaard hurt his wrist against North Dakota State on Feb. 1... Remy Roberts-Burnett, who graduated this past spring, also missed significant time due to a head injury… Before the 2014-15 season began WIU lost incoming freshman Jalen Morgan to year-long knee injury during a preseason practice. |
