OPENING TIP
- Western ranks #20 in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll this week and has an NCAA.com RPI of 110.

- A Western Illinois win would continue WIU's hot start and mark the first time the program has started the season 8-2 or better in the program's DI era and first time since the both the 1979-80 and 1980-81 teams started the year 8-2... The 1980-81 team kicked off their season 9-2.

- Junior guard Garret Covington became the 23rd member of WIU's program to join the 1,000-point club in the Leathernecks' game vs. EIU (Dec. 12).

- Covington ranks #23 in WIU's all-time scoring with 1,004 points... He also ranks #6 in career 3-pointers made with 154.

- Junior guard Jabari Sandifer ranks #10 in career assists at WIU with 258.

- In WIU's last outing senior forward Tate Stensgaard grabbed a career-high 15 rebounds, nine were on the offensive end.

- Western leads the all-time series over Chicago State 24-12... The two teams played 24 times while in The Summit League (Mid-Con Conference at the time), WIU won 16 of those games.

SERIES HISTORY: The Leathernecks lead the all-time series with Chicago State 24-12... The first ever meeting between the two programs occurred on February 5, 1972 with Western defeating CSU 124-91 (The 124 points scored by WIU ranks fifth-most in the program's history)... That meeting marked the only 1-of-3 meetings between the two programs before Western moved up to NCAA Division I... Chicago State was a member of The Summit League when it was known as the Mid-Continent Conference, joining the league in 1994 and departing in 2006... During that time period WIU went 16-8 against the Cougars, never facing them in the league's tournament... Since CSU left the league the two teams have only played once on Jan. 20, 2007 with the Cougars defeating the Leathernecks 82-72 in Macomb... WIU's program record for blocks in a game of nine by Shelby Thompson happened against Chicago State during the 1992-93 season.

IN-STATE FOES: Western Illinois is 3-0 against other Division I Illinois programs so far this season with a win over UIC at home and victories against the Eastern Illinois Panthers both at home and away from Macomb... WIU wraps up play against fellow Illinois teams at Chicago State (12/19) and at Loyola (12/21).

BEST START SINCE: Western Illinois' 7-2 is the first of its kind during the program's Division I era... The Leathernecks will look to continue the program's best-DI start by moving to 8-2 overall... During the program's DI era, only five teams have started the year 7-3 through 10 games, and only five teams have kicked off a season 8-3 through 11 games... Through 12 games, only two teams have started a season with three losses in the 1986-87 squad and the 2012-13 team... The 2012-13 team started its season 14-3 overall.

UNDEFEATED START: Speaking of hot starts, this year WIU began the season 5-0, matching the program's best start during its DI era... The only other team during the program's DI era to start a season 5-0 was the 1986-87 team... No WIU team had started better than 5-0 since the 1957-58 team which won its first 27 games played and earned the Illinois Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship.

MID-MAJOR TOP 25: For the fifth consecutive week, the Western Illinois men's basketball team has been ranked in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll. This week, WIU remains at 20th... Western started the year ranked #24 before jumping up to #17, which marked the program's best ever showing in the poll... The most appearances WIU made in the poll during a season was 10 during the 2012-13 regular season championship run... Those 10 showings occurred consecutively... A complete list of WIU's appearances in the poll this season is below:

Nov. 16 - #24
Nov. 23 - #17
Nov. 30 - #18
Dec. 7 - #18
Dec. 16 - #20

RPI/NATIONAL STATISTICS AS A TEAM (Thru Dec. 16): Western Illinois holds an RPI of 110... Western also ranks in the 'Top 100' of 13 other national statistical categories... The Leathernecks rank: 7th in 3-point field goal percentage (43.7), 24th in field goal percentage defense (37.5), 40th in turnovers per game (11.1), 44th in fewest total turnovers (100), 48th in assist/turnover ratio (1.37), 50th in scoring defense (64.6), 52nd in win/lose percentage (77.8), 62nd in scoring margin (11.0), 66th in field goal percentage (47.1), 82nd in defensive rebounds per game (27.89), 84th in assists per game (15.52), 85th in blocks per game (4.6), and 98th in free throw percentage (71.8).

NATIONAL STATISTICS AS AN INDIVIDUAL (Thru Dec. 16): Individually, J.C. Fuller ranks 72nd in free throw percentage (86.2)... Jabari Sandifer ranks 58th in assists per game (5.2), 82th in total assists (47) and 86th in assist/turnover ratio (2.61).

TOP ALL-TIME: Garret Covington sits 23rd all-time in Western Illinois career scoring with 1,004 points... He is 76 points away from sole possession of 20th and 209 points away from sole possession of 15th... Mel Lacy sits 20th with 1,079 points... Dan Braun ranks 15th with 1,212... In Western's home game versus Eastern Illinois he became the program's 23rd player to join the 1,000 point club.

SANDIFER IN TOP 10: Jabari Sandifer, who finished the 2014-15 Summit League slate ranked first out of all players in assists per game (3.8), has 258 assists in his career which ranks 10th all-time in WIU program history... He currently averages 3.9 assists per game and has played in 67 career games... As a freshman, he played in all 30 games and averaged a team-best 3.1 per game (92 total)… As a sophomore, he played in all 28 games and averaged 4.3 per game (119 total)... This season, as a junior, he has played in all of the teams' nine games and is averaging 5.2 assists per contest (47 total).

ROAD RAGE: Western is 2-2 so far this season on the road... Since the 2011-12 season, WIU is 16-44 (.267) on the road since the beginning of the 2011-12 season, and 1-26 (.037) in the last two seasons... The Leathernecks went 6-10 (.375) in 2011-12, they were above .500 in 2012-13 with a 7-6 (.538) road mark, struggled again during the 2013-14 season with a 1-13 (.071) record on the road, and went 0-13 (.000) in 2014-15.

Jones Convocation Center (7,000)