QUICK NOTES

- Junior guard Garret Covington is 19 points away from becoming the 23rd member in WIU's program to join the 1,000-point club... He has scored 19+ points 15 times in his career, twice this season.

- Western is 3-36 against Big Ten teams since becoming a Division I program.

- Monday's meeting with Iowa is WIU's second meeting with a Big Ten team this season... The Leathernecks opened the season with a 69-67 win at then-No. 17 Wisconsin (Nov. 13).

- The Leathernecks win at Wisconsin was the program's first over a ranked opponent and third over a Big Ten member in the program's history.

- Monday night's meeting will mark the ninth between WIU and Iowa... The Hawkeyes lead the series 8-0... Iowa has outscored WIU an average of 34.9 points per game during those eight meetings.

- WIU has had two of the first three Summit League 'Player of the Week' award winners in Garret Covington (Nov. 16) and J.C. Fuller (Nov. 23).

- WIU head baseball coach Ryan Brownlee spent 9 seasons at Iowa as an assistant coach, and football assistant coach A.J. Blazek was a two-year letterwinner at center for the Hawkeyes.

SERIES HISTORY: Iowa leads the all-time series 8-0... The first meeting between the two teams occurred on Dec. 15, 1943 with Iowa winning 82-43... The next season, on Dec. 9, 1944, Iowa defeated WIU 101-23, the largest margin of victory for the Hawkeyes in all of the meetings... The most recent meeting occurred on Dec. 27, 2008 with Iowa beating Western 58-43... All of the meetings are listed below:

Dec. 15, 1943: L, 82-34
Dec. 9, 1944: L, 101-23
Nov. 26, 1991: L, 95-58
Dec. 20, 1995: L, 93-41
Nov. 22, 1996: L, 81-66
Nov. 15, 1998: L, 74-63
Nov. 19, 2004: L, 85-62
Dec. 27, 2008: L, 58-42

BEST START SINCE: Western Illinois' 6-1 start is only the third of its kind during the program's Division I era... The other three teams to start a season 6-1 were the program's first DI team, 1981-82 squad, along with the 1986-87 team... A Western Illinois team has never kicked off a season 7-1 during the program's DI era... WIU began the season 5-0, matching the program's best start during its NCAA Division I 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: After the first week of basketball Western Illinois debuted at No. 24 in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll and have ranked as high at #17...The No. 17 rating is the program's best-ever... The only other season WIU appeared in the poll was during its championship season in 2012-13... This week the Leathernecks sit at #18.

PREVIOUS APPEARANCES IN THE POLL THIS SEASON:
Nov. 16 - #24
Nov. 23 - #17
Nov. 30 - #18

DYNAMIC DUO: Senior J.C. Fuller and junior Garret Covington average a combined 34.5 points, 4.6 3-pointers, 10.1 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.7 steals per game as a duo... The duos 34.5 points per game makes up 43.1 percent of WIU's scoring... They also combine for a 53.2 field goal percentage (83-156), a 57.1 3-point field goal percentage (32-56), and a 91.5 free throw percentage (43-47).

OR DYNAMIC TRIO?: Add junior Jabari Sandifer to the combination of Fuller and Covington... That trio averages 44.7 points, 5.6 3-pointers, 14.1 rebounds, 9.6 assists, and 3.4 steals per game... The trio makes up 55.9 percent of Western's scoring and 60.4 percent of its assists... They also combine for a 51.9 field goal percentage (107-206), a 54.9 3-point field goal percentage (39-71), and a 85.7 free throw percentage (60-70).

1,000 POINT CLUB: Garret Covington sits 25th all-time in Western Illinois career scoring with 981 points... He is only 19 points from becoming the 23rd player in WIU program history to join the 1,000 point club... The last player at Western to reach that milestone was Ceola Clark III who finished his career with 1,472 points.

MORE COVINGTON IN THE RECORD BOOK: Garret Covington has 981 career points which ranks 25th in program history, 99 points away from sole possession of 20th... Mel Lacy sits 20th with 1,079 points... Dan Braun ranks 15th with 1,212... Covington is also in WIU's career three-pointers 'Top 10' having made 151 career three-pointers which ranks sixth all-time at WIU… David Nurse ranks fifth all-time with 160 career three-pointers.

FULLER'S TURNAROUND: J.C. Fuller started off his Leatherneck career slow last season as a junior transfer, averaging 9.5 points per game and shooting just 34.9 percent (37-106) from the field, 18.5 percent (5-27) from the 3-point line and 77.5 percent (31-40) from the free throw line through his first 11 games... However, during his last 19 games dating back to last season, Fuller has averaged a team-high 16.9 points (322 total), 4.9 rebounds (93 total) and 2.5 assists (47 total) per game... During that same time frame he has made 49.4 percent (119-of-241) of his shots from the field, shot 46.9 (38-of-81) percent from the 3-point line, and 82.1 percent (46-of-56) from the free throw line.

THE LAST TIME OUT: Jalen Morgan helped lead Western Illinois with an efficient season-high 17 points as the Fighting Leathernecks never trailed and handled the Silver Lake Lakers, 84-49, inside Western Hall Wednesday night (Dec. 2)...The Leathernecks, who bettered the Lakers in nearly every statistical category, took a 41-26 lead into halftime and then outscored the Lakers 43-23 in the second half on the way to their sixth victory of the season... Besides Morgan, three other Leathernecks scored in double figures... Senior Jamie Batish and junior Garret Covington each tallied 14 points while junior Jabari Sandifer finished with 11...Senior Tate Stensgaard added seven points... Those five Leathernecks combined to shoot 77.8 from the field making 21-of-27 shots. As a team WIU shot 50.9 percent from the field (28-of-55) and 50.0 from downtown (9-of-18).

HOME SWEET HOME: Western is 41-17 (.707) inside Western Hall since the beginning of the 2011-12 season... The Leathernecks went 10-4 (.714) during their 2011-12 campaign, 12-2 (.857) during the 2012-13 league slate, 7-5 in 2013-14 (.583), 8-6 (.571) in 2014-15, and are 4-0 (100.0) so far this season on LeRoy A. Ufkes Court inside Western Hall.

ROAD RAGE: Western is 2-1 so far this season on the road... Since the 2011-12 season, WIU is 16-43 (.271) 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.

COVINGTON FOR THREE: Garret Covington has 151 career three-pointers... He had 70 three-pointers as a freshman, 63 as a sophomore and has 18 so far as a junior... He has played in 64 career games, has only had six games without making a 3-pointer, meaning he has made at least one triple in 58 games... He has 41 games with multiple 3-pointers... 17 games with one trey, 12 games with two triples, 12 games with three makes from long range, 12 games with four 3-pointers, four games with five connections from beyond the arc, and a career-high six 3-pointers in one game... He made his six triples consecutively in WIU's win over Idaho last season (Dec. 11, 2014).

SANDIFER'S ASSISTS: Jabari Sandifer, who finished the 2014-15 Summit League slate ranked first out of all players in assists per game (3.8), has 245 assists in his career, and averages 3.7 per game during his 64 career games played... 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' games and is averaging 4.9 assists per contest (34 total)... He has at least one assist in all but two of his 64 career games played... He has multiple assists in 59 of those games... Two assists in 10 games... three assists in 20 games, four assists in 14 games... One game with five assists... Seven games with six assists... Three games with seven assists... Three games with eight assists... He logged a career-high 13 assists last year versus Greenville College (Nov. 29) while not turning the ball over in 29 minutes of play... His 13 helpers was two shy of WIU's single-game record... His four career games with eight-plus assists all came last season as a sophomore.