Horizon League Network
The UDM men's basketball team will look for its second win of the season as the Titans host fellow Jesuit University Saint Louis on Saturday. Game time is set for 2:05 p.m.
Denny Kapp will have the call live from Calihan Hall on WDFN-AM 1130. For the fourth year in a row, the Horizon League Network will webcast all regular-season and post-season games. UDM also video streams its non-conference home games.
Saint Louis split its first four games, with victories over Missouri-St. Louis (48-33) and Boston College (53-50). The Billikens are coming off a 71-57 loss at Nebraska last Tuesday.
Saint Louis is one of the youngest teams in the country with nine freshmen and three sophomores on their 12-man roster, with three seniors filling out the squad.
Three Billikens are scoring in double figures on the season, led by senior guard Kevin Lisch's 14.7 points per game. Fellow senior Tommy Liddell III is second on the team with 12.3 ppg., while leading the team with 8.8 rebounds per night. Lisch had 12 points against the Titans last year, 10 coming by way of the charity stripe, while Liddell scored nine points and grabbed three rebounds.
Brian Conklin, a freshman forward, is the other Billiken in double figures with 10.8 a night to go with six rebounds a game.
Rick Majerus is in his second year as head coach at Saint Louis, guiding the team to a 16-15 record a year ago. In 21 years as a head coach, Majerus has never had a losing season compiling a 440-164 career record in the process.
TITANS VS. THE BILLIKENS
The Billikens and the Titans were once conference foes back in the old Midwestern Collegiate Conference days, but Saint Louis left the conference in 1991 to join the defunct Great Midwest Conference, which eventually became known as Conference USA. They are currently in the Atlantic 10 Conference.
SLU leads the all-time series 29-14, but the two teams have split 20 career meetings in the Motor City. The last time Saint Louis came to Detroit was during the 1994-95 season, coming away with a 71-60 decision. Head coach Ray McCallum is 3-2 all-time against Saint Louis.
AGAINST THE A-10
UDM is 123-152 all-time against teams that currently comprise the Atlantic 10 Conference. Detroit has dropped its last four against A-10 foes, with its last victory coming in the 2001 NIT Tournament when the Titans crushed Dayton, 59-42.
BALL STATE CONNECTION
Both head coaches have also made a stop at Ball State along their way. Saint Louis head coach Rick Majerus was at the helm in Muncie for two season (1987-89) leading the Cardinals to a 43-17 record and an NCAA Tournament appearance. Titan head coach Ray McCallum graduated from Ball State and was the head coach there for seven years (1993-2000), leading the school two NCAA Tournaments as well as one NIT appearance.
KEELING KEEPS IMPROVING
Junior forward Xavier Keeling surpassed his career nigh in points for the third-straight game. Keeling netted a personal best 15 points at DePaul his last time out. That effort came after he grabbed a career-best nine boards, six offensive, at Western Michigan on Nov. 18, while scoring what was then a career best 12 points in just 26 minutes. “X” as he is known to his teammates, then matched that total with 12 markers against Eastern Michigan on Nov. 22.
FOSTER SHOWING NO FRESHMAN SIGNS
Rookie Donavan Foster might have just three collegiate games under his belt, but the guard is hardly playing like a freshman. He currently leads the team in scoring with 11 points per game and is shooting 48-percent (12-of-25) from the field and 50-percent from 3-point range (7-of-14). He also has just three turnovers on the year and six steals. Even in his third collegiate game when he returned to his hometown of Chicago when the Titans played DePaul, Foster showed he was not nervous at all scoring 15 points with a team-high four steals.
NUMBER CHANGES
Detroit introduced a new logo prior to the season and with the new logo comes new uniforms. Until they arrive, four Titan players will have different numbers on their jerseys for the first few games of the season. Here is a look at the players who will don a different number.
Woody Payne #11 - wearing #31
Tryl Hartfield #14 - wearing #10
Eugene Blue #30 - wearing #45
Thomas Kennedy #15 - wearing #12
