GAME 31

Detroit (17-13, 10-7 HL) at Youngstown State (15-13, 10-7 HL)

Date: Sat., Feb. 25, 2012 

Tip Time: 2:05 p.m. ET

Location: Youngstown, Ohio

Arena:  Beeghley Center

TV: WADL-TV 38

Live Stats: ysusports.com

Live Video: Horizon League Network

All-time Series: Detroit leads 22-8

This Year:

Dec. 1- L, 61-64 @ Detroit

Last Year: 

Jan. 22 - W, 73-69 @YSU

Feb. 16- W, 91-79 @ Detroit

ON TAP

Detroit wraps-up its regular season Saturday with a trip to Youngstown State with Horizon League tournament seedings up for grabs.  Following Thursday's action, Detroit can finish anywhere from three through six in the HL seedings depending on how things finish on Saturday in other contests.

SCOUTING THE PENGUINS

Horizon League-leading scorer Kendrick Perry poured-in 23 points to lead Youngstown to a 61-54 win Thursday night over Wright State.  The win moved the Penguins into a three-way tie for fourth in the HL standings.  The 'Guins have rebounded from a two-win campaign in league play a season ago and have already recorded the biggest single-year turnaround in the 10-team league and are one win shy of the overall league record. YSU boasts not only the HL's top scorer (Perry- 16.6 ppg), but also the top shot blocker (Damian Eargle- 4.0 bpg).  Eargle is also third in the league with 7.4 boards per contest.

THE SERIES WITH YSU

Detroit owns a dominating 22-8 lead in the all-time series between the schools.  YSU grabbed a 64-61 victory in the HL opener this season at Calihan Hall. In that game, DuShawn Brooks tallied a game-high 24 points, including a pair of clutch three-pointers in the final minutes.  Chase Simon and Ray McCallum each had 21 to pace the Titans.  McCallum added 10 rebounds for his first double-double of the season.  The loss snapped the Titans' five-game winning streak over the Penguins.

WHAT'S NEXT?

Regardless of Saturday's outcomes, Detroit will host a home game on Tues., Feb. 28 in the first round of the HL tournament. A Detroit loss would clinch the sixth seed in the tourney, hosting the seventh seed.  A Detroit would could produce anywhere from a three to a five seed, see the seeding scenarios below. The first round winners advance to Valparaiso for the quarterfinal round on Mar. 2.  The semifinal round is played a day later and the championship is held Mar. 6 at the site of the highest seed remaining with the winner grabbing the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament.

LAST TIME OUT

A second-half Detroit dryspell helped lift host Cleveland State to a 77-64 win at the Wolstein Center Thursday night in Horizon League action. Detroit did not hit a field goal in the final 9:14 of the game to allow Cleveland State to erase a six-point halftime lead and take the victory.  Despite being in foul trouble, the Viking bench filled-in with 25 points, 20 coming from the freshmen duo of Charlie Lee and Ike Nwamu.  Chase Simon led the Titans with 17 points and 10 rebounds while Ray McCallum added 13 points and Jason Calliste chipped-in 10.

SIMON SAYS

Senior Chase Simon registered his fourth career double-double with his 17-point, 10-rebound effort Thursday at Cleveland State.  Simon had 10 points and eight boards before halftime.  His first double-double performance this season was a 13-point, 11-rebound game at Notre Dame on Nov. 14.

BUS TRIP ADDED FOR YOUNGSTOWN STATE

Fans can catch both remaining road games by hopping on the Titan fan bus.  A trip to Cleveland State was already in the works for Thursday, but now-- by popular demand-- fans can travel to Youngstown State Saturday to see their beloved Titans in the regular season finale against the Penguins as the teams battle for position in the Horizon League standings.  For more information, go to www.detroittitans.com.

17 AGAIN

Coach McCallum has led the Titans to their third straight season of at least 17 wins and it marks the seventh time in his coaching career he's achieved that mark.  In four of the previous times, it led to a postseason berth (2 NCAA, 2 NIT).  The high-water mark was a 22-win campaign in his final season at Ball State (1999-2000), a season that saw the Cardinals win 11 of their final 12 (including the MAC Championship) before heading into the NCAA Tournament.

MAKING THE PUSH

Detroit has made its push up the Horizon League standings in these last 13 games.  After starting 1-4 in conference, UDM has vaulted from eighth place to a tie for fourth at 10-7. The HL records since Detroit's 1-4 start:

HL Records after Jan. 6

Valpo 11-3

DETROIT 9-3

CSU 8-5

Butler 8-6

Green Bay 7-6

Milwaukee 7-6

Youngstown St 7-6

Wright St 4-8

UIC 2-10

Loyola 1-11

THREE TO 1,000?

Keeping tabs on individual scoring as we head to the final stretch of the season and there is a possibility that Detroit could have three 1,000-point scorers on the floor at one time.  Chase Simon, already at 1,316 points in a Titan uniform, surpassed the mark in the early part of the season.  Fellow senior Eli Holman sits at 962 points with one regular season games remaining.  Sophomore Ray McCallum also has a shot at quadruple digits this season as he has 899 career points, and depending on the number of postseason games played, could reach that plateau.  

TIE-BREAKER SCENARIOS

As it stands heading into the final game, Detroit is in a tie for fourth place with Milwaukee, a half-game back of Butler and Cleveland State for second place.  There are multiple scenarios that could wind up with four teams tied.  The basic breakdown for Detroit follows:

DETROIT WIN

& BOTH CSU and UWM win = 3 seed

& BOTH CSU and UWM loss= 3 seed

& CSU loss and UWM win= 4 seed

& CSU win and UWM loss= 5 seed

DETROIT LOSS

= 6 seed

1.) Head-to-head

2.) If two teams tied- best record against top seed(s)

3.) If three or more teams are tied, combined record of each of the tied teams against the other teams involved in the tie 

4.) Compare each of the tied team's records against the team occupying the highest position in the standings and continue down through the standings until the tie is reduced to a two-team tie (at which time revert to items (1) and (2) above or until the tie is broken.

5.) Highest RPI for that season (source for RPI: College Basketball News).

SHOTS FROM THE HEART-- ELITE EIGHT!

Coach McCallum is perfect through three rounds of the CollegeInsider.com "Shots from the Heart" head coach's bracket to benefit the Skip Prosser Foundation.  Coach made all 25 shots in each of the first three rounds and has advanced to the "Elite 8", where he will match-up against defending champion Fred Hoiberg of Iowa State.  The tournament will be pared down to four in the coming weeks with the finals at the end of February.  The Free Throw Champions of both the head and assistant coach's brackets will be recognized as part of the 2012 CollegeInsider.com Awards Banquet in New Orleans, site of the 2012 Men's NCAA Basketball Championship.  Follow detroittitans.com for updates on Coach Ray's progress in the tourney.  For more on the "Shots from the Heart", got to http://collegeinsider.com/shots.

DETROIT TITAN COURT REPORT ON FSD

The newest edition of the "Detroit Titan Court Report" is out and you can catch it during a number of different re-airs on FOX Sports Detroit.  The fourth installment of the 30-minute show gives fans an inside look to the Detroit Titans men's basketball team, including interviews with players and coaches, highlights, features and behind-the-scenes access like no other show can provide.  The show, in its second season on FSD, was nominated for a Michigan Emmy in its first season and has been met with rave reviews in season two. 

EPISODE 4 SCHEDULED RE-AIRS

Sat 02/25     11:30:00 AM

Tue 02/28     2:30:00 PM

Sat 03/03     11:00:00 AM

Sat 03/03     11:30:00 PM

Mon 03/05     6:00:00 PM

Tue 03/06     6:00:00 PM

Wed 03/07     2:30:00 PM

Fri 03/09     6:00:00 PM

Mon 03/12     7:30:00 PM

EPISODE 5 PREMIERE and SCHEDULED RE-AIRS

Tue 03/13     7:00:00 PM

Wed 03/14     8:00:00 PM

Wed 03/14     8:30:00 PM

Sat 03/17     2:00:00 PM

Tue 03/20     2:30:00 PM

Sat 03/24     2:30:00 PM

Mon 03/26     6:00:00 PM

Thu 03/29     6:30:00 PM

Sat 03/31     6:30:00 PM

Sat 03/31     11:00:00 PM

EPISODE 6 PREMIERE

April - TBD (Season recap)