STORYLINES
Wayne State will need to upset the nation's top-ranked team, Bellarmine to collect its first victory of the season.  The Warriors nearly found the win column last weekend against Lewis, but missed a last-second three-pointer as the Flyers won 74-72.

THE SERIES
WSU trails 2-5 In the all-time series against Bellarmine.  The Knights have won the last four meetings, including 65-50 last season in Detroit.  The Warriors are 0-3 on the road in the series.  The teams first met on Nov. 19, 2005.  WSU won in December of 2005 and in double overtime in 2009.  The previous four matchups have come when BU is ranked inside the top five and Saturdays' contest will be the third meeting when the Knights are ranked number one.

SCOUTING THE KNIGHTS
Bellarmine is 3-0 to start the season and is coming off a 29-3 season but lost 74-73 to Findlay in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.  Head coach Scott Davenport is in his 14th season with the program and is a four-time GLVC Coach of the Year.  BU returns a large portion of the lettermen from last year, including senior forward Adam Eberhard along with a number of players who spent time in the 2017-18 starting lineup: Ben Weyer, Daniel Ramser, Tyler Jenkins, Chivarsky Corbett and Alex Cook.  Parker Chitty, a member of the GLVC All-Defensive Team, and CJ Fleming, a GLVC All-Freshman Team selection a year ago, also return to a squad that was recently recognized in national preseason rankings at No. 1 by DII Bulletin and No. 2 by Street and Smiths.  Eberhard is leading the team in scoring at 19.7 points per contest, while Corbett is scoring 17 points per game and is the team's top rebounder at 8.7 boards per game.  Weyer is averaging 12 points per contest.  As a team, Bellarmine is scoring 81.3 points per game and allowing 65.3 points to its opponents.

LAST TIME OUT
The Warriors dropped the Nov. 17th contest, 74-72, against Lewis.  Wayne State trailed by two at halftime after leading by as many as seven points early in the first half.  The Flyers led by nine with 8:31 left in the contest before WSU slowly chipped away at the visitors' advantage. 
 

Two free throws from Darian Owens-White at the 2:47 mark and Antonio Marshall's third three-pointer of the afternoon kept WSU close, 69-67, with 1:46 to play.  The Flyers connected on two free throws at the 30-second mark to take a 71-67 lead but Owens-White responded with a layup.  After two more free throws by the Flyers, Tristan Wilson's dunk brought the Warriors within two, 73-71, with seven seconds left in regulation.  Lewis missed the first of two free thows to give the Flyers a 74-71 advantage. 

Owens-White made the first of two free throws but intentionally missed the second. Following a scramble, WSU wound up with the ball on the baseline after it went out off of a Lewis defender.  Marshall's attempt from the corner found only iron.

HEAD COACH LONGEVITY 
Head coach David Greer is in his 18th season as the top man on the Warriors' bench.  He equals the school record for years as head men's basketball coach in 2018-19, joining Newman Ertell (1929-48) and Joel Mason (1948-66) at 18 years on the WSU bench. 

COLLEGIATE AND WSU DEBUTS
After five seniors graduated from the 2017-18 roster, Wayne State would roll out a new look roster this season.  Two transfers have made their WSU debuts as Xavier Cochran (Albany) and Jacob Joubert (Detroit Mercy) both appeared in the season opener at Ohio Dominican.  Freshman Antonio Marshall also made his collegiate debut at ODU.

HISTORICAL VICTORY
Last season, the men's basketball program won its 800th game (76-73 over GVSU on Nov. 30th) as Wayne State University (1956-present).  In the 102 years of basketball, WSU has won 1,228 games (first 60 as Detroit Junior College [1918-23], 120 as College of the City of Detroit/CCD [1924-34], and 235 as Wayne University [1934-56]).

SWEATER VEST COLOR
Head coach David Greer makes an important decision every gameday on what color his sweater vest is going to be.  We will track this throughout the season.  So far, the Warriors are 0-1 when he wears the dark grey, 0-1 in the tan, 0-1 in the light grey and 0-1 with the black sweater.  This includes the exhibition against Detroit Mercy.

RIM PROTECTOR
Senior center Tristan Wilson  has become one of the best shot blockers in program history. Wilson is tied-for-10th with 63 career blocks and his 1.1 blocks per contest is seventh best in the record books at Wayne State.  This season, he ranks second in the GLIAC and 39th nationally in blocks per game (2.0).  His six total blocked shots is third-best in the league and 59th nationally.

COMCAST/XFINITY
Every home men's basketball game in 2019 will be aired live throughout the state of Michigan on Comcast/CN 900.  Sean Baligian (play-by-play), Rod Beard (analyst) and Joe Abramson (sideline) will call the action.

LIVE ON WDTK
Kevin Brechmacher will call every contest live on WDTK - The Patriot (1400 AM / 101.5 FM).  Former Warrior standouts Ian Larkin and Mike Lewis will serve as analysts during home broadcasts during the 2018-19 season.  Fans can also stream the action online at PatriotDetroit.com.