STORYLINES
WSU begins GLIAC play at home with its sights set on finding its first win or two of the 2018-19 campaign.  The Warriors host Ferris State on Thursday night and Lake Superior State on Saturday afternoon.

THE SERIES
WSU trails 46-39 in the all-time series against Ferris State.  The Bulldogs have won six consecutive meetings.  Wayne State is 22-17 at home dating back to 1966 when the teams began playing.  The last Green & Gold victory came in 2014 when WSU won 79-62 in Detroit after a 56-53 win inside the Matthaei the season prior.  Head coach David Greer is 12-13 (7-3 at home) versus FSU in his previous matchups against the Bulldogs.

Wayne State holds a 45-27 advantage in the all-time series versus Lake Superior State, and has dominated the series at home, going 27-10 inside the Matthaei.  The Warriors won the last meeting, 63-60, in Detroit a season ago.  The teams began playing in 1969 and the Green & Gold have won 43 of the 67 GLIAC matchups.  Coach Greer is 13-11 against the Lakers and 8-4 at home in his previous 17 seasons with WSU.

SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
The 2017-18 Division II National Champion Ferris State Bulldogs are 5-3 overall after dropping back-to-back games against Findlay and Lewis.  Head coach Andy Bronkema is in his fifth season and was a consensus choice for National Coach of the Year.  FSU is scoring 85.4 points per contest and allowing 81.1 points per game.  Senior guard DeShaun Thrower leads the team with 16.0 points per game, while junior guard D'Angelo Hughes is scoring 13.4 points per night.  Senior forward Markese Mayfield is the top rebounder on the roster at 5.9 boards per game, while Hughes is dishing out a team-high 3.9 assists per contest.

Lake Superior State is 2-2 as league play begins after a 91-90 overtime loss at Indianapolis and a 110-88 setback at Southern Indiana.  Head coach Steve Hettinga is in his 12th season with the program and led the Lakers to a 25-8 overall record a season ago.  LSSU is averaging 79.5 points per contest and allowing 69.5 points per night.  Junior guard Malek Adams is averaging a team-best 14.5 points per contest, while sophomore forward Rog Stein is scoring 14.0 points per game and pulling down 7.5 rebounds per contest.  Senior guard Tim Cairnduff and junior forward Ke'Montrece Collins are both scoring over 10 points per game

LAST TIME OUT
The Warriors had hopes of ending top-ranked Bellarmine's 57-game home winning streak last Saturday and hung tough for much of the first half but the Knights controlled the second stanza and won 81-61.  Wayne State led early 7-4 after a triple from Xavier Cochran and a fast break layup by Karim Murray.  However, the Knights responded and used a 9-2 run to take a 16-9 lead with 12:05 left in the first half. 
 

The Warriors stayed close at 26-18 with 6:26 to play, after another three-pointer from Cochran and two points from Latin Davis, Jr.  The balanced approach pushed BU's lead to 32-18, but a trey by Darian Owens-White made it 34-24 at the 2:58 mark.  The Knights stretched the home lead back to 14, 40-26, with 46 seconds remaining in the opening stanza and led 40-28 at halftime. 
 

BU outscored WSU 41-33 in the second half.  Murray tallied a career-high 19 points, while Owens-White and Cochran both finished with 14 points.

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 rolled 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 0-2 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 ranks 10th with 64 career blocks and his 1.1 blocks per contest is seventh best in the Wayne State record books.  This season, he ranks third in the GLIAC and 57th nationally in blocks per game (1.8).  His seven total blocked shots is seventh-best in the league and 94th 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.