DETROIT (1/20/2023) -- The University of Detroit Mercy men's basketball team will start its engines in Indy as the Titans are at IUPUI on Saturday.
Game time is set for Noon at Indiana Farmers Coliseum - the home of the Horizon League men's and women's basketball championships - and will be aired live on ESPN+. Fans can also listen to the action on the radio on WLQV 92.7 FM & 1500 AM FaithTalk Detroit with the Voice of Detroit Mercy basketball Dan Hasty.
The Titans are coming off an 87-75 victory over Robert Morris and are 7-12 on the season and 3-5 in the Horizon League. Graduate senior
Antoine Davis led the way with a season-high 41 points in that one, hitting a career-best 11 triples, and comes into the game as the nation's leading scorer at 26.2 points per contest. He is the NCAA all-time leader with 513, 3-pointers and third in scoring at 3,232 points.
Graduate senior
A.J. Oliver netted a season-high 14 points and senior
Gerald Liddell was in double digits for the ninth time in 10 games with 15 points.
IUPUI has dropped seven in a row and is 3-17 overall and looking for its first league win at 0-9. The Jaguars just fell to Oakland, 83-77, in overtime on Thursday.
After the game, the Titans will return home for the #MetroSeries as the red, white and blue host the Golden Grizzlies on Monday, Jan. 23, on Dick Vitale Court in Calihan Hall. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m. and tickets start at just $10 and can be
purchased here.
ALL-TIME SERIES
- Despite being just about a four and a half-hour drive, the Titans and Jaguars had never faced each other before IUPUI joined the Horizon League in 2018-19 as Detroit Mercy leads the series, 5-2.
- The Titans are 2-2 all-time at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum, the home court for the Horizon League men's and women's basketball championships.
VS. IUPUI
- Antoine Davis is tallying 27.2 points, 5.5 assists and 3.7 rebounds in four career games against IUPUI, shooting 41.4% overall (34-of-82), 37.0% from three (20-of-54) and 95.4% at the line (21-of-22). He has had some historic moments against IUPUI as he broke Steph Curry's freshman 3-point mark at home in 2019, had one of his five career 40-point games with 43 on the road as a sophomore, and one of his three career double-doubles with 19 points and 10 assists last season, also on the road.
- Other than Davis, no other Titan on the roster has scored, let alone taken a shot against IUPUI in their careers.
ALL IN THE FAMILY
- Nothing new for the Titans to have a family connection in the program and this season, Detroit Mercy will once again feature three Davis' in head coach Mike Davis, assistant coach Mike Davis Jr. and graduate senior guard Antoine Davis.
- From 2010-13, the Titans had head coach Ray McCallum and star guard Ray McCallum, winning the HL title in 2012 and earning a trip to the NIT in 2013.
- Also, the legendary Bob Calihan coached his son, Bob Calihan Jr., for one season as he transferred to U-D from Loyola for his senior season in 1968-69.
- The father-son coaching player duo is part of 23 at Division I, while the family coaching connection is part of eight in DI.
TOUGH NON-CONFERENCE SLATE
- The non-conference foes combined to go 184-159 (.536) last season, with four teams reaching the postseason.
- Ohio and Florida Atlantic made the CBI last year. Bryant earned a berth to the NCAA Tournament, while Washington State advanced to the semifinals of the NIT.
- This year so far, the non-conference teams are 101-80 (.558), with three teams in the NET top 100 and five in the top 150, led by Florida Atlantic at 17-1, Cincinnati at 13-6 and Charlotte and Bryant at 12-6.
- Ken Pomeroy has the Titans' non-conference strength of schedule ranked 51st in Division I.
HUSTLE & HARD WORK
- Detroit Mercy has outrebounded its opponents in eight of the last 11 games and 12 times on the season as the Titans are third in the HL in rebounding at 36.5 per game and top the league and stand 31st in the nation with 12.6 per contest.
- Detroit Mercy outrebounded Youngstown State 37-30 with 11 offensive boards.
- The Titans had a +15 effort (43-28) against Green Bay, which included a 19-8 margin on the offensive glass.
- In the win at Tulsa, the Titans won the battle of the boards, 41-39, on the strength of 18 offensive rebounds, which led to a 23-13 second-chance points advantage.
- At Cleveland State, the Titans won the glass, 44-31, with 20 offensive caroms for a 19-10 second-chance points margin.
WHERE WE RANK
- Antoine Davis currently leads the nation in scoring at 26.2 ppg. He also tops the HL and is second in DI in total 3-pointers (84), leads the conference and DI in total points (498), first in the HL and second in 3-pointers per game (4.42) and first in the nation overall in field goals (165). His 37:25 minutes a game is also first in the league and fifth in the country.
- Damezi Anderson is 11th in the HL with 1.90 triples per game, and senior Gerald Liddell's seven double-doubles are first in the league and 28th in the nation.
FROM THREE
- The red, white and blue nailed 17 triples 3-pointers its last time out against Robert Morris, tying a season-high and one shy of the school record.
- The Titans have now connected on double-digit 3-pointers in 12 games.
- Detroit Mercy also hit 15 against Bryant, in just 24 attempts for 62.4%.
- Detroit Mercy also had 15 versus Bryant, 13 against Rochester and 12 at NKU, at Purdue Fort Wayne and at EMU.
- The Titans are second in the Horizon League and 28th in the nation at 38.3% from three, as well as second in the HL and ninth in the country with 10.3 per game.
NATIONAL NOTICE
- Antoine Davis has garnered some national attention on preseason watch lists.
- He was recently named to the midseason Top 25 Watch List for the Wooden Award for the nation's Most Outstanding Player, the only mid-major player on the list, and the Top 50 Watch List for the USBWA's Oscar Robertson Trophy for the National Player of the Year.
- Davis is one of the 20 candidates for the 2023 Bob Cousy Award (Point Guard of the Year Award) by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and is also on the watch list for the Naismith Trophy National Player of the Year and for the Lou Henson Award for the top mid-major player.
- He was named a Preseason and midseason Third Team All-American by Dick Vitale.
- Last season he earned the Lou Henson Award All-American, First Team USBWA All-District V and NABC First Team All-District 12 selection as well as the Co-HL Player of the Year, the first player in conference history to make All-League four times - with everyone of those a first-team selection.
WEARING THE SCORING CROWN
- Antoine Davis owned the scoring crown in the Horizon League last year at 23.9 points per game, third in the nation, as he became the first player in HL history to top the league in scoring four times, passing Loyola Chicago's Alfredrick Hughes, who did it in three-straight seasons (1983-85).
- He also finished top-four nationally for the fourth-straight year (26.1 for third in 2019, 24.3 for fourth in 2020 and 24.0 for third in 2021).
- Davis is currently leading the country at 26.2 points per game.
- The only Titan to ever lead the nation in a NCAA statistic was Spencer Haywood, who averaged 22.1 rebounds in 1968-69.
ANOTHER NCAA RECORD FOR DAVIS
- Antoine Davis scored 29 points against Bryant, but it was his 3-pointer in the first half that got him to 11 points and secured the NCAA record for the most consecutive games in double figures with 116-straight and he has now extended that to 130 after his 41 points against Robert Morris.
- He broke the mark held by Chris Clemons (Campbell, 2015-2019) and Lionel Simmons (La Salle, 1987-90).
- Davis is approaching the all-time mark for double figures, held by Creighton's Doug McDermott (2010-14) at 135.
- As a freshman, Davis broke the NCAA record for 3-pointers in a season by a rookie with 132, passing Stephen Curry's 122 he had at Davidson in 2007-08 and recently broke the all-time 3-point and now has 513 career triples.
RACKING UP THE POINTS
- Antoine Davis now has 93 career 20-point games, 31 career 30-point outings and five 40-point contests in 130 games - reaching 17 points in 114 of them.
- He is also the first player in more than 40 years to record a 40-point game in four different seasons.
- This year, he has a league-best 16, 20-point games and five 30-point outings.
ABOUT 3,000 POINTS
- Antoine Davis is the highest active scorer in the country in total points with 3,232, third in NCAA history.
- Only 11 players have reached 3,000 at the DI level. He is 17 away from second and 435 behind Pete Maravich's NCAA-record 3,667
- It was his 18th point at Robert Morris last season on a three that put him at 2,500 career points, which was just the fourth time that a student-athlete has posted 2,500 with his dad as head coach following Pete Maravich (Press Maravich), Doug McDermott (Greg McDermott) and Allan Houston (Wade Houston).
- Imagine that record with the idea that Davis and the Titans have seen 15 games canceled and not made up in the last two seasons - seven of those being at home - due to the pandemic, at least one game missed due to the Titans not being eligible for the postseason in 2019-20 and one game canceled at California in his freshman year due to smoke from wildfires.
- Also, his current game total of 130 games is consistent with a four-year career.
ANOTHER NCAA RECORD
- Antoine Davis comes into the game fifth all-time in NCAA history with 3.94, three-point field goals per game.
- He just set a school record with 11 triples against Robert Morris - eight in the first half alone - and his eighth was the record-breaking trifecta as he became the all-time leader in college basketball with his 510th trey, passing Wofford's Fletcher Magee's (2015-19), and now has 513 to his name.
- He has 11 games on the year with four or more 3-pointers with the 11 against RMU, 10 at Charlotte, six against Milwaukee and back-to-back games of six against Bryant and home versus Charlotte, and five at NKU, Ohio, at Purdue Fort Wayne, and at Tulsa and is currently second in the NCAA this season with 4.42 per contest.
- Davis has made a three in 125 of his 130 collegiate games, with 71 career games with four or more triples, 26 with six or more, 12 games with seven or more, and has five times connected on 10 or more.
- Davis is already the school career record holder as he passed former All-American Rashad Phillips (348).
CASHING IN ON THE FREE ONES
- Graduate senior Antoine Davis led the HL and was 23rd in the nation in free-throw percentage (88.2%) last year, good for sixth in school history as he is also first with 91.7% in 2021, 90.1% for fourth in 2020 and 85.7% for ninth in 2019.
- He is currently third in the Horizon League and 23rd in DI at 89.4%.
- Davis owns the school record at 88.8% (557-of-627), seventh among active players and tied for 23rd all-time in NCAA history. His 557 free throws are also first in school history.
- He has had numerous streaks of 10 or more in his career as he has currently made 52 of his last 56.
- Davis had a career-best of 57-straight between the end of his junior and the start of his senior year.
DAVIS DISHING IT OUT
- Antoine Davis can not only score, but he can get his teammates involved as he is fifth in Titan history with 533 assists, 15 shy of Rashad Phillips and fourth place.
- The all-time record is 615 by Kevin McAdoo, as he is now 82 shy of that mark.
- He has 49 games with five or more assists and posted a nine-assist effort in the season opener against Rochester.
- His career-best is 10 at IUPUI and against Western Michigan and UIC last season.
- He is just the second player in NCAA history to amass 3,000 points and 500 assists, joining St. Peter's Keydren Clark (2002-06), who recorded 3,058 points with 501 career helpers.
TWO WITH DOUBLES
- Graduate senior Antoine Davis and senior Gerald Liddell did something no Titan teammates have done since 2003.
- Davis was 11-of-22 and Liddell was 10-of-19 from the field against Youngstown State.
- The last time the Titans had a game where two players registered at least 10 field goals was on Dec. 22, 2003, with James Thues (13-of-16) and Jimmy Twyman (11-of-18) reaching the mark in a 95-61 win over Western Illinois.
WHAT A START FOR LIDDELL
- Senior Gerald Liddell returned after missing two games with an injury and had 24 points with six rebounds, two assists and two steals against Youngstown State and 15 points versus Robert Morris.
- He had to wait seven games to play as his eligibility was cleared by the NCAA, but it might have been worth the wait as the senior transfer has posted seven double-doubles in his first nine games. He was the first Titan to have seven-straight since Ryvon Covile registered seven in a row to end the 2006-07 season.
- vs. Green Bay 19 points, 11 rebounds
- at Cincinnati 18 points, 13 rebounds
- at EMU 18 points, 14 rebounds
- at Charlotte 13 points, 18 rebounds
- at Tulsa 25 points, 12 rebounds
- at Cleveland St. 18 points, 13 rebounds
- at Purdue Fort Wayne 16 points, 16 rebounds
- His all-around game has seen him tie his career-high with four steals at EMU, three rebounds, two blocks and a steal, playing all 45 minutes at Charlotte, a season-high three blocks and two steals at Tulsa and three more blocks against Green Bay.
- He has at least two steals in six games and has blocked at least one shot in eight. He is currently not eligible for statistical leaders due to games played, but if he was, he would be sixth in the nation in rebounding at 11.1, fifth in the HL in scoring at 17.3, second in the league with 1.3 blocks and tied for fourth with 1.7 steals.
- The 18 rebounds at Charlotte were the most by a Titan since Eli Holman had 18 versus Milwaukee in 2010.
- He came into the year with a high in boards of 14 against Alabama A&M, while his previous high in points was 22 against NC Central, both done last year as a member of Alabama State.
- Liddell started his career at Texas before transferring to Alabama State.
- At ASU, he played in 25 games with 19 starts and averaged 10.3 points, a team-high 5.7 rebounds and 1.2 assists to go with 24 steals and 24 blocks. He shot 43.8 % overall and 37.0 % from three, reaching double figures in 13 games and posting five double-doubles.
- In his three years with Texas, he saw action in 35 games with 10 starts and averaged 2.9 points and 2.3 rebounds.
- As a prep at Steele HS in Cibolo, Texas, he was ranked No. 41 in the nation by 247Sports and No. 47 by ESPN.
HOOSIER IN THE MOTOR CITY
- Graduate senior Damezi Anderson has scored in double figures in eight games on the year, with 12 points and eight rebounds at Wright State, 15 points and six rebounds against Green Bay, 15 points in the win over Ohio, 16 with seven boards in the victory at Purdue Fort Wayne and 14 at Charlotte.
- He also has 10 games with four or more rebounds, with a career-high nine against Rochester and at Cleveland State.
- He began his Titan career with a career-high 17 points, nine rebounds and three assists, going 6-of-13 from the field and 5-of-12 from three against Rochester.
- On the season, he is tallying 8.5 points and 4.4 rebounds shooting 38.2% from the field and 32.1% from three and ranking 11th in the HL with 1.89, 3-pointers per game.
- He started his career at Indiana before ending up at Loyola.
- He did not play in 2021-22 at Loyola and saw action in four games the year before. Prior to that, he played for Indiana for two seasons, appearing in 39 games and averaged 2.1 points and 1.6 rebounds, including 2.8 points and 2.2 rebounds in 18 games as a sophomore.
- Coming out of high school, he was ranked #92 in the country by 247Sports and No. 114 in the nation by Rivals and was the No. 2 player in the state of Indiana.
MOTOR CITY PRIDE
- Junior Kyle LeGreair is coming off three of the best games in his career, wih four points, a career-high seven rebounds and a career-tying five assists and two steals against Robert Morris. Before that, he tallied a career-best nine points with four assists at NKU and scoring seven points with six boards and three assists against Youngstown State.
- In his last three games, he is averaging 6.6 points, 5.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.0 steals, hitting 7-of-10 shots after posting just 0.8 points, 1.4 rebounds and 1.1 assists in his first 16 games.
- LeGreair came into his own last season, appearing in 22 games and was 7-of-9 from the floor, hitting his only 3-pointer, and tallied 12 steals. He tied his career-high with five helpers and added a career-best four rebounds at NKU and recorded a career-high five points with three rebounds and a steal against UIC, recording his first two career field goals.
- As a freshman, he saw action in just two games and a total of just five minutes.
MEET MR. MOSS
- TJ Moss joined the Titans after a successful prep career in high school and playing at South Carolina and McNeese State and has flashed his ability to be an all-around player.
- He has turned it on in his last seven games, tallying 6.7 points, 3.2 assists and 4.4 rebounds after posting 4.0 points, 1.8 assists and 2.3 rebounds in his first 12. He has also handed out at least three assists nine times on the season and has seven games with five or more rebounds.
- Moss topped his career high with 12 points, five rebounds and three assists against Milwaukee and 15 points with six boards at Wright State.
- He had a season-best six assists and six rebounds at Cincinnati and eight points with a career-high four steals, three assists and two blocks at Purdue Fort Wayne.
- He played in 64 games with eight starts prior to transferring to Detroit Mercy.
- Last year, he suited up in nine games at McNeese State and averaged 7.8 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game, while collecting eight steals. He scored a career-high 17 points at TCU, where he was 5-of-12 from behind the arc, and had five assists and three steals.
- He spent his first three seasons at South Carolina, where he played in 55 games posting 3.3 points, 1.8 assists and 1.3 boards with 30 steals in his time.
- As a prep, he was a four-star prospect on ESPN.com and was once hailed as the 26th-best prospect nationally by 247Sports.
A.J. LOOKING FOR ONE FINAL RUN
- A.J. Oliver - who has missed four games on the season - had one of his best efforts with a season-high 14 points, hitting 5-of-8 shots with four 3-pointers, and five rebounds against Robert Morris. He also had 12 points with nine boards at EMU.
- Oliver posted 12 points and five rebounds in the opener against Rochester and had 10 points against Bryant as he is averaging 6.3 points and 4.1 rebounds, shooting 45.7% overall.
- He played in 95 games at Clemson and at Old Dominion from 2017-22 and averaged 6.2 points and 2.7 rebounds per game, shooting 35.0 % from the field, 37.1% from three and 79.1% at the line.
- Last season at ODU, Oliver saw action in all 32 games with 11 starts and tallied 2.5 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.0 assists.
- In 2020-21, he started all 21 contests he appeared in and ranked third on the team with 9.7 points and led the squad with an 88.6 free-throw percentage and 33 triples.
- In his first year, he played in 22 games with 21 starts and was third on the team with 11.3 points per game, led the team with 51, 3-pointers while also pulling down 4.9 rebounds, pouring in a career-high 21 points against FAU and grabbing a career-high 12 boards versus UTSA.
- Oliver joined Clemson midseason in 2016-17 and did not play, but then got in 19 games for the Tigers in 2017-18, posting 2.1 points and 1.4 rebounds per game.
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