Omaha Athletics

This Week
The Omaha men's basketball team returns home, hosting Denver on Thursday, Jan. 18. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. at Baxter Arena, and Gary Sharp and John Karhoff will have the radio call on 1180 Zone 2. Links to live stats, audio and video will be available on OMavs.com.
 
Thursday also marks High School Night for the men's and women's doubleheader, and any student to present a valid high school ID at the Baxter Arena Box Office will receive free admission.
 
Quick Hits
• Four Mavericks are averaging double-figure scoring: Zach Jackson (18.1 ppg), Daniel Norl (13.0 ppg), Mitch Hahn (12.2 ppg) and JT Gibson (11.5 ppg).
• Over the last 14 games, Jackson has averaged 19.4 points and 7.4 rebounds while shooting .568 from the field, .478 from 3-point range and .851 from the free throw line.
• Jackson led the Mavericks in scoring in six straight games from Nov. 25 to Dec. 13 and has tallied in double figures in 14 consecutive contests.
• Over the last five games, Norl has averaged 16.8 points, 4.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.4 steals per contest while shooting .500. He has collected 20 assists with just three turnovers.
• As a team, Omaha ranks 39th nationally for 3-pointers made (174), while Jackson is 41st nationally for points (362).
• Four Mavericks have had at least one 20-point scoring performance this season.
• Head coach Derrin Hansen earned his 200th career victory Dec. 17 vs. Cornell College.
• By Dec. 3, Omaha had played in all four time zones in the contiguous United States.
• The Mavericks shot .500 or better as a team in four straight games from Nov. 20-29 and eight times overall this year.
• Omaha came a shot shy of its first NCAA Tournament bid in the Division I era last season, falling 79-77 to South Dakota State in the Summit League Championship. The Mavericks were 18-14 (9-7 Summit League) en route to their second straight third-place finish in the regular-season standings.
• Omaha returned seven letterwinners from its 2016-17 squad, including a Summit League All-Newcomer pick in Hahn.
 
Scouting the Denver Pioneers
Denver is 7-11 (1-3 Summit League) after a 94-72 loss at South Dakota State on Saturday. Joe Rosga scored a team-leading 19 points, while Daniel Amigo had 17 points and nine rebounds off the bench.
 
Head coach Rodney Billups is in his second season with the Pioneers, carrying a career record of 23-25.
 
Thursday's game marks the 12th meeting all-time between Omaha and Denver, with the Pioneers leading the series, 7-4. The two teams last met on Feb. 22, 2017 in Denver, Colo., where Mitch Hahn's last-second shot lifted the Mavericks to an 84-83 win.
 
Last Time Out: Fort Wayne Edges Mavericks, 82-78
Omaha fell short at Fort Wayne Saturday night, as the Mastodons edged the Mavericks 82-78 at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum. Five Mavericks scored in double figures, led by Zach Jackson's 21 points on 7-of-13 shooting with two 3-pointers and a 5-of-6 showing at the line. The junior added nine rebounds, and the effort marked his seventh 20-point scoring performance of the season.
 
Daniel Norl followed with 14 points, two rebounds and a team-high six assists. JT Gibson, Lamar Wofford-Humphrey and KJ Robinson each added 10 more points, with Gibson and Wofford-Humphrey also accounting for five boards apiece.
 
Omaha shot .462 (30-of-65) to Fort Wayne's .400 (26-of-65), but the Mastodons had the edge behind the arc, .406 (13-of-32) to .217 (5-of-23), and the advantage on the glass, 40-35.
 
Action Jackson
Junior Zach Jackson is in his third year as a starter, averaging a team bests of 18.1 points and 6.8 rebounds per game with a .536 shooting percentage. The Wichita, Kan., native has scored in double figures in all but one game, including seven 20-point scoring performances.
 
Jackson ranks in the top 10 in the Summit League in multiple categories: third for points (362), field goals (126) and free throws (81), fourth for points per game (18.1), fifth for field goal percentage (.536), sixth for free throw percentage (.810), defensive rebounds (98) and total rebounds (136), seventh for steals (21) and offensive rebounds (38) and eighth for rebounds per game (6.8).
 
Against high major opponents this season, Jackson averaged 18.3 points, 6.8 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 1.2 steals and 0.7 blocks in six games. Combined against Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisville, TCU, Washington and Kansas, he has shot .507 from the field and .763 at the stripe.
 
Gibson at Full Strength
Sophomore JT Gibson, who assumed a starting spot Dec. 9, is fourth on the team for scoring with 11.5 points per game. The Brooklyn Park, Minn., native has nine double-figure scoring efforts this season. Omaha's triples leader, he has hit at least one 3-pointer in 16 straight games since Nov. 20 and owns 12 performances with two or more treys this season. Additionally, he is a perfect 19-of-19 at the free throw line since beginning his streak Nov. 14 at New Mexico.
 
Gibson ranks seventh in the Summit League for steals (21), eighth for 3-pointers (40) and ninth for assists (59).
 
Gibson had a second go at his man campaign in 2016-17. In 2015-16, he appeared in eight games off the bench before suffering a season-ending elbow injury that led to a medical redshirt.
 
Here's to You, Mr. Robinson
Sophomore KJ Robinson appeared in all but one game last season, averaging 2.5 points and 0.7 assists over 8.8 minutes per contest off the bench. He has now assumed a starting role in 2017-18 season.
 
A native of Blue Springs, Mo., Robinson had a standout performance vs. No. 18 Louisville (Nov. 17) with a then-career-high 14 points, three rebounds, five assists and three steals. He followed by dishing out a career-best eight assists at TCU (Nov. 20) while adding 11 points, four rebounds and a steal. Against Tennessee Tech (Nov. 24), Robinson went off for a career-high 25 points while hitting seven 3-pointers and adding five rebounds, five assists and a block. It was the most threes in a game by any Maverick since Marcus Tyus had eight at South Dakota State (Jan, 7, 2017).
 
Robinson had four straight double-figure scoring performances from Nov. 17-25.
 
Norl Off to a Strong Start
Senior Daniel Norl has had a strong start to his senior season, ranking second on the team for scoring with 13.0 points per game. The Clarksville, Tenn., native earned his first career start at Montana State (Nov. 10), exploding for career highs of 29 points, nine rebounds and two steals while shooting 13-of-18. He posted his second 20-point effort with a game-high 23 points, three boards, a career-high-tying seven assists and a career-best three steals at Oral Roberts (Dec. 30).
 
With 91 assists to his credit, he is Omaha's active career leader in the category, and he is eighth in the league for assists (62) this season.
 
Norl made his Maverick debut in 2016-17, appearing in 29 contests and averaging 5.6 points, 1.4 rebounds, 1.0 assists and 15.6 minutes per game. He had eight double-figure scoring performances as a junior, including a season-high 14 points with four 3-pointers in Omaha's quarterfinal win over Fort Wayne in the Summit League Tournament. He accounted for 10 performances with at least two 3-pointers.
 
Wofford-Humphrey Making a Difference
Senior Lamar Wofford-Humphrey had a standout effort at No. 18 Louisville (Nov. 17), tallying his first double-double as a Maverick with 14 points, a team-high 12 rebounds, three steals, a block and an assist.

The transfer from Eastern Michigan has eight double-figure scoring games to his credit, including his most recent with a career-high 18 points at Western Illinois (Jan. 11) on 7-of-9 shooting with a trio of 3-pointers. He has the team lead and ranks fourth in the Summit League for offensive rebounds (43).
 
The Pile Driver
Freshman Matt Pile averaged 6.3 minutes per game over the first three contests this season but has seen his court time increase to 16.9 minutes per game over the last 17. In that stretch, Pile has boosted his averages to 7.3 points and 4.5 rebounds per game off the bench.
 
Pile notched his first career double-double vs. Doane (Jan. 2) with career highs of 18 points and 10 rebounds and 9-of-11 shooting. He followed up with four blocks vs. South Dakota State (Jan. 6) -- the most of any Maverick this season -- and he ranks third in the Summit League for blocks (19).
 
Welcome Back, Renard
Senior Renard Suggs made his Maverick debut vs. Montana State (Dec. 21) and has quickly moved up to average double-digit minutes off the bench. The Washington State transfer scored in double figures in back-to-back games with 14 points at Oral Roberts (Dec. 30) and 13 vs. Doane (Jan. 2), and he has averaged 7.5 points over his first six games.
 
Suggs is the son of former Maverick standout Rickey Suggs. The elder Suggs played basketball at UNO from 1980-85, was part of three Omaha squads to play in the NCAA Tournament (1981-82, 1982-83, 1983-84) and went on to a professional football career in the Canadian Football League.
 
Home Sweet Homaha
Omaha had a record of 8-4 at home last season, and the Mavericks averaged 90.9 points per game with a 12.6 margin of victory at Baxter Arena.
 
The Mavericks play 12 games at home in 2017-18 and earned five straight wins in their own facility this season before South Dakota State snapped the streak on Jan. 6.
 
2017-18 Slate = Tough Test for Mavericks
Omaha's 2017-18 schedule includes 30 games, and the team will play in 16 states against schools from 11 other Division I conferences. The schedule has three opponents from the Big 12 and one each from the ACC, Pac-12, Mountain West, MVC, Big West, Sun Belt, Big Sky, OVC and SWAC. Three opponents – Kansas, Louisville and defending Summit League champion South Dakota State – played in the 2017 NCAA Tournament, with the Jayhawks reaching the Elite Eight.
 
Up Next
Omaha welcomes South Dakota on Saturday, Jan. 20, with tipoff set for 7 p.m. at Baxter Arena. The game will be televised on YurView Cox Channel 1013, and Gary Sharp and John Karhoff will have the radio call on 1620 The Zone. Links to live stats, audio and video will be available on OMavs.com.