Omaha Athletics

This Week
The Omaha men's basketball team opens the 2018-19 campaign at Minnesota this Tuesday, Nov. 6. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. at Williams Arena in Minneapolis, Minn., and the game will be broadcast live on BTN Plus, with Ryan Russell, Will Thompson and Zach Maron on the call. Gary Sharp will have the radio call on 1180 Zone 2, and links to live stats, audio and video will be available on OMavs.com.

Quick Hits
• Tuesday's game marks Omaha's earliest start date in program history and its third straight season opener on the road.
• Zach Jackson needs just eight points to reach the 1,000 career points milestone. In the last three season openers, he has averaged 10.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.3 steals per game.
• Jackson and JT Gibson are the only two Mavericks on the roster to have played against Minnesota previously, as the duo were freshmen for the Mavericks' visit to Williams Arena in 2015-16.
• Jackson collected second-team All-Summit accolades as a junior. Since Omaha joined the Summit League in 2012-13, 10 Mavericks have combined for 12 All-Summit awards.
• The Maverick return four scorers who averaged nine points per game or better last season: Jackson (17.6 ppg), Gibson (10.2 ppg), Mitch Hahn (11.7 ppg) and KJ Robinson (9.6).
• Jackson and Hahn will both serve as team captains for the second straight year.

Scouting the Minnesota Golden Gophers
Minnesota went 15-17 (4-14 Big Ten) in 2017-18. Senior forward Jordan Murphy, a two-time All-Big Ten selection, was named to the Preseason All-Big Ten Team last month after a junior campaign with 24 double-doubles. Murphy averaged 16.8 points and 11.3 rebounds per game last season, ranked fifth nationally for rebounding and was a top-10 candidate for the Karl Malone Award.

Head coach Richard Pitino is in his sixth season with the Golden Gophers, carrying a record of 90-78 and a career mark of 108-92 over seven years.

All-Time Against Minnesota
Minnesota holds a 2-0 advantage in the all-time series with Omaha.

The two teams last met on Nov. 27, 2015 at Williams Arena, where Minnesota prevailed 93-90. With 31.6 seconds left, Omaha made it a one-point game at 90-89, but the Mavericks missed their last four field goal attempts in the final push. Jordan Murphy made one of two free throws with 0.3 seconds left, then stole away an inbounds pass to seal the game. JT Gibson, then a true freshman playing in his hometown, had 11 points on 5-of-11 shooting with five rebounds, two assists and a steal.

Omaha vs. the Big Ten
Tuesday's meeting at Minnesota marks Omaha's ninth game against a Big Ten opponent since the Division I era began in 2011-12.

    Date – Opponent -- Result
    Dec. 3, 2016 -- at Iowa -- W, 98-89
    Nov. 27, 2015 -- at Minnesota -- L, 93-90
    Nov. 25, 2014 -- at Nebraska -- L, 80-67
    Nov. 10, 2013 -- at Iowa -- L, 83-75
    Dec. 20, 2013 -- at Minnesota -- L, 92-79
    Nov. 18, 2012 -- at Nebraska -- L, 75-62
    Dec. 4, 2012 -- at Wisconsin -- L, 86-40
    Dec. 4, 2011 -- at Michigan State -- L, 110-68

Success in Season Openers
Omaha is 10-3 in season openers in the Derrin Hansen era, which dates back to 2005-06. The Mavericks have won four of their last six openers, most recently registering a 74-60 win at UC Santa Barbara in 2016-17.

Omaha has averaged 77.3 points per game in its seven openers in the Division I era, with a high of 100 points vs. Central Arkansas on Nov. 16, 2014.

Action Jackson
Senior guard Zach Jackson ranked in the top five in the Summit League last season for scoring, field goal percentage, field goals made and free throws made, averaging 17.6 points and 6.4 rebounds per game. The Wichita, Kan, native tallied in double figures in 21 straight games from Nov. 24 to Feb. 14, and in that span averaged 18.9 points and 6.8 rebounds while shooting .557 from the field, .457 from 3-point range and .838 from the free throw line.

Against high major opponents in 2017-18 (Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisville, TCU, Washington and Kansas), Jackson averaged 18.3 points, 6.8 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 1.2 steals and 0.7 blocks.

Feelin' Hahn, Hahn, Hahn
Senior forward Mitch Hahn returned to the Maverick lineup last January after more than seven weeks out due to injury. From Jan. 25 to March 3, the Fremont, Neb., native averaged 11.4 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game, and his effort against Oral Roberts (Feb. 22) included a season-high 23 points with 9-of-14 shooting and five 3-pointers.
    
To start the season, Hahn scored in double figures in three straight games with 12 points at Montana State (Nov. 10), 13 at Oklahoma (Nov. 12) and a season-high 16 at New Mexico (Nov. 14).

The Evolution of Zach Jackson
Senior guard Zach Jackson has been a four-year starter, averaging 10.6 points and 4.2 rebounds per game for his career. The Wichita, Kan., native scored in double figures in all but three games in 2017-18, including 12 performances with 20+ points and four double-doubles. From his freshman campaign to his junior year, Jackson evolved into an all-league player and last year became the sixth Maverick in the Division I era to score 500+ points in a single season.

Milestones in the Making for Jackson
Senior guard Zach Jackson enters his final season with two major milestones within reach. With 992 career points to his credit, he needs just eight more to become the 39th 1,000-point scorer in program history. Jackson also has 398 rebounds over his career, needing 102 to become the 12th player in school history with at least 1,000 points and 500 boards.

Gibson Returns to Home State
Junior guard JT Gibson, a native of Brooklyn Park, Minn., returns to his home state Tuesday night, marking the second time in his Maverick career he has faced Minnesota.

In 2017-18, Gibson was fourth on the team for scoring with 10.2 points per game and had 16 double-figure scoring efforts. He finished the year as Omaha's triples leader with 57, and he owned 18 performances with two or more treys.

With 109 career assists to his credit, Gibson is Omaha's active career leader in the category.

Here's to You, Mr. Robinson
Junior guard KJ Robinson assumed a starting role in 2017-18, averaging 9.6 points, 2.2 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game.

A native of Blue Springs, Mo., Robinson had a standout performance vs. No. 18 Louisville last year 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 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).

The Pile Driver
Sophomore forward Matt Pile had an impactful freshman season in 2017-18, averaging 6.0 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.0 blocks per game over an average of 17.1 minutes per contest. He joined the Maverick starting five for the final eight games of the season.

Pile ranked third in the Summit League for blocks (32) last year and is Omaha's active career leader in the category. He more than doubled his blocking average from non-conference (0.7 bpg) to league play (1.5 bpg). The Wichita, Kan., native put together a six-block performance vs. Denver (Jan. 18), which marked the most of any Maverick since Adam Wetzel's six in 2002.

Ayo!
Sophomore guard Ayo Akinwole's 2.4 assist-to-turnover ratio ranked third among Summit League players last season. A local product from Papillion-LaVista, Akinwole appeared in all 31 games as a freshman, including four starts, and averaged 3.4 points, 1.8 rebounds and 1.4 assists over 15.5 minutes per game.

Noting the Schedule
Over the regular season in 2018-19, Omaha will play in 14 states with competition from eight other Division I conferences. The schedule has three opponents from the Pac-12 and the Big Sky and one each from the Big 12, Big Ten, Big West, Conference USA, MEAC and WAC. Arizona State and defending Summit League champion South Dakota State both reached the 2018 NCAA Tournament.

Omaha plays 17 of its 29 games on the road this season, including a challenging five-game road stretch from Nov. 26 to Dec. 15 with visits to Iowa State, Arizona State, Seattle, Oregon and Idaho. By Dec. 6, Omaha will have played in all four time zones in the contiguous United States.

Challenging Foes
During the 2017-18 non-conference slate, Omaha faced three teams (Oklahoma, Kansas and Louisville) with NCAA Final Four appearances on their resumes in the last decade. This season, one opponent has a recent Final Four to its credit: Oregon in 2017.

Eight of the Mavericks' 2018-19 opponents have earned at least one NCAA Tournament berth over the last five years: Oregon (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017), Iowa State (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017), South Dakota State (2016, 2017, 2018), North Dakota State (2014, 2015), Arizona State (2014, 2018), Colorado (2014, 2016), Minnesota (2017) and North Dakota (2017).

What Makes Up the Mavericks
• UNO returns 67 percent of its offensive production from last season, as this year's returners accounted for 1,599 of the Mavericks' 2,373 points. The returners are also credited for 60 percent (623) of last season's 1,043 rebounds.
• Seniors Zach Jackson and Mitch Hahn are UNO's leading returning scorers after averaging 17.6 and 11.7 points per game, respectively.
• Junior Brett Barney totes previous Division I experience, having spent the last three seasons at Wichita State. Redshirt freshman Logan Strom, who will sit out this season due to NCAA transfer rules, also spent a year at UC Davis.
• Jackson played the most minutes in 2017-18 of any returner on this year's roster, averaging 31.8 minutes per game.
• UNO's 2018-19 roster has two seniors, three juniors, three sophomores, five redshirt freshmen and one true freshman.
• The Mavericks hail from six different states. Six are from Nebraska, and four are Kansas natives, while California, Florida, Minnesota and Missouri are all represented once on the roster.

Up Next
Omaha makes its home debut on Friday, Nov. 9, welcoming Buena Vista to Baxter Arena at Noon. Gary Sharp and John Karhoff will have the radio call on 1180 Zone 2, and links to live stats, audio and video will be available on OMavs.com.