This Week
The Omaha men's basketball team makes its home debut this Friday, Nov. 9, welcoming Buena Vista to Baxter Arena for a Noon tipoff. 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 at Minnesota marked Omaha's earliest start date in program history and its third straight season opener on the road.
•
Zach Jackson entered Tuesday needing just eight points to reach the 1,000 career points milestone, and he delivered with a game-leading 21.
• 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 Buena Vista Beavers
Buena Vista went 17-9 (10-6 American Rivers Conference) with a third-place league finish in 2017-18. The Beavers return three letterwinners from last year's squad, including two starters.
Head coach Todd Lorensen is in his first season at BVU, carrying a career record of 6-19. Lorensen, previously an assistant coach at Omaha from 2008-10, spent the last four seasons as head coach at Southwestern Community College, compiling a record of 113-25.
All-Time Against Buena Vista
Omaha holds a 5-1 advantage in the all-time series with Buena Vista. The two teams last met on Nov. 22, 2016 at Baxter Arena, where the Mavericks picked up a 112-65 win. Every Omaha player scored in the game, led by
Zach Jackson's 15 points and another 13 from
KJ Robinson.
Home Openers
Omaha is 10-3 in home openers in the
Derrin Hansen era, which dates back to 2005-06. The Mavericks have won nine of their last 11 home openers and are 5-2 since the Division I era began. Most recently, they registered a 75-73 win over Drake to open the 2017-18 slate.
Omaha has averaged 82.0 points per game in its seven home openers in the Division I era, with a high of 101 points vs. UMKC in 2013-14. Across all Hansen-era home openers, the Mavericks have averaged 85.9 ppg.
Last Time Out: Mavericks Open 2018-19 Campaign at Minnesota
Zach Jackson surpassed the 1,000 career points milestone Tuesday night as Omaha opened the 2018-19 campaign with a 104-76 loss to Minnesota at Williams Arena. Jackson finished with a game-high 21 points on 6-of-11 shooting and an 8-of-10 effort at the free throw line. He added three rebounds, an assist and a career-high five steals over 30 minutes on the floor. The Wichita, Kan., native is the 39th 1,000-point scorer in school history and reached the mark in his 95th career game.
Mitch Hahn joined him in double figures with 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting with three 3-pointers, five rebounds and five steals.
Wanjang Tut made his collegiate debut with 13 points, three boards and two assists, and Minnesota native
JT Gibson pitched in 10 more points on 4-of-8 shooting and a pair of threes.
Minnesota shot .629 (39-of-62) to Omaha's .444 (28-of-63) and outrebounded the Mavericks 41-21.
Omaha was quiet to start the game, going nearly seven minutes without a field goal. But the Mavericks worked back with a 19-6 run punctuated by a Gibson three to give Omaha a 22-20 lead. The Mavericks held their final advantage at 26-24 with 6:13 to the break, but Minnesota rallied with a late first-half surge to take the lead for good.
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 opened the 2018-19 campaign with 21 points at Minnesota, which marked the 15th 20-point scoring performance of his career.
Against 16 high major opponents in the last four seasons, Jackson has averaged 11.5 points, 5.0 rebounds, 0.7 assists and 1.1 steals per game. Over the last three years, his high-major numbers have been 15.4 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 1.1 apg and 1.4 spg in 11 games.
Feelin' Hahn, Hahn, Hahn
Senior forward
Mitch Hahn made his season debut Tuesday night at Minnesota with 14 points, shooting 5-of-10 with a trio of 3-pointers, a team-best five rebounds and three steals.
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.
Milestones in the Making for Jackson
Senior guard
Zach Jackson has entered his final season flirting with two major milestones. Tuesday at Minnesota, he became the 39th 1,000-point scorer in program history and now ranks 36th all-time for scoring with 1,013 points.
Jackson also has 401 rebounds over his career, needing 99 to become the 12th player in school history with at least 1,000 points and 500 boards.
The Evolution of Zach Jackson
Senior guard
Zach Jackson has been a four-year starter, averaging 10.7 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.
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 welcomes Northern Arizona to Baxter Arena on Wednesday, Nov. 14 at 7 p.m. 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.
