LAKE CHARLES – McNeese can take one more step closer to clinching its first Southland Conference regular season championship in 13 years when the Cowboys return to the Legacy Center for a Southland Conference contest against UIW on Saturday.
 
Tip-off is scheduled for 4 p.m. A limited number of tickets are still available but it's expected to be the fifth sell-out of the season for McNeese. Tickets can be purchased online at McNeeseSports.com/tickets. The game will also broadcast live on ESPN+.
 
McNeese (23-3, 12-1 SLC) had this past Monday off, two days after whipping Nicholls 74-47 in Thibodaux last Saturday. That victory captured a school record for most wins in a season as a Division I school and the second-most ever in Cowboys' basketball history (33 wins in 1955-56).
 
A win against UIW, and some help, could clinch a double-bye for the Cowboys in the conference postseason tournament, which McNeese will host March 10-14. A win over UIW plus a win at Lamar on Monday could wrap up the No. 1 seed and first conference title since the 2010-11 season.
 
LEGACY CENTER HAS BECOME LEGENDARY HOME ARENA
• McNeese has posted a perfect 13-0 record in the Legacy Center this season and is one of 20 teams in the nation to post an unbeaten home record so far this season and in good company with eight of those teams ranked in the AP Top 25 (No. 1 UConn, No. 2 Houston, No. 3 Purdue, No. 4 Arizona, No. 6 Iowa State, No. 9 Kansas, No. 16 Dayton, No. 19 San Diego State, Wake Forest, UC Irvine, Cornell, Princeton, Akron, Norfolk State, Drake, Samford, Southern, Appalachian State, Grand Canyon.
• The 13 wins is already the most in a season played in the Legacy Center while the overall home record for wins is 15 (1985-86, 2010-11).
• McNeese has recorded four sellouts on the season, a school record, and is expecting its fifth on Saturday vs. UIW.
• Through all home games, McNeese is averaging 3,248 attendance, ranking in the top 15% in the nation in capacity percentage at 77% full.
• Through six home Southland Conference games, McNeese is averaging 3,995 fans, a 95% capacity rate.
• The Cowboys are outscoring their opponents by an average score of 85.8-58.1 (+27.7) and in SLC games only, an average advantage of 84.0-63.7 (+20.3).
• McNeese has scored 70 or more in all six home league games and 80 or more three times (high of 102 vs. New Orleans).
• Overall, the Cowboys have scored 70 or more in 12 of the 13 home games and 80 or more eight times.
 
McNEESE/UIW SECOND GO-AROUND
• McNeese and UIW will be going up against each other for the second time this season as the Cowboys won the first matchup by an 80-66 score in San Antonio back on January 20.
• Saturday's game will be the 15^th meeting in the series with McNeese holding a 9-5 lead.
• The Cowboys are 5-1 all-time at home against the Cardinals.
 
 WELLS PUTTING UP PLAYER OF THE YEAR NUMBERS
• McNeese starting guard Shahada Wells is well in the mix for the league player of the year award and his numbers back it up.
 Shahada Wells in 2023-24:
• 3-time National Player of the Week (Oscar Robertson, Lute Olson, and Field of 68).
• 2-time SLC and Louisiana Player of the Week.
• No. 1 in SLC and No. 2 in NCAA with 2.9 steals per game.
• 73 total steals ranking No. 1 in SLC and No. 4 in NCAA.
• No. 2 in SLC in scoring (17.1 ppg), assists (4.7 apg) and assist/turnover ratio (2.7).
• 15 games with 5+ assists, ranking 2nd in the league.
• 20 double-digit scoring games on the season, 7 of those with 20 points or more and three with 30 or more points.
 
WILL WADE FOR NAISMITH COACH OF THE YEAR
• First-year head coach Will Wade has definitely made a case to be in the talks for the Naismith College Men's Coach of the Year.
• To date, Wade has coached McNeese to a +11 turnaround in wins from the previous year with 6 games still on the regular season schedule, one of the best turnarounds in the nation.
• Led McNeese to its best overall and SLC start in school history.
• The Cowboys garnered votes in both the Associated Press and the USA Today Coaches Poll for the first time ever.
• McNeese has twice been named the Field of 68 National Team of the Week.
• Under Wade, the Cowboys defeated a Big Ten Conference team (Michigan) the first time in school history and beat seven non-conference Division I opponents for the first time ever.
 
COWBOYS RECEIVE VOTE IN AP POLL; CLIMB IN ALL MID-MAJOR TOP 25 POLLS
• For the third week this season, McNeese received at least one vote in the AP Top 25 poll.
• The Cowboys earned the vote following a dominating week that saw them defeat HCU 105-54 and Nicholls 74-47, both on the road.
• McNeese also moved up to No. 1 in the Small College Top 25 as well as No. 2 in the Field of 68 Cinderella Top 25, 5th in McKinney Mid-Major Top 25 and 8th in the CollegeInsider Mid-Major Top 25.
 
COWBOYS TOP NATION IN SCORING MARGIN; RANKED IN TOP 10 IN 8 CATEGORIES
• For the second straight week, McNeese leads the NCAA in scoring margin, now at 19.5 points.
• The Cowboys took jumped over Houston for the No. 1 spot after their 51-point win over HCU on Feb. 12 and it grew following Saturday's 27-point victory at Nicholls.
• The Cowboys are also ranked in the top 10 in the country in eight total categories.
                                          SLC             NCAA
Category (value)                  Rank           Rank
Scoring Margin (19.2)           1                1
FG Defense (37.8)                1                2
Turnover Margin (6.7)          1                4
Scoring Defense (60.8)          1                4
Steals Per Game (10.8)         1                4
Winning Percentage (88.5)    1                4
3FG Shooting (39.3)              1                5
Turnover Force P/G (16.6)    1                10
 
2023-24 through 26 games
• Head coach Will Wade picked up his 200th career win at Texas A&M-Commerce on January 6 and now has 211 in his career.
• McNeese is ranked No. 1 in the NCAA in scoring margin with a 19.5 advantage.
• CJ Felder became the 8th different Cowboy to lead the team in scoring when he netted 16 at Southeastern on February 3.
• In SLC games only, McNeese is outscoring its opponents by a margin of 17.5 (80.0-62.5).
• McNeese has forced opponents into double-digit turnovers in 24 of the 26 games, and 20 or more turnovers six times, including 26 by Northwestern State on January 29 and most recently, HCU with 20.
• McNeese's win over Michigan was the first for the program over a Big Ten team in school history and just the 6th by a Southland Conference team and first since 2014.
• The Cowboys' 7 wins over non-conference Division I opponents is the first time to happen in school history.
• 17 of the 23 wins have come by 10 points or more - 12 of those against D1 opponents.
• McNeese has recorded four sellouts on the season with three of those in Southland Conference play.
• The season-opening win over VCU marked the first win over a Division I opponent to start the season since defeating Houston in the 1995-96 season.
• 19-0 when leading at halftime and 12-0 when scoring 40 or more in the first half.
• 8-0 when shooting 50% or better in the first half.
• 12-0 when scoring 80 or more points.
• 19-0 when shooting 45% or better from the field.
• 14-1 when shooting 40% or better from 3FG range.
• 20-1 when shooting better FG% than opponent.
• 10-0 when holding opponent to below 40% shooting.
 
COWBOYS A REGULAR ON ESPN SPORTSCENTER TOP 10 PLAYS OF THE DAY
• McNeese has been featured seven times this year on ESPN's Sportscenter Top 10 plays, all involving Christian Shumate.
• Shumate had two of his dunks against HCU on Feb. 12 ranked as the No. 1 and 7 Top 10 Plays of the Day but before that segment, Shumate was featured in his own segment showing all four dunks against the Huskies.
• He also had the No. 1 play of the day against Nicholls (Feb. 17).
 
SHUMATE JOINS ELITE CLUB
• Following his 12 rebounds at Nicholls on Saturday, Christian Shumate became just the 7th player in McNeese basketball history to record 1,000 points and 800 rebounds in a career and has 1,234 points and 801 rebounds heading into Saturday's game.
• He's ranked 12th all-time in school history in rebounds and 21st in points scored.
• He pulled down a career-high 21 rebounds at UAB which ranks as the 6th-most boards in a game by a Cowboy in school history.
• He's pulled in nine double-doubles on the season and 30 in his career, the second-most in school history (32 is the record) and tied as the 76th-most in SLC history.
 
1,000 POINTS/800 REBOUNDS CAREER CLUB
Player                   Years            Pts       Reb     
Edmond Lawrence 1973-76         1,986    1,212
John Rudd             1975-78         1,262    1,181
David Lawrence     1977-80         1,938    1,026
Desharick Guidry   2012-15         1,352    932
Henry Ray             1972-75         1,882    883
Jerome Batiste      1984-87         1,707    808
Christian Shumate 2021-Now     1,234    801      
 
CAREER POINTS SCORED LEADERS
Player                                       G          Pts      
1. Joe Dumars ('81-'85)               117       2,607
------------------------------------------------------------     
20. Desharick Guidry ('12'-15)     116       1,352
21. Christian Shumate ('21-)              93        1,234
 
Career Rebound Leaders
Player                              G       Reb      Avg.
1. Edmond Lawrence         102    1,212    11.9
---------------------------------------------------------------
11. Fred Gentry                 116    795       6.8
12. Christian Shumate ('21-) 93   801       8.6
 
SLC DOUBLE-DOUBLES CAREER LEADERS
Player                                Years           No.      
1.  B.B. Davis, Lamar            1977-81       56
-------------------------------------------------------------
4. Desharick Guidry, McN     2012-15       32
5. Ryan Bright, SHSU            2004-08       31
6. Christian Shumate, McN  2021-Now    30
 
DOMINATING THE PAINT
• McNeese has outscored its opponents in the paint in 21 of 24 games played this season by a margin of 1,008-540 (38.8-20.8), a +18.0 margin.
• The Cowboys have held opponents to 10 or fewer points in the paint three times.
 
SHUSLAMS AND BAYOU BANDIT BASHES
• Christian Shumate has thrown down a team-high 41 dunks on the season and has had at least one ShuSlam in all but five games on the year.
•  As a team, the Cowboys have recorded 71 dunks on the year with a high of 9 at UIW on Jan. 20.
 
20-POINT SCORERS
• A total of 6 Cowboys have recorded at least one, 20-point scoring game this season with a total of 15 combined outings on the year.
• Shahada Wells tops the team with seven, 20-plus point games which also includes three, 30-plus point games.
• Antavion Collum has scored 20 or more three times while Javohn Garcia has netted 20 or more twice.
 
WELLS FIRST COWBOY IN 22 YEARS WITH THREE OR MORE 30+ POINT GAMES IN SEASON
• With his 30-point performance in a win over Michigan, Shahada Wells became the first Cowboy since the 2000-01 season to record at least three, 30-point games in a season.
• In that 2000-01 year, Demond Mallet topped 30 or more five times and the year prior in 1999-2000, Tierre Brown clipped 30 or more six times.
 
WELLS NAMED ONE OF NATION'S TOP IMPACT TRANSFERS BY ESPN
• Shahada Wells has been named one of the top impact transfers by ESPN staff writer Jeff Borzello.
• According to Borzello, Wells is the best player on one of the nation's best mid-major teams and has broken out after spending the last two seasons at TCU.
• The list also includes Dalton Knecht of Tennessee, Hunter Kickinson of Kansas, David Jones of Memphis, Caleb Love of Arizona, Max Abmas of Texas, Cam Spencer of UConn, AJ Storr of Wisconsin, Great Osobor of Utah State, L.J. Cryer of Houston, Jaylon Tyson and Fardaws Aimaq of Cal, Quincy Olivari of Xavier, Isaiah Swope and Ryan Conwell of Indiana State, Jonathan Mogbo of San Francisco, and Marcus Domask of Illinois.
 
COWBOYS CONTROLLING SECOND HALVES
• In 26 games this season, McNeese has trailed in the second half just six times (at Western Carolina, at Louisiana Tech, vs. ULL, at A&M-Commerce, at A&M-Corpus Christi, at Southeastern).
• The Cowboys trailed by double-digits in three of those games (vs. ULL, at A&M-Commerce, at A&M-Corpus Christi) and rallied to win all three.
• There have been seven games where McNeese has never trailed and 10 times where largest deficit was 5 points or less.
 
BRACKETOLOGY WATCH (Feb. 23)
ESPN's Joe Lunardi | 12 seed vs. Dayton
Fox Sports | 12 seed vs. BYU
USA Today | 12 seed vs. Utah State
Bracketville | 12 seed vs. Clemson
On3 | 12 seed vs. San Diego State
Bleacher Report | 12 seed vs. Wisconsin
CBS Sports | 13 seed vs. San Diego State