THE SERIES BREAKDOWN

• UIC and Missouri State will be meeting for the 21st time, with the Bears holding a 16-4 edge in the series. The teams met three times last year during the Flames' inaugural season in the MVC, with Missouri State earning wins in all three encounters (the last coming in the first round of the MVC Tournament in St. Louis).

• UIC and Missouri State are sharing conference membership for the second time, having also squared off under the Mid-Continent Conference (now Summit League) banner from 1982-90.

• UIC's last win over Missouri State came on Dec. 21, 2001, when it claimed an 86-80 decision over the Bears at the Las Vegas Classic.

• The last time the two schools played at Great Southern Bank Arena, Missouri State edged UIC, 63-59 on Jan. 24, 2023. The Flames led by a point with under a minute to play before the Bears closed the game on a 7-2 run.

• Current junior forward Filip Skobalj had a (then) career-high 18 points in last year's visit to Springfield, while current senior guard Toby Okani grabbed a (then) career-best 12 rebounds in the team's first matchup on Nov. 30, 2022, which was UIC's first-ever Valley game.

MORE ON MISSOURI STATE

• Missouri State comes into Sunday's game at an even .500 on the season (15-15), including a 7-12 record in MVC play.

• The Bears have lost three in a row and six of seven heading into this weekend's matchup with UIC. Most recently, Missouri State dropped last-second 75-74 decision at Illinois State on Wednesday.

• Junior guard Alston Mason leads the Bears in scoring (18.1 ppg.) and three-pointers made (2.5/game), while ranking a close second in assists (3.6 apg.). Sophomore forward N.J. Benson is Missouri State's leader in the paint, topping the squad in field-goal percentage (.634), rebounding (7.8 rpg.) and blocked shots (1.6 bpg.).

THE ZAY-HEY KID

• Senior guard Isaiah Rivera has emerged as one of the Flames' top offensive threats this year, ranking 11th in the MVC in scoring with a team-high 15.3 points per game and third in the conference in three-point percentage (.426).

• Rivera has scored in double figures a team-best 22 times this year and has the first eight 20-point games of his career (eighth in the MVC), including a career-high 28 points on Feb. 3 against SIU.

• Rivera was especially sharp in the month of February, averaging 18.1 ppg. with three of his four career 25-point outings and his first career double-double (19 points/career-high 12 rebounds vs. Drake on Wednesday) in that eight-game span.

KEEPING UP WITH JONES

• Sophomore guard CJ Jones has clearly emerged as one of the MVC's most improved players, ranking third in the MVC with 4.93 assists per game and 11th with a 1.72 assist/turnover ratio.

• Jones has more than doubled his assist average from last year (2.1 apg.) and improved his assist/turnover ratio over 27 percent from a season ago (1.35). 

• Jones is also averaging 11.6 points per game this season (up more than 87 percent from last year's 6.2 ppg.) and is logging 3.4 rebounds per game (improving nearly 79 percent from last year's 1.9 rpg.).

• Jones has recorded 5+ assists in 14 games this season, including 10 contests in which he had at least seven assists.

• Jones leads the MVC with three double-digit assist games this season (career-high 14 vs. Drake on Wednesday; 11 against Western Michigan on Dec. 16; 10 vs. Evansville on Wednesday night).

• On Jan. 13 against Bradley, Jones had a career-high 25 points, and on Feb. 11, he nearly matched that output with 24 points in a win over UNI.

• Jones also has logged his first two career double-doubles this season, both of the points/assists variety and both in the past three games (17/10 vs. Evansville on Feb. 21; 16/14 vs. Drake on Wednesday).

TOBY OKANI - SECRETARY OF DEFENSE

• Senior guard Toby Okani leads the MVC in blocks (2.00 bpg.), while ranking sixth in double-doubles (4), seventh in defensive rebounding (5.23 drpg.), and eighth in overall rebounding (6.8 rpg.) and steals (1.4 spg.).

• Okani is one of just three players in the MVC to rank in the top 10 in the conference in the three primary defensive categories (rebounding, steals and blocks).

• Okani is fourth in the Valley with seven double-digit rebound games this season.

• Okani has recorded at least three blocks in eight games this season, including a season-high six rejections in the Nov. 6 opener at Cincinnati.

• Okani has a conference-high and career-best 60 blocks this year, good for ninth on the UIC single-season list.

TRIPLE SHOT POWER

• UIC has been quite proficient beyond the arc this season, making at least 10 three-pointers in 13 games and shooting over 35 percent from deep 19 times.

• Eight different UIC players have made at least 10 three-pointers this year, including six with 25 treys.

• UIC is the only school with two players among the top five in the MVC in three-point percentage (and shooting better than 40 percent from distance) — senior guard Isaiah Rivera (3rd - .426) and junior forward Filip Skobalj (4th - .417).

• The Flames are second in the MVC in three-point percentage (.374) and fourth in three-pointers made (8.97 per game).

FLAMES THROWING A BLOCK PARTY

• As of Saturday, UIC leads the MVC and ranks ninth nationally in blocks (5.5 bpg.).

• Since blocks became an official NCAA statistic in 1985-86, only one MVC team has finished an entire season averaging better than 5.0 bpg. (Wichita State had 5.1 bpg. in 2013-14).

MAKING THE GRADE

• The UIC men's basketball team posted a program-record 3.18 Fall 2023 GPA, the third time in four semesters the Flames have finished with a record-setting GPA.

• Three Flames players — senior guard Isaiah Rivera, junior forward Filip Skobalj and sophomore guard Drew King — earned a 4.0 GPA last semester.

• The men's basketball team's performance was part of a larger academic success story for UIC athletics last fall, as the 300 Flames' student-athletes combined for a 3.34 department-wide GPA.

THIS & THAT

• During the non-conference portion of its schedule, UIC banked several key wins away from home. The Flames captured victories over two Atlantic 10 Conference opponents (Loyola and George Washington), as well as a 30-point victory over Conference USA preseason co-favorite Middle Tennessee.

• The Flames' dual wins over A-10 schools, both away from home (at Loyola on Nov. 14; vs. George Washington in the Bahamas on Nov. 25), marked the first time in program history UIC defeated two A-10 teams in the same season.

LAST TIME OUT: DRAKE

• Playing on Senior Night before a boisterous Credit Union 1 Arena crowd, senior guard Toby Okani scored a career-high 31 points to lead four UIC players in double figures, but the Flames came up just one play short in a 107-105 triple-overtime loss to Drake on Wednesday.

• UIC forced overtime when sophomore guard CJ Jones hit a floater in the lane with :05 remaining in regulation. The Flames had a chance in the final seconds of the third extra period to extend the game, but Okani's fadeaway from the left block with :02 left just missed and tip-in tries by redshirt sophomore forward Jaden Brownell and junior forward Filip Skobalj didn't find the mark.

• It was the third triple-overtime game in the 77-year history of UIC basketball and first since Feb. 10, 2013 (an 88-83 win at Youngstown State). The 212 combined points are also 10th-most in a single MVC game (most since March 1, 2008, when Creighton edged Bradley, 111-110 in 2OT).

• UIC connected on 16-of-35 three-pointers (.457) in Wednesday's marathon, finishing one triple shy of the school record that has been set three times (most recently on Jan. 12, 2019 against Cleveland State).

CARLOS HARRIS SIGNS WITH UIC

• On Nov. 9, UIC announced point guard Carlos Harris (6-2, 180) has signed a national letter of intent to play for the Flames beginning in 2024-25.

• One of the top players in the Chicago Public League for Curie High School, Harris is a first-team all-city selection by the Chicago Sun-Times after leading the Condors to a 31-2 record to date this season, winning the 4A sectional title and earning a berth in Monday's super-sectional against Homewood-Flossmoor at UIC's Credit Union 1 Arena.

• Last year, Harris averaged 16 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals per game in helping Curie to a 20-11 record.

• Prior to this season, Harris was rated a three-star athlete who was the No. 35 point guard in the country and the No. 13 player in the state of Illinois in the Class of 2024.

UP NEXT: TBD (MVC TOURNAMENT)

• UIC is locked into the No. 11 seed for next week's MVC Tournament (Arch Madness) and knows it will play its first-round game at 8:30 p.m. (CT) at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, live on MVC TV and the Flames Network at UICFlames.com.

• The Flames' first-round tournament opponent will be determined following Sunday's action, with Southern Illinois, Northern Iowa and Belmont all potential foes for UIC.