• Doubleheader with UIC women's basketball (7 p.m. CT vs. DePaul)
• Ugly Sweater Night (wear your favorite ugly holiday sweater and receive a discounted $10 ticket)
• Teddy Bear Toss (bring a stuffed animal to donate to local charities and receive a discounted $10 ticket)
• Fans who attend men's basketball game can stay for women's basketball game free of charge

• UIC and UNI will be squaring off for the 28th time in their series history, with the Panthers holding a 15-12 edge over the Flames. However, when the scene shifts to Chicago, UIC has had the upper hand with a 9-3 record against UNI.
• The Panthers won both matchups with the Flames last season and have taken five of the past six series meetings (four of five since UIC joined the MVC in 2022-23).
• The Flames are seeking their first win over UNI since Feb. 11, 2024, when they posted a 71-65 victory over the Panthers at Credit Union 1 Arena.
• UIC and UNI previously shared membership in the Association of Mid-Continent Universities/Mid-Continent Conference (now known as the Summit League) from 1981-82 to 1990-91, meeting on average twice annually during that span. Between that conference affiliation and their current MVC membership, the schools have met 26 times under the same conference banner, with the Panthers holding a 15-10 series lead over the Flames.
• This is the first of two games between UIC and UNI in less than a month (the teams will play Jan. 13 in Cedar Falls).

• UNI was picked second in the MVC preseason poll on the strength of a veteran roster than returns 11 players and an NCAA-high 72 percent of its minutes from a season ago.
• The Panthers are currently ranked No. 10 in the College Insider Mid-Major Top 25 poll after opening the season with an 8-2 record. Their only losses to date have been by three points against Tulsa and an overtime setback at home vs. Wichita State. UNI last played on Dec. 13, posting a 75-63 win over visiting Oakland.
• Leon Bond III is the MVC Player of the Week after scoring 26 points against Oakland. He is averaging a team-high 14.1 ppg. this year, along with 5.3 rpg. and a .463 three-point percentage. Trey Campbell is second in the squad in scoring (12.6 ppg.) and tops in assists (3.5 apg.), while Tristan Smith adds a team-high 5.7 rebounds per game.
• Ben Jacobson is in his 20th season as the head coach at UNI with a 382-247 record, including 209 MVC wins (most in league history). He is 5-3 all-time against UIC.

NOTING THE FLAMES

• To say UIC's schedule has been challenging this year is putting it mildly. UNI is the fourth UIC opponent ranked in the top 10 of the College Insider Mid-Major Top 25 poll at tipoff and third in a row, along with No. 6 High Point, No. 3 Yale and No. 5 Belmont (Oregon State and Robert Morris were also receiving votes when they faced UIC).
• Three other UIC opponents (all in the Valley) are currently appearing in the College Insider Mid-Major poll — No. 15 Illinois State, No. 23 Murray State and a Bradley squad that is receiving votes this week.
• Along with the strength of its opponents, UIC is playing eight of its first 12 contests away from home. In fact, the Flames do not play back-to-back home games at Credit Union 1 Arena until the season is nearly two months old (Dec. 29 vs. Illinois Tech; Jan. 1 vs. Murray State).
• The Flames have come oh-so-close to an even better start this season, with three losses by three points or fewer. In all three games, UIC had the final possession with a chance to tie or win the game.
• UIC is ranked 25th in the nation this week with a conference-best .777 free-throw percentage. In their last outing on Dec. 13 at Belmont, the Flames went a perfect 13-of-13 from the line, their first spotless day from the stripe since Jan. 9, 2013 (school-record 18-of-18 against Valparaiso).
• In that Belmont game, graduate student guard Josiah Hammons torched the nets for a career-high 31 points on 8-of-16 three-pointers, the most points by a UIC player in a regulation game since Nov. 23, 2016 (32 by Dikembe Dixson vs. Elon). Hammons' eight triples were one off the school record and his 16 attempts tied the UIC record set by Cedrick Banks vs. Wright State on Feb. 23, 2005.
• Through the first six weeks of the season, one of the brighter spots for UIC has been the growth of redshirt freshman forward Jayce Nathaniel. After averaging 4.3 points and 3.3 rebounds in three games last season, the Atlanta native has nearly doubled his scoring output (8.0 ppg.) and rebounding production (5.7 rpg.), leading the MVC in offensive rebounds (3.3 orpg.). He has also scored in double figures four times this year, including a career-high 16 points at Oregon State on Nov. 7, and posted his first career double-double on Dec. 3 against Arkansas-Pine Bluff with 11 points and a career-high 14 rebounds.
• UIC's dynamic freshman guard duo of Andy Johnson and Rashund Washington Jr. ranks second and third on the team in scoring this year, combining to average more than 23 points per game (Johnson - 14.3 ppg./tops among all Missouri Valley Conference freshmen and seventh overall; Washington - 9.2 ppg.).
• Graduate student Abdul Momoh has been a strong rim protector for the Flames this season, tying for fourth in the MVC in blocks (1.5 bpg.) and recording multiple blocked shots in five games, including a season-best four swats on Nov. 20 against High Point.
• UIC has looked sharp against its fellow Chicagoland schools across all sports during the 2025-26 academic year. Heading into Wednesday's UIC women's basketball game vs. DePaul at Credit Union 1 Arena, Flames teams are 10-0-2 head-to-head against Windy City opponents this year (3-0 volleyball; 3-0-1 men's soccer; 2-0 men's basketball; 1-0-1 women's soccer; 1-0 women's basketball), the best intracity record by any of Chicago's Division I schools.
• On Nov. 13, UIC announced the signing of Dikembe Shaw, a 6-7 forward from Crown Point, Ind. for 2026-27. Shaw was an all-state selection and Indiana Junior All-Star pick last year while attending Crown Point High School, averaging 16.2 ppg., 6.7 rpg., 3.4 apg. and 1.3 spg., while helping the Bulldogs to a 24-2 record and a berth in the Indiana Class 4A semistate final. He also averaged 12.9 ppg. and 5.9 rpg. during the summer 2025 club season while competing for Indiana Elite 3SSB (3Stripes Select Basketball).

UP NEXT: CHARLOTTE
UIC steps back out of conference play on Sunday when it travels to Charlotte for a 1 p.m. CT/2 p.m. ET game against the 49ers. The contest will air live on ESPN+.