Men's Basketball | 12/2/2015 10:30:00 AM

DETROIT -- The Wayne State University men's basketball team (0-3, 0-0 GLIAC) will travel to Northwood (3-2, 0-0 GLIAC) on Thursday and Lake Superior State (3-1, 0-0 GLIAC) on Saturday to start the league schedule.  WSU begins league play after three non-conference defeats to three strong opponents.  The Warriors' first two defeats came at the hands of Alderson Broaddus and Kentucky Wesleyan, selected to finish one and two in the G-MAC, respectively.  Lewis was predicted to finish fourth in the GLVC East Division after winning 22 games in 2014-15.  The margin of defeat has gone from 31 to seven to two as the young team begins to find an identity.

GREER NEARING MILESTONE
Head coach David Greer won his 200th game last season at Wayne State and is 11 victories shy of matching Ron Hammye's (1988-01) program record of 212 wins.

IN THE POLLS
The GLIAC released its preseason coaches poll on Oct. 28 and Wayne State was predicted to finish fourth in the South Division.  Junior Clark Bishop was voted to the All-GLIAC South Division Second Team in balloting conducted by the league's head coaches.  The Warriors totaled 99 points, behind Ashland, Findlay and Walsh.

THE SERIES
WSU leads the all-time series with Northwood 39-27, including a 28-23 mark in league games.  The Warriors are 14-16 in Midland, Mich. and Coach Greer is 12-10 (3-6 on the road) versus the Timberwolves and has won four of the last six meetings.  Northwood visited Detroit in 2012 for a GLIAC Quarterfinal matchup, which WSU won 84-77.

The Green & Gold also hold the series advantage, 43-25, over LSSU.  WSU is 18-15 in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.  The Lakers have won four of the previous five meetings including a GLIAC Quarterfinal contest in 2013 in Detroit.  Greer is 11-9 vs. LSSU (4-4 on the road).

SCOUTING THE OPPONENTS
Northwood enters the weekend with a 3-2 overall record.  NU began the season with a 10-point loss at national power Bellarmine before topping St. Joseph's in the GLIAC/GLVC Challenge.  The Timberwolves beat Calvin and Cedarville before falling to Lewis 99-95.  Head coach Jeff Rekeweg is in his sixth season and carries a 77-70 record at NU.  Maurice Jones leads the team in both scoring at 22 points and assists (8.0 per game).  Dylan Langkabel is averaging 17.7 points per game, while four others are scoring in double figures (Zach Allread - 11.0 PPG, Jermaine Myers - 11.0, Nick Spitzley - 10.8 and Brad Schaub - 10.2).  As a team, Northwood is scoring 93.4 points per game, which tops the league, while allowing 84.6 points per game, which is the most in the GLIAC.

Lake Superior State is 3-1 to start the season and also won its two exhibition games over Lourdes and Olivet.  The lone defeat came at Indianapolis, 93-75, and the Lakers open the league schedule against Findlay on Thursday.  Steve Hettinga is in his eighth season and is the program's all-time wins leader with 120 wins.  He has led the Lakers to the NCAA Tournament in each of the last two seasons.  Devin Daly is the league's second leading scorer at 24.0 points per game and ranks third in the GLIAC with 9.5 rebounds per game. Akaemji Williams is averaging 18.8 points per game, while Carson Manger is scoring 10.3 points per contest.

LAST TIME OUT
Wayne State returned to the court after a 12-day break at Lewis on Nov. 28th in the final non-conference tilt of the season for WSU.  The Flyers did just enough to win, 62-60.   The Warriors started fast but were unable to hold up a strong defensive performance.   The Warriors had a chance to win on a Ronald Booth 25-foot three-pointer but it found iron and Lewis survived for the two-point victory.  Booth led the team in scoring with 14 points, while collecting a team-high nine rebounds.  Chuck Key added 11 points as WSU's bench combined for 24 points.  Eight Warriors scored in the contest and six players had at least five points.  The difference was at the free throw line as WSU was 9-of-16, while Lewis hit 24 of its 33 attempts at the charity stripe.

NDODNO DEVLOPING
When Joel Ndodno came to Wayne State in 2012, he was seen as a bit of a project after only playing two years of high school basketball in North Carolina after being born in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  It would seem that project is going well as Ndondo has started all three games this season and has been highly efficient in his minutes played. In 17 minutes against Kentucky Wesleyan, he scored a team-high 10 points, pulled down three boards and blocked a shot.  In just 12 minutes at Lewis, he scored eight points and tallied two boards, a block and a steal. He is shooting 56 percent (10-18) from the floor this season.

STRONG DEFENSIVE PERFORMANCE
Lewis entered last weekend's game averaging 86.6 points per game and shooting 53 percent from the floor but only shot 37 percent on Saturday and finished with 62 points.

NCAA STATISTICAL RANKINGS
In the weekly statistical report from the NCAA, WSU tops the GLIAC and ranks third in the nation with just 35 turnovers.  In addition, the Warriors rank 43rd (second in the GLIAC) with 11.7 turnovers per game and 44th (third in the GLIAC) in blocked shots per game at 4.3 and offensive rebounds per game at 14.0.   Michael Lewis ranks 15th nationally (second in the GLIAC) with his 4.50 assist to turnover ratio.

THE BEAT GOES ON
David Greer is in his 15th season at the helm of the Warrior basketball program during the 2015-16 academic year.   He is the third-longest tenured coach in program history and collected his 200th win as Wayne State topped Tiffin on Feb. 5, 2015.  Greer, who has directed the Warriors to a 201-184 record, was voted the 2012-13 GLIAC Coach of the Year by his peers.  Greer coached his 300th WSU (non-exhibition) game vs. Northwood on Feb. 11, 2012, and his 200th GLIAC game vs. Grand Valley State on Feb. 18, 2012.   Coach Greer passed Joel Mason for second place in victories with his 187th win in the victory over Ohio Dominican on Dec. 7, 2013.

COMCAST/XFINITY
Beginning on Dec. 10th every men's and women's basketball home games with the exception of the Dec. 13th Michigan Tech contests will be broadcast live throughout the state of Michigan on Comcast CN 900.  Sean Baligian, Rod Beard and Joe Abramson will call the action.

UP NEXT
Wayne State will host its home GLIAC opener on Dec. 10th against Northern Michigan at 7:30 P.M. before meeting Michigan Tech on Dec. 13th at 3 P.M.