UIC at Wright State: What to know about Friday’s Horizon League opener

Who: UIC (6-7) at Wright State (6-7)

When: 7 p.m. Friday

TV: ESPN2

Radio: 106.5-FM

Series: Wright State leads 31-27

Coaches: Scott Nagy is 51-29 in his third year at Wright State and 461-269 in 24 years overall. Steve McClain is in his fourth year at UIC with a 48-67 record and is 205-182 overall, including nine years at Wyoming.

Probable Wright State starters

Mark Hughes, 6-4, Sr., G, 9.2

Cole Gentry, 5-10, Jr., G, 13.1

Alan Vest, 6-3, Sr., G, 3.3

Bill Wampler, 6-6, Jr., F, 15.0

Parker Ernsthausen, 6-11, Sr., C, 5.2

Probable UIC starters

Godwin Boahen, 5-11, Jr., G, 15.1

Tarkus Ferguson, 6-4, Jr., G, 15.7

Marcus Ottey, 6-2, Jr., G, 15.8

Jordan Blount, 6-8, Jr., F, 11.8

Travell Washington, 6-9, Fr., F, 2.2

About Wright State: The Raiders go into Horizon League play as the favorite. They picked up 25 of 40 first-place votes. They've won only one regular-season title in program history, sharing the crown with Butler with 13-3 records in 2006-07. Northern Kentucky was second in the poll with 10 first-place nods. … Gentry is first in the league in assist-turnover ratio with 52 assists (4.0 per game) and 13 turnovers, a remarkably low number of miscues for as much as he handles the ball. Wampler is 12th in scoring and Loudon Love 14th. The leader is Detroit's Antoine Davis, who is averaging 26.0. Oakland's Xavier Hill-Mais (22.3) and IUPUI's Camron Justice (21.0) are the league's only other players over 20. … Love is third in rebounding at 8.8 per game, trailing NKU's Drew McDonald (9.5) and Youngstown State's Naz Bohannon (9.2).

About UIC: The Flames are coming off a 76-55 win Dec. 21 over St. Francis, an NAIA team from Illinois. They finished with their best non-conference record under McClain. … Boahen has made a 3-pointer in 31 consecutive games and has had multiple 3's in 12 of the last 13 games. … They've played a challenging schedule, losing on the road to Notre Dame, Bradley, Colorado and DePaul. … They were picked third in the conference preseason poll. They received four first-place votes. … Marcus Ottey was named preseason first-team all-league and Tarkus Ferguson was second team. Ottey was the only player in the conference last season to finish in the top 10 in field-goal, free-throw and 3-point percentage. He's dropped off some this year, shooting 53.2 from the field, 27.3 on 3's and 69.8 on foul shots. Ferguson averaged 10.6 points and a league-high 5.0 assists last year. He's averaging a league-best 5.4 assists and team-high 6.2 rebounds this season.

Coming up: The Raiders have a typically quick turnaround in league play with a visit from IUPUI at 3 p.m. Sunday.

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