Southern Utah's men open a three-game homestand Saturday when the Thunderbirds host UMKC at 7:30 p.m. in the Centrum. SUU remains at home next week to host South St. and North Dakota St.

Saturday's game will be televised live on KCSG television.

The Thunderbirds (5-17, 3-8 Summit League), will be looking to avenge a 63-60 loss to the Kangaroos earlier in the season as well as snap a three-game skid Saturday. UMKC edged the Thunderbirds in Kansas City back on Jan. 12. SUU has also lost three straight after coming up short at Western Illinois, 80-74, last Saturday night. Prior to that the Thunderbirds lost 88-66 at IUPUI Thursday night and took Oral Roberts to the wife before falling 80-75 Jan. 26, in Cedar City. SUU's last win was a 82-79 decision over Centenary, Jan. 24.

UMKC (8-16, 3-8 Summit League) also lost at both Western Illinois and IUPUI last week, falling at WIU, 77-62, on Thursday night before coming up short against IUPUI, 90-70, on Saturday. Like the Thunderbirds, the Kangaroos' last win was over Centenary, a 76-73 decision in Kansas City, Jan. 26. Both teams play just one game this week as SUU and UMKC are travel partners.

The Game: UMKC (8-16, 3-8) at SUU (5-17/3-8), Saturday at 7:30 p.m. (MST), in the Centrum Arena (5,300). Saturday's game will be the second in a double-header, with the first game featuring the two schools' women's teams.

The Series: SUU holds a 13-12 edge in the series with UMKC, including a 10-1 mark in Cedar City where the Thunderbirds have won five straight games. SUU claimed a 68-62 home victory last season but UMKC came out on top the last time the teams played, a 63-60 decision in Kansas City, Mo., Jan. 12.

Next Up: The Thunderbirds host South Dakota State (Feb. 14) and North Dakota State (Feb. 16) before heading out on the final road trip of the season, at Oral Roberts and Centenary, Feb. 19 and 21.

Practice Schedule: The team works out daily from 2:00-4:30 p.m. in the Centrum Arena, with occasional adjustments based on class schedules. Practice sessions are generally open to the public but media personnel wishing to attend practice should contact SUU Sports Information Director Neil Gardner at (435) 586-7753 prior to practice.

Thunderbird Coaches: Head Coach Roger Reid (Weber State ?68) is in his first season on the Thunderbird bench this year after spending the last two at Snow College. Last year Reid guided the Badgers to a SWAC regular-season championship and a No. 18 national ranking.
Reid, who is 5-17 at Southern Utah, brings a career Division I mark of 157-93 into the week's games. Coach Reid is 0-1 vs. UMKC.
Coach Reid's career has spanned virtually every level of the coaching strata, including the high school, junior college, and NCAA Division I levels as well as in the NBA and international ranks. He is probably best known for his success at Brigham Young University, where he led the Cougars to five NCAA tournament berths and three Western Athletic Conference championships. He has also coached the Phoenix Suns of the NBA and the Hangzhou Horses of the Chinese Basketball Association.
Reid is assisted by Ron Carling (BYU ?70), Austin Ainge (BYU ?07), and Johnny Brown (New Mexico ?86).

Radio: All Southern Utah men's basketball games are broadcast live by KSUU (91.1 FM) and KSUB AM (590). They are also available on the internet at www.suu.edu/ksuu. Art Challis is in his 34th season as the Thunderbirds' play-by-play voice.

TV: Including Saturday's game, SUU will appear on live television three more times this year, all on KCSG. In addition to Saturday's game at Western Illinois, the home game vs. UMKC (Feb. 9) and the game at Oral Roberts (Feb. 19) will be televised by KCSG.
SUU will provide highlight reels for its remaining home games on its ftp site. For information on accessing the SUU ftp site, contact SUU Sports Information Director Neil Gardner.

Webstreaming: All of SUU's regular-season home games and road Summit League games will be available over the internet through the Summit League's site. For more information see the Summit League website at: http://www.thesummitleague.org/

SUU's Summit League Players of the Week: Tate Sorensen was named the Summit League Player of the Week for his performance the week of Dec. 24-30. The 6-foot-7 senior from Talmage, Utah, scored a career-high 26 points on 10-of-12 shooting and tied his career-high with 10 rebounds to notch his second double-double of the year in the Thunderbirds' 61-53 win at Cal Poly Saturday night. Sorensen also blocked a shot and had two steals with just one turnover in 38 minutes on the floor. He only came out of the game for a brief period in the second half when an inadvertent elbow opened an inch-long gash on his forehead but he returned in time to hit two free throws for the team's final points to ice the win.

Thunderbird Notes:
? Tyler Quinney scored a career-high 11 points at Western Illinois where he also led the team with seven rebounds. It was the second straight game he had pulled down seven boards to pace the team.
? Dax Crum and Cris Hoopes got the first starts of their SUU careers at Western Illinois. Crum responded by scoring a career-best 10 points and picking off two steals but unfortunately he injured his shoulder diving for a loose ball in the second half and is questionable this week.
? Five Thunderbirds scored in double-figures at WIU, Quinney, Crum, Geoff Payne (17), Dave Marek (13) and Rick Roberts (11). It was the second time this year the team had five players in double figures (also Centenary).
? Tate Sorensen missed the trip to IUPUI and WIU after undergoing an emergency appendectomy Tuesday, Jan. 29. Sorensen is out indefinitely.
? SUU used its seventh different starting lineup at Western Illinois.
? SUU had fewer turnovers than both IUPUI and Western Illinois last week.
? The Thunderbirds shot .558 from the floor at WIU, their second-highest percentage on the road this season, but the Leathernecks hit 58.3 percent of their shots, the second-highest percentage allowed by SUU this season. The first time around Southern Utah held Western Illinois to 35.3 percent shooting, an opponent low this season.
? Orlando Griego scored a season-high 11 points at IUPUI as four Thunderbirds, Griego, Payne (12), Marek (11) and Davis Baker (11) posted double-figure totals.
? Roberts had a career-best six assists vs. Oral Roberts and had averaged 5.7 rebounds per game over the last three games since joining the starting lineup until playing just four minutes at IUPUI. Roberts had also logged career-high minutes in three straight games, with 35, 36 and 40 prior to IUPUI.
? SUU out-shot ORU .509 to .419 but the Golden Eagles took nine more shots and hit 12-of-26 3-pointers while SUU hit just one of four threes
? The ORU and WIU games were just the second and third the Thunderbirds have lost after leading at halftime this season.
? Payne dished out a career-high 11 assists vs. Centenary to notch his fifth double-double of the season (he also scored 13 points). The 11 dimes ? the team's individual high this season ? helped the Thunderbirds to a season-high total of 25 assists. Payne established career-assist highs in back-to-back games, with a then-best five at South Dakota State.
? Payne's fourth double-double of the year came vs. Western Illinois, when he had 19 points and 10 rebounds. Payne's other double-doubles were at Oakland, and at home vs. Cal Poly (29/12) and UC-Colorado Springs (22/12). He had an SUU-career-high 32 points at Oakland and 11 rebounds, just one short of his career-best rebounding total.
? Payne has scored in double figures in all but two games. He has led or co-led the team in scoring 16 times and in rebounds 10.
? Payne's 20.2 ppg scoring average (through last Thursday's games) ranks 30th in the nation. He also ranks 56th in field goal percentage (54.5 percent). As a team the Thunderbirds rank among the nation's top-100 schools in assists (67th at 15.3 per game) and rebounding margin (84th at plus-3.0).
? When all games are considered, Payne is third in scoring (20.6 ppg), fourth in rebounding (6.9 rpg), tied for third in steals (1.80 spg), third in offensive rebounds (2.70 rpg), fifth in defensive rebounds (4.15 rpg) and seventh in field goal percentage (.547) heading into Thursday's games.
? Roberts and Orlando Griego each scored season-highs against Centenary. Roberts finished with 12 points while Griego had 10. Roberts also dished out a then-career-best four assists and led the team in rebounding for the second straight game, matching his squad-best total at South Dakota State with six caroms.
? The Centenary game was the first this season the Thunderbirds won after allowing the opponent to shoot 50 percent or better. CC finished at 51.7 percent while SUU checked in at .525. Both teams shot .333 from 3-point range.
? Griego got his first start of the season at South Dakota State and started three straight until coming off the bench at Western Illinois. Griego started every game last season.
? Roberts got his first start since the IPFW game ? a span of nine games ? at SDSU and responded by leading the Thunderbirds with six rebounds and a pair of blocks. He also had six points and an assist in 35 minutes on the floor.
? Freshman guard Mike Josserand tied his career-high with five assists at North Dakota State and he has dished out 18 dimes in his last six games.
? SUU hit 20-of-24 free throws (83.3 percent) against Oral Roberts, its second-best night of the season at the line, behind the 86.7 percent it shot at Cal State Fullerton. Payne hit 11-of-12 charity tosses vs. the Golden Eagles.
? Heading into the week, when only league games are considered, Payne leads the Summit League in two statistical categories: scoring (21.1 ppg) and offensive rebounds (2.91 rpg). Payne is also fourth in field goal percentage (.601), fourth in steals (1.73 spg) and fifth in rebounding (6.5 per game). The six steals he had at UMKC are a team season-high, are tied for the second-best individual effort in the conference this season and rank in a tie for ninth on the SUU all-time single-game list..
? Junior guard Dave Marek is fifth in the league in assists in conference-only games and in the overall category, at 4.0 and 4.09 apg, respectively, heading into the week. Marek is first in the conference in assists-to-turnover ratio when all games are considered (1.88) and fifth in conference games (1.69).
? Davis Baker tied his career-high with a game-high 20 points the first time around against Western Illinois. Following a 20-point game at IPFW, Dec. 6, Baker scored in double figures seven times in the next nine games.
? Baker had scored just two points all season going into the IPFW game but the sophomore transfer from UC Irvine lit it up in Ft. Wayne, scoring 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting and hitting 4-of-7 3-pointers.
? Tate Sorensen notched his second double-double of the season at Cal Poly with a career-high 26 points and 10 rebounds, which tied his career best. It was his second double-double of the season.
? Nurudeen Adepoju dished out a career-high seven assists at Cal Poly, while Baker had career-bests of eight rebounds and three assists vs. the Mustangs.
? Adepoju scored a career-best 25 points against Utah Valley State. The senior from Kwara State, Nigeria, hit 8-of-15 shots, and 6-of-9 3-pointers in the game and also had a season-high three assists for the second straight game. He has scored in double figures in five of the last six games.
? SUU's five starters scored all 61 points at Cal Poly. It is the only time this season the team didn't get a point from the bench.
? WIU out-rebounded Southern Utah 30-20, marking just the sixth time the Thunderbirds have come out with fewer rebounds than their opponent this season.
? The Thunderbirds went without a block for just the third time this season vs. Oral Roberts (also at BYU, at UMKC).
? Cris Hoopes saw his first game action of the season against UVSC after sitting out fall semester. He had come off the bench in every game since becoming eligible but didn't play at South Dakota State or against Centenary and as mentioned earlier, got his first start of the season at Western Illinois.
? SUU has played two overtime games this season, going into extra sessions but coming out on the wrong end of the decision against both Boise State and Utah Valley State. SUU played back-to-back overtime games late last season, losing 75-74 to IUPUI on Feb. 15, but coming back with an 87-85 OT win over Oakland two nights later. SUU is 21-18 in overtime games since 1963 when the school moved to four-year status.
? Southern Utah hit 12 3-pointers against Utah Valley State, a season high.
? Payne's 32 points at Oakland were the most by a Thunderbird since Henry Uhegwu scored 35 points back on Feb. 23, 2006. That game was also a Thunderbird win at Oakland.
? Marek dished out a then-career-high eight assists at New Mexico, then came back two nights later and scored a season-high 14 points vs. UC-Colorado Springs. Marek then dished out another career-best when he had 10 dimes at IPFW.
? Coach Reid has made it official that freshmen Damar Wilson and Sam Hoopes will spend the season as redshirts.
? Nick Livi has left the team.
? SUU went without a 3-point basket at Sacramento State. It is the only time in the school's Division I history, a span of 537 games (going into the contest), that the team has gone without at least one 3-point basket.

Kangaroo Notes: UMKC is 1-11 on the road this season, with the one win coming at South Dakota State, where the ?Roos claimed a 64-58 win. The Summit League road losses have come at Oakland (114-105 in overtime), IPFW (79-70), North Dakota State (90-82), Western Illinois (77-62) and IUPUI (90-70).
UMKC averages 68.7 points per game on .405 shooting (.384 threes) while allowing opponents an average of 75.5 points on .484 shooting (.410 threes). The ?Roos have connected on 73.1 percent of their free throws and have been out-rebounded by an average of 35.0-to-31.5 caroms per game.
Individually, wing Dane Brumagin (6-4, 195, Jr) leads the team with an 18.1 points per game scoring average as well as with his 5.3 rebounds per game. Senior wing Tim Blackwell (6-4, 190) is second on the team at 10.8 ppg while freshman Reggie Hamilton (G, 6-0, 175) averages 10.4 ppg and a team-high 3.4 assists per game.