NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. – The FGCU men's basketball team (9-2) will look to reach double-figure wins before Christmas for the first time in program history when the Eagles tip off a challenging three-game road test Tuesday afternoon at 2 against Iona (6-4).
 
SETTING THE STAGE
FGCU is currently ranked No. 17 in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 Poll, while Iona sits at No. 19 (new poll will be released early Monday evening). The Eagles enter with an official RPI of 86, while Iona was at 70 before an 86-81 loss at George Mason Saturday night dropped the Gaels to 109.
 
The contest is a return trip for FGCU as Iona made the journey to SWFL last year and shot lights-out en route to a 90-72 victory. The 90 points were the most FGCU had allowed in a non-conference game dating back to the 2010-11 season at Arkansas, while the 14 3-pointers the Gaels made were also the most in a non-league game versus the Eagles since that same Arkansas contest.
 
HOW TO FOLLOW
The game will be video streamed through Iona's subscription-based service on IonaInsider.com. Live stats are also available by following the link at the top of this release. Additionally, updates and behind-the-scenes photos will be posted on Twitter (@FGCU_MBB) and Instagram (@FGCU_MBB).
 
TWEETABLES (5 Things To Know In 140 Characters Or Less)
1) FGCU ranks second in the nation defending the 3-point ball (23.7 percent) while Iona ranks third in the country shooting the 3 (42.8 percent).
2) In last year's meeting, Iona shot 56 percent from the floor (33-59) – the highest percentage FGCU has allowed since moving to Division I.
3) FGCU will be without Jamail Jones (11.1 ppg, 6.1 rpg) as he is serving the second of a six-game suspension for a violation of team rules.
4) Brett Comer is coming off his fifth double-figure assist game of the season and needs six helpers to reach 700 for his career.
5) FGCU has allowed its last two opponents to shoot better than 40 percent from the field; that occurred just once through the first nine games.
 
SCOUTING IONA
^ The Gaels rank sixth in the nation by averaging 85.5 points per game but allow opponents to score 79.4 points per game which ranks 337th out of 351 D-I teams.
^ Iona scored a program-record 126 points in a game earlier this season as part of a 126-76 win over Delaware State. The fewest amount of points the Gaels have scored in a game this year is 73.
^ Iona won the MAAC (Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) regular-season championship last year (22-11, 17-3) and are the preseason league favorites this year.
^ A.J. English, who ranks fourth in the nation with 23 points per game, was named to the Preseason All-MAAC First Team along with Preseason MAAC Player of the Year David Laury.
^ 82 percent of Iona's scoring this year has come from the quartet of English, Laury, Schadrac Casimir and Isaiah Williams.
^ Head coach Tim Cluess is in his fifth season at the helm of the Gaels and has a record of 98-49 at Iona and 196-72 in nine seasons overall.
 
LAST TIME OUT
Comer (Winter Park, Fla./Winter Park HS) scored 12 of his team-high 19 points in the final 7 minutes as the senior recorded a double-double by adding a game-best 10 assists to lead FGCU to an 83-78 win over visiting Furman Friday night in front of a near-sold out Alico Arena.
 
Half of Comer's assists went to redshirt sophomore Demetris Morant (Miami, Fla./Bishop Gorman HS/UNLV) as the duo teamed up to produce five alley-oops, including four in the first 16 minutes of the contest. Morant finished with a career-high 13 points and grabbed a team-high-tying seven rebounds in 20 minutes of action.
 
Redshirt junior Julian DeBose (Washington, D.C./St. John College HS/Rice) added 14 points for FGCU while corralling seven rebounds of his own as the guard has now reached double-figure scoring in five-straight games. For the game, Dunk City threw down a season-high seven slams as DeBose and Bernard Thompson (Conyers, Ga./Rockdale County HS) accounted for the other two.
 
DID YOU KNOW?
Thompson is the only active D-I player with at least 1,500 career points (1,560), 500 career rebounds (504) and 230 career steals (231). Earlier this year the guard posted a D-I program-record 34-point performance in a victory over Ohio
 
#DUNKCITY MAESTRO
With 85 assists on the year, Comer ranks third in the nation in total assists (just four behind the leader), while his 7.7 assists-per-game average is also third in the country. Comer leads all active players in the NCAA (any division) with 694 career assists as the Dunk City orchestrator is already the Atlantic Sun Conference's career assist leader. Comer – who has been tabbed by ESPN as the country's seventh-best point guard – leads the nation in assist rate at 53 percent (assists divided by the field goals made by the player's teammates while he is on the court).
 
ODDS & ENDS
Comer's double-double against Furman was his third this year and eighth of his career … Thompson had three steals against Furman, marking his eighth multi-steal game of the season and the fifth this year already in which he's had three or more pilfers … the five-point final margin against the Paladins was the first game this year for the Eagles which has been decided by five points or less … freshmen Logan Hovey (Orlando, Fla./Paul J. Hagerty HS) and Christian Terrell (Jacksonville, Fla./Providence HS) both played extended minutes Friday against Furman, with Hovey scoring his first collegiate points and Terrell hitting his first three 3-point attempts (finished 3-4, 9 points).
 
A-SUN STATISTICAL RANKINGS
Marc-Eddy Norelia (Orlando, Fla./Olympia HS/Tulane) leads the A-Sun with 7.1 rebounds per game … Thompson ranks third in the league in scoring (15 per game) … Comer has 33 more assists than anyone else in the conference … Thompson is tied for third in the league lead with 28 made 3-pointers … Nate Hicks (Panama City Beach, Fla./J.R. Arnold HS/Georgia Tech) is third in the A-Sun with 1.2 blocks per game … FGCU leads the A-Sun in field-goal percentage defense (37.2), rebounds per game (40.5), 3-point percentage (38.4) and 3-point percentage defense (23.7).
 
CHALLENING NON-CONFERENCE SLATE
Iona will be the latest test in a challenging non-conference docket for the Eagles. FGCU has already defeated four 20-win teams from a season ago (UC Santa Barbara, Ohio, San Francisco, Massachusetts) and another (South Dakota State) which won 19 contests. The Eagles – who can add another 20-win opponent to that list with a victory over Iona – have played two teams in the top-45 of the current RPI (Green Bay (17) and UMass (43)), and will start a stretch of three in a row on the road against Iona, Xavier (72) and Pittsburgh (86). In total, FGCU will play nine non-conference games against teams currently ranked in the top-145 of the RPI (FIU (139), South Dakota State (143) and twice versus UC Santa Barbara (101)). FGCU is the highest-ranked A-Sun team in the RPI, with the next-closest being North Florida (154).
 
#DEPTHCITY
FGCU had five different leading scorers in the first eight games this year. The team has 10 players averaging at least 10 minutes per game and boasts five double-figure scorers and seven players who are averaging at least three rebounds per game.
 
RETWEETS
1) FGCU has five opponents this year which are ranked or receiving votes in the latest CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 Poll.
2) FGCU has not lost consecutive regular-season games since Dec. 17 and 19 of last season at USF and Mississippi State, respectively.
3) Thompson has been named to the Lou Henson Player of the Year Watch List, awarded annually to the nation's top mid-major player.
4) The 43 and 47 points FGCU held Marist and San Francisco to earlier this year, respectively, were the second and third fewest in non-conference D-I program history.
5) ESPN has named Thompson as the nation's No. 8 best returning dunker in college basketball.

#NESTPROTECTED
FGCU is 35-4 at Alico Arena since the start of the 2012-13 season. The four losses have come to Lipscomb, Iona, Mercer and FIU, snapping – respectively – a nine-game home-court winning streak, another nine-game streak, a 12-game stretch and a four-game run. FGCU went 15-1 in 2012-13, 15-2 last year and is 5-1 this season.
 
Furthermore, against non-conference opponents during the regular season, FGCU is now 23-2 at The Nest since 2011-12. The Green and Blue went 5-0 in 2011-12, 7-0 in 2012-13, 6-1 in 2013-14 and is 5-1 so far this season. The loss last year to Iona snapped a 15-game winning streak at Alico against non-conference opponents.

THE MOST PROLIFIC SENIOR BACKCOURT IN COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Thompson and Comer are not only the best backcourt in the A-Sun but also one of the best in the nation, and based on the following numbers the best senior backcourt duo in all of D-I basketball. No other senior backcourt duo has combined to produce more stats than the following:
 
Points: 2,749
Next closest: 2,676 by Saah Nimley & Arlon Harper (Charleston Southern)
Assists: 900
Next closest: 800 by Raheem Appleby & Kenneth Smith (Louisiana Tech)
Games Played: 228
Next closest: 220 by Traevon Jackson & Josh Gasser (Wisconsin)
Games Started: 221
Next closest: 191 by Traevon Jackson & Josh Gasser (Wisconsin)
Minutes: 6,665
Next closest: 6,225 by Traevon Jackson & Josh Gasser (Wisconsin)
 
THOMPSON
Points: 1,560 – A-Sun active career leader, 33rd on the all-time conference scoring list and tops on the FGCU program career scoring record. If Thompson scores 605 points (20 points per game over the regular season), he would become only the eighth player in A-Sun history (first season: 1978-79) to reach 2,000 career points. The A-Sun career scoring record is held by Willie Jackson (2,535) who played for former league member Centenary from 1980-84. Thompson is currently 12th among all active D-I players for career points. With five more points he will move into 30th place on the all-time A-Sun career scoring list.
 
Steals: 231 – Fourth among all active D-I players, Thompson is already FGCU's program career leader, and needs just 29 more thefts this year to own the A-Sun career record (259), currently held by Vaughn Williams who played at former league member Arkansas-Little Rock from 1980-83.
 
COMER
Assists: 694 – Comer is 23 assists ahead of his next closest active competitor (Louisiana Tech's Kenneth Smith, 671). Of the 115 career games he has played in, Comer has led FGCU in assists 104 times.
 
A-SUN FAVORITES
For the second-straight season, FGCU is the preseason league favorite to win the A-Sun, and the Eagles were a near-unanimous selection. FGCU garnered seven of the eight first-place votes in the coaches' poll (63 points), while it received 25 of 26 first-place votes in the media poll (207 points).
 
Thompson was named the A-Sun Preseason Player of the Year and the A-Sun Preseason Defensive Player of the Year – the first time in at least five years the same player has been recognized with both awards. Comer and Jones (Atlanta, Ga./Montverde Academy/Marquette) join Thompson on the A-Sun Preseason All-Conference Team as FGCU is the only school with two unanimous selections (Comer and Thompson), and is tied with the University of North Florida for the most all-league selections with three.
 
GROWING UP QUICKLY
Despite only becoming D-I postseason eligible in the 2011-12 season, FGCU has already claimed an impressive nine wins in the postseason.
 
7-2: Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament
FGCU is the only school in D-I history to reach the championship game of its conference tournament in each of its first three seasons of eligibility. The Eagles went 2-1 in 2012 (lost to Belmont), 3-0 in 2013 (defeated Mercer) and 2-1 in 2014 (lost to Mercer).
 
2-1: NCAA Tournament
FGCU became the first school in NCAA history to reach the Sweet Sixteen as a No. 15 seed in 2013 when the Eagles defeated No. 2 Georgetown and No. 7 San Diego State en route to captivating the nation and earning the #DunkCity moniker. The Green and Blue lost to No. 3 Florida in the next round.
 
0-1: NIT
FGCU won the program's first A-Sun regular-season championship in 2014 courtesy of a 14-4 league mark. The Eagles received a No. 8 seed in the NIT and traveled to No. 1 Florida State, falling just short (58-53) to the eventual NIT semifinalists.
 
THE ONLY ONE
FGCU is the only school in the Atlantic Sun Conference which has won an A-Sun Men's Basketball Championship. Conference re-alignment has drastically altered the landscape of collegiate athletics, and the A-Sun is no different. The Eagles joined the league in 2007-08 with USC Upstate, and prior to that North Florida and Kennesaw State both joined for the 2005-06 season. Lipscomb has been a member since 2003-04, Jacksonville since 1998-99 and Stetson since 1986-87. Northern Kentucky is in its third year in the A-Sun after joining in 2012-13 and has two years (including this season) of its NCAA-mandated Division-I reclassification period remaining.
 
A-STUN CONFERENCE
The Atlantic Sun Conference has been the talk of the college basketball world the last two postseasons as FGCU and Mercer (now a Southern Conference member) have both been responsible for three major upsets in the NCAA Tournament, affectionately turning the A-Sun into the A-Stun.
 
2013 NCAA Tournament: No. 15 FGCU 78 No. 2 Georgetown 68
2013 NCAA Tournament: No. 15 FGCU 81 No. 7 San Diego State 71
2014 NCAA Tournament: No. 14 Mercer 78 No. 3 Duke 71
 
AMONG THE NATION'S ELITE
For the second-consecutive year FGCU was selected by ESPN for inclusion in the worldwide leader's Midnight Madness coverage when the Eagles hosted Dunk City After Dark on Oct. 17. With that honor, FGCU joined only four other extremely tradition-rich programs which can boast that claim: Kansas, Kentucky, Syracuse and UConn.
 
NEXT UP
FGCU continues its road trip after Christmas at Xavier (8-3) on Sunday, Dec. 28, at 4 p.m. as the Eagles will be making their first national TV appearance of the year on FOX Sports 1. The swing then continues at Pittsburgh (7-3) on Tuesday, Dec. 30, at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN3. The Eagles will be back in action at home on Friday, Jan. 2, against Ave Maria at 7 p.m.
 
FOLLOW ALONG
General-admission tickets for all FGCU men's basketball games at Alico Arena are still available and can be purchased by logging on to FGCUAthletics.com/Tickets, in person at the Alico Arena Ticket Office or over the phone at 239-590-7145. For up-to-the-minute information and behind-the-scenes access to the men's basketball program, follow @FGCU_MBB on Twitter and Instagram, and "Like" us on Facebook at /FGCUMBB.
 
COACH DOOLEY 
FGCU is led by second-year head coach Joe Dooley, who coached three all-conference selections during his first season and guided FGCU to its first Atlantic Sun Conference Regular-Season Championship and first trip to the NIT. Prior to arriving in SWFL, Dooley spent 10 seasons as an assistant at Kansas under head coach Bill Self. During those 10 seasons, Kansas produced 300 wins, nine straight Big 12 regular-season titles, six Big 12 Tournament championships, six NCAA Sweet 16s, five NCAA Elite Eight appearances and two Final Fours, including the 2008 National Championship.
 
SUPPORT THE CAUSE 
FGCU Athletics sponsors events throughout the year to benefit the FGCU Campus Food Pantry (www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry) and the Harry Chapin Food Bank (www.harrychapinfoodbank.org), FGCU Athletics' charities of choice. For more information, including how to make a contribution, please visitwww.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.