DUNK CITY, Fla. – The FGCU men's basketball team (0-1) will look to bounce back quickly from a season-opening loss at Ohio on Saturday when the Eagles commence the home portion of their 2015-16 schedule on Monday at Alico Arena in a 7 p.m. tipoff against Texas Wesleyan (3-0).
 
OPENING TIP
The game will be the first of a program Division-I record 18 home regular-season contests this year for the Eagles. NAIA member Texas Wesleyan has already played three games, including defeating the No. 21-ranked NAIA team in the country, and is averaging close to 90 points per game.
 
HOW TO FOLLOW
Tickets are still available and can be secured by logging on to FGCUAthletics.com/Tickets, by calling 239-590-7145 or by visiting the Alico Arena Ticket Office anytime after 9 a.m. Monday.
 
For those not able to make it to The Nest, the game – like all FGCU home contests – will be broadcast on ESPN3 and via the WatchESPN app with David Moulton and J. Webb Horton on the call.
 
TWEETABLES
1) Marc-Eddy Norelia scored a career-high 21 points to lead the FGCU offensive attack at Ohio.
2) Saturday marked the first time since 2013-14 that FGCU scored at least 70 points in a game and lost (25-3 under Dooley).
3) The 75 points FGCU scored at Ohio are tied for the second-most in a loss in the program's Division-I non-conference history.
4) Also, the 75 points were the most in a season-opening loss since the program's first game in 2002-03 (98-90 vs. Puerto Rico-Bayamon).
5) Each of the last four years that FGCU dropped its season opener (2010-13), the Eagles have responded with a double-figure win in their next game.
 
MOST POINTS SCORED IN A D-I NON-CONFERENCE LOSS
78 – Dec. 22, 2012 at Maine (84-78)
75 – Nov. 14, 2015 at Ohio (85-75)
75 – Nov. 27, 2010 vs. Miami (87-75)
75 – Dec. 5, 2009 at Longwood (82-75)
 
MOST POINTS SCORED BY A NON-CONFERENCE OPPONENT UNDER DOOLEY
90 – Dec. 1, 2013 vs. Iona (90-72)
86 – Dec. 23, 2014 at Iona (86-67)
85 – Nov. 14, 2015 at Ohio (85-75)
 
SCOUTING TEXAS WESLEYAN
* Texas Wesleyan is an NAIA program based in Fort Worth which was founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1890. The team won the NAIA Division I National Championship in 2006.
* The Rams are 3-0 to start the year, including a 100-95 overtime win over the No. 21 NAIA team in the nation, and are averaging 89.7 points per game.
* TWU is led by a quartet of double-figure scorers, paced by Sam Akano (23.7 ppg) and Jerell Ellis (23.3 ppg).
* The Rams are coached by Brennen Shingleton, who is in his 4th season in charge (52-43 record) after serving as an assistant coach and later an associate head coach for 10 years.
* Texas Wesleyan started last season 12-0 before dropping 15 of its last 18 games – all to Sooner Athletic Conference members – to finish the year 15-15.
* The Undertaker, of WWE fame, played for Texas Wesleyan during the 1985-86 season.
 
HOME SUCCESS
FGCU is 43-7 at Alico Arena since 2012-13. Three of those seven losses have occurred in the past four games, with the seven setbacks overall coming to Lipscomb, Iona, Mercer, FIU, North Florida, USC Upstate and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. FGCU was 13-4 at home last year, went 15-2 in 2013-14 and 15-1 in 2012-13.
 
PLEASANT SURPRISE
NCAA officials cleared redshirt sophomore Antravious Simmons (Miami, Fla./VCU/South Miami HS) to play around mid-day Friday as he was expected to sit out through the completion of the fall semester after transferring from VCU in December of 2014. However, FGCU officials applied for a legislative relief waiver for Simmons – who in part transferred back to South Florida for family reasons – and it was granted just more than 24 hours before the season began. Simmons flew separately from the team, which had departed on Thursday, and arrived at the team hotel around 9 p.m. on Friday and started for the Eagles at 2 p.m. on Saturday in the season opener against Ohio.
 
RECAPPING OHIO
In addition to his game-high point total, redshirt junior Norelia (Orlando, Fla./Tulane/Olympia HS) added a team-best nine rebounds while going 7-8 from the free-throw line. Redshirt senior Julian DeBose (Washington, D.C./Rice/St. John College HS) added 16 points, five assists and two steals in 36 minutes, while late addition Simmons chipped in with 12 points, seven rebounds and a pair of blocks in 23 unexpected minutes.
 
Despite the inclusion of Simmons in the low blocks, the Eagles were without key low-post presence Demetris Morant (Miami, Fla./UNLV/Bishop Gorman HS) as the redshirt junior continues to recover from surgery to help repair a stress fracture in his right leg. Ohio capitalized on that and out-rebounded FGCU, 45-31, leading to a 21-8 edge in second-chance points for the Bobcats.
 
FGCU also ran into serious foul trouble as redshirt freshman Zach Johnson (Miami, Fla./Norland HS) fouled out, and Simmons, freshman Reggie Reid (Harlem, Ga./Harlem HS) and redshirt senior Filip Cvjeticanin (Zagreb, Croatia/American School of Madrid) all had four fouls. For the game, FGCU was whistled for 28 fouls compared with 17 for Ohio, leading to the Bobcats shooting 25-34 (73.5 percent) from the foul line and just 13-18 (72.2 percent) for the Eagles.
 
PROTECTING THE ROCK
FGCU, which primarily played two freshmen at point guard at Ohio, only committed eight turnovers, continuing a trend which Dooley has emphasized into his third year. FGCU set a single-season program record last year by having eight games of single-digit turnovers. That total matched all the single-digit turnover games in the Eagles' entire pre-D-I history, spanning five seasons from 2002-07. In 2013-14, FGCU had six single-digit turnover games as through Dooley's first two years in charge of the Eagles, they have secured 14 of the program's 20 all-time single-digit turnover in the D-I era (2007-15).
 
2007-08: 0
2008-09: 0
2009-10: 1
2010-11: 1
2011-12: 2
2012-13: 2
2013-14: 6
2014-15: 8
2015-16: 1
 
D-I IMPROVEMENT
Coinciding with taking care of the ball better, FGCU has steadily improved its D-I record nearly every season, and has bettered its winning percentage under each of its now three D-I era coaches.
 
2007-08: 10-21
2008-09: 11-20
2009-10: 8-21
2010-11: 10-20
Dave Balza: 39-82 (.322)
 
2011-12: 15-17
2012-13: 26-11
Andy Enfield: 41-28 (.594)
 
2013-14: 22-13
2014-15: 22-11
2015-16: 0-1
Joe Dooley: 44-25 (.638)
 
MID-MAJOR POLL
FGCU is one of three Atlantic Sun Conference members ranked or receiving votes in the Preseason College Insider Mid-Major Top 25 as the Eagles picked up 16 votes in the initial poll of the 2015-16 season. Defending A-Sun Champion North Florida – which won at Illinois on Friday night – is ranked No. 13, while league newcomer NJIT checks in at No. 24. In addition to those two squads, the Eagles also face South Dakota State – the first team out of the top 25 with 101 votes – in their upcoming schedule.
 
The poll is made up of teams from the following conferences: America East, Atlantic Sun, Big Sky, Big South, Big West, Colonial, Horizon, Independents, Ivy, Metro Atlantic, Mid-American, Mid-Eastern, Missouri Valley, Northeast, Ohio Valley, Patriot, Southern, Southland, Southwestern, Summit, Sun Belt, West Coast and Western Athletic.
 
NATION'S ELITE
FGCU is one of only 46 teams in the country that has won 20+ games in each of the past three seasons. Meanwhile, the FGCU women have also accomplished that feat, making FGCU one of only 13 D-I schools in the nation to have their men's and women's basketball programs both win 20 or more games each of the past three seasons.
 
FGCU
UConn
Louisville
Duke
North Carolina
Kentucky
Baylor
Iowa
Gonzaga
Wichita State
BYU
Akron
Saint Mary's
 
MOST Ws IN FLORIDA
Over the past two seasons (excluding 2015-16), only the University of Florida has won more games among D-I schools in the state of Florida than FGCU.
 
Florida: 52
FGCU: 44
Miami: 42
North Florida: 41
Florida State: 39
FIU: 31
UCF: 25
Jacksonville: 22
USF: 21
FAU: 19
Bethune-Cookman: 18
Stetson: 16
Florida A&M: 16
 
A-SUN PROGNOSTICATIONS
FGCU garnered one first-place vote and 54 points overall in the A-Sun Preseason Coaches Poll to finish behind North Florida, which collected 63 points and the other seven first-place votes. The Eagles were also predicted to finish second in the Media Poll as in that ranking they had six first-place votes and 208 points overall.
 
NJIT (49 points) was predicted by the coaches to finish in third place, with Lipscomb (42) slotted for a fourth-place finish. Jacksonville (28) was fifth, followed by USC Upstate (26) while Kennesaw State (13) and Stetson (13) both tied for seventh.
 
DeBose was a unanimous selection to the Preseason All-Conference Team. He is FGCU's leading returning scorer after averaging 11.6 points per game last season to go along with 3.9 rebounds and 1.4 assists per contest.
 
THE ONLY ONE
Cvjeticanin is the only remaining member of FGCU's historic run to the Sweet 16 in 2013. Then a sophomore, played just 12 total minutes in the Eagles' three NCAA Tournament games and did not score. The sharp-shooter would have graduated last year but he had back surgery and utilized a redshirt year during the 2014-15 campaign. Additionally, assistant coach Michael Fly, now in his fifth year with the Eagles, is the only remaining coach who was on staff as FGCU became the only No. 15 seed in NCAA Tournament history to advance to the Sweet 16.
 
SCHEDULE BREAKDOWN
Included in the 2015-16 docket for the Eagles are a record 18 home games – the most since the program's final year in Division II in 2006-07. The Eagles will host the pre-Thanksgiving Hilton Garden Inn FGCU Classic and welcome participants Youngstown State, North Dakota and Bowling Green before embarking on a pre-New Year stretch at home which features Massachusetts, South Dakota State, Louisiana Tech and La Salle all visiting Alico Arena between Dec. 13-31.
 
Of FGCU's 16-game non-conference slate, 12 contests are against D-I opponents and the breakdown of those dozen formidable opponents based off 2014-15 results is as follows:
 
7 teams with a winning record
7 teams with a top-125 RPI
5 teams with a top-85 RPI
4 teams which made postseason appearances
4 teams which won at least 20 games
 
In the four-game stretch alone from Dec. 13-31, FGCU will face a pair of Atlantic 10 Conference teams and a pair of clubs which won 24 and 27 games a year ago, respectively, in South Dakota State and Louisiana Tech. Combined, SDSU, La Tech, UMass and La Salle went 85-51 last year, won three postseason contests and finished with an average RPI of 79.
 
GOLDEN SUMMER
DeBose won a gold medal as part of Team USA at the World University Games (WUG) in South Korea ... was one of only two players (SMU's Nic Moore) on the team not from Kansas University ... finished the tournament averaging 4 points, 2.3 rebounds and 10.8 minutes per contest ... scored a team-high 18 points in the USA's final group-round game against Switzerland ... connected on 50 percent (13-26) of his shots from the floor during the WUG, including 3-8 from 3-point range ... added nine offensive and nine defensive rebounds, with the nine offensive boards representing the second-most by any guard on the roster  ... also contributed six steals and a block as Team USA won its games by an average of 20.3 points.
 
2014-15 BY THE NUMBERS
1: FGCU lost just once when leading at the half, going 17-1 overall. Over the past two seasons under Dooley, the Green and Blue is 35-1 when leading at the half.
5: FGCU set a single-season program record by holding opponents to 28.6 percent from 3-point range, good for the 5th-best in the nation.
10: FGCU went on a 10-game winning streak during conference play, the longest such streak in the D-I era and third-longest overall (14 in 2003-04 and 2006-07).
14: The Eagles were 14-1 when holding opponents below 40 percent from the floor, and are 27-2 the last two seasons under Dooley.
17: The Eagles went 17-0 when out-rebounding their opponent, and in the last two years they are 35-2 when securing more rebounds than their opposition.
24: The Eagles ranked 24th in the nation by securing 38.1 rebounds per game.
32: FGCU was 32nd in the county by holding opponents to just 39.5 percent from the floor.
70: When scoring 70 or more points, FGCU was 14-0. Over the past 2+ seasons it is 25-3 when reaching that mark.
 
UNDER 60
Last year, FGCU tied a single-season program record by holding 13 opponents to 60 points or less in a game. Since Dooley took over the FGCU program in 2013-14, FGCU has held 21 teams to 60 points or fewer. The Sweet 16 team in 2012-13 also held 13 teams to 60 points or less, but prior to that – in five seasons of D-I history – FGCU teams had only held opponents to 60 points or less 20 times.
 
FGCU was exactly on par with the D-I national scoring average last year of 67.4 points per game. The Eagles held opponents below that threshold 18 times last season, and they scored above that threshold 18 times.
 
REPLACING THE BACKCOURT
FGCU will be looking to replace the graduated backcourt duo of Bernard Thompson and Brett Comer. The two standouts rank first and second, respectively, on the program's all-time scoring list as their 3,312 combined points account of 19 percent of FGCU's total D-I points (17,641). Additionally, the two combined for 1,091 assists – 35 percent of the program's D-I assists (3,075), as Comer (845) himself is responsible for 27 percent of the Eagles' all-time D-I assists.
 
Comer graduated ranking 24th on the all-time NCAA list for career assists. Thompson, meanwhile, was the only player in the NCAA (any division) last year who had at least 1,800 career points, 600 career rebounds and 250 career steals.
 
DUNK CITY IMPACT
The national exposure from the Eagles' run to the Sweet 16 as a No. 15 seed in 2013 has had far-reaching impacts throughout the university and Southwest Florida:
 
> A 27-percent increase in freshman applications the next year, allowing the school to become more selective in its admission. The average high school GPA of admitted students in the fall of 2013 was 3.37, and that increased to 3.71 in the fall of 2014.
 
> The university's fundraising office doubled its number of alumni donors in a year.
 
> The Athletic Department posted a record $4.4 million in external revenues during the 2015 fiscal year, up from $4.2 million in 2014 and a significant jump from only $3.1 million in 2013 prior to the run to the Sweet 16.
 
> Over the past two seasons, FGCU has totaled 145,670 fans at Alico Arena. That number represents 30 percent of the entire A-Sun's attendance.
 
> With a seating capacity of 4,333, an average of 4,229 fans (97.6 percent capacity) flocked to Alico Arena last year. The 97.6 percent capacity ranked 20th in the nation and ahead of Louisville, Michigan, Virginia, Indiana and North Carolina.
 
NEXT UP
FGCU will host the Hilton Garden FGCU Classic at Alico Arena beginning Saturday and running through Monday as the Eagles will play three games in three nights.
 
Saturday, Nov. 21
North Dakota vs. Bowling Green, 4 PM
FGCU vs. Youngstown State, 7 PM
Sunday, Nov. 22
Youngstown State vs. Bowling Green, 4 PM
FGCU vs. North Dakota, 7 PM
Monday, Nov. 23
North Dakota vs. Youngstown State, 4 PM
FGCU vs. Bowling Green, 7 PM
 
TICKET INFORMATION
An extremely limited amount of season tickets are still available for the 2015-16 FGCU men's basketball season. Single-game tickets are currently on sale. For the latest ticket information, log on to FGCUAthletics.com or call the Alico Arena Ticket Office at 239-590-7145.

SOCIAL CENTRAL
For up-to-the-minute information and behind-the-scenes access to the men's basketball program, follow @FGCU_MBB on Twitter and Instagram, Like us on Facebook at /FGCUMBB and watch us on Snapchat at FGCU_MBB.
 
COACH DOOLEY 
FGCU is led by head coach Joe Dooley, who is in his third year with the Eagles in 2015-16 and coached six all-conference selections during his first two seasons. He guided FGCU to its first Atlantic Sun Conference Regular-Season Championship and first trip to the NIT in 2014, and in 2015 he led the Eagles to their third-straight 20-win season and third-straight postseason appearance with a berth in the CIT. 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. Dooley is in his seventh season overall as a head coach and has a record of 101-77 (.567), and in his two years with FGCU is 44-25 (.638).

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 visit www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help raise awareness.