FORT MYERS, Fla. - The FGCU women's basketball team (8-2) will host Coppin State (0-9) and UAB (9-1) in the Hilton Garden Inn Classic in Alico Arena over a three-day stretch beginning on Wednesday.

Matchup: FGCU (8-2) vs Coppin State (0-9)
When: Wednesday Dec. 19 at 5 p.m.
Rankings: FGCU is No. 7 in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Poll
Where: Fort Myers, Fla. | Alico Arena
Tickets: here
Watch (ESPN+): here | David Moulton (PBP) | J. Webb Horton (Color)
Game Notes: FGCU (Interactive | Printable) | Coppin State (Printable)
Live Stats (StatBroadcast): here 
Series: First-ever meeting
Coaches: Karl Smesko (17th season at FGCU - 443-89; 20th season overall - 504-116 | DeWayne Burroughs (3rd Season at Coppin State - 14-54; same overall)
Promotions: Ugly Sweater Night (Fans are encouraged to wear their best Ugly Christmas Sweaters for prizes at halftime) | Santa Clause makes an appearance | Punch Pass | Toy Drive for Golisano's Children's Hospital

Matchup: FGCU vs UAB (9-1)
When: Friday Dec. 21 at 7 p.m.
Rankings: FGCU is No. 7 in the CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Poll
Where: Fort Myers, Fla. | Alico Arena
Tickets: here
Watch (ESPN+): here | Tom James (PBP) | J. Webb Horton (Color)
Live Stats (StatBroadcast): here 
Series: First-ever meeting
Coach: Randy Norton (6th season at UAB - 100-67; same overall)
Promotions: Christmas Movie Night (clips from Christmas movies will be played throughout the night) | Punch Pass | Toy Drive for Golisano's Children's Hospital

Coppin State Preview
Coppin State (0-9) has lost to several good teams while playing eight of its first nine games on the road in 2018-19. They've fallen to No. 6 Mississippi State, No. 9 Maryland, No. 13 Minnesota and No. 25 West Virginia.

The Eagles finished 6-23 last year with a 5-11 record in MEAC play. Chance Graham headlines the returning starters for her team. She had 309 rebounds last year, which was the second-most in program history, and she had season single-game highs of 34 points and 20 rebounds. In fact, in just two seasons, she ranks ninth on Coppin State's career rebounding list with 662.

Coppin State Leaders
PPG: Chance Graham (16.8), Brooke Fields (12.1)
RPG: Chance Graham (11.7), Jalynda Salley (4.4), Kaiya Coleman (4.3)
Assists: Brooke Fields (24), Maraiyah Smith (20)
Steals: Chance Graham (22), Brooke Fields (13), Kaiya Coleman (11)
Blocks: Chance Graham (13)

UAB Preview
UAB (9-1) is coming off the program's first-ever Conference USA regular season championship, which was their first title since winning the 1993-94 Great Midwest regular season crown. Head coach Randy Norton was named the Conference USA Coach of the Year after guiding his team to 27 victories, which was the most in program history. They broke several records during the season - made 3-pointers (267), 3-point field goal percentage (37.6), assists (590) and assist/turnover ratio (1.5). Their season ended in the second-round of the WNIT after falling to Western Kentucky in the Conference USA championship game.

This season, the Blazers have gotten off to a fast start. The team's lone loss was to No. 11 Tennessee in OT, 73-69. They also took down Oklahoma 89-84. Both of those games were part of the Junkanoo Jam in the Bahamas Nov. 22 and 24.

Since their loss to Tennessee on Nov. 24, UAB has reeled off five straight wins against Chicago State, Alabama A&M, Alcorn State, Samford, McNeese State and Alabama State - teams with a combined record of 9-39. In fact, they have wins over just one team with a winning record - Appalachian State (6-4).

UAB Leaders
PPG: Deanna Kuzmanic (13.7), Rachael Childress (13.5), Katelynn Thomas (13.4), Miyah Barnes (10.0)
RPG: Trista Magee (6.6), Katelynn Thomas (6.3)
Assists: Miyah Barnes (62), Deanna Kuzmanic (45)
Steals: Miyah Barnes (15), Angela Vendrell (12)
Blocks: Katelynn Thomas (9), Angela Vendrell (6), Rachael Childress (4)

Last Time Out
Destiny Washington (Indianapolis, Ind./Lawrence North HS) had season-highs in points (18) and rebounds (8) along with a career-high seven steals as the Green and Blue toppled Abilene Christian 81-65 in Alico Arena on Monday to improve to 5-0 at home. Keri Jewett-Giles added a team-high 19 points along with six assists, while Tytionia Adderly had 12 points, nine rebounds, five assists and two steals. FGCU is now 7-0 when shooting 40 percent or higher as a team and 6-0 when scoring 80 plus points.

Among The Nation's Best
FGCU will enter Wednesday ranked among the top 50 teams in the nation in nine categories:

Scoring offense - 14th, 83.8
Field goal percentage - 28th, 46.1
Assist/turnover ratio - 33rd, 1.17
Assists per game - 43rd, 16.6
Assists - 43rd, 166
Turnover margin - 50th, 4.60

3-point field goals attempted
1. DePaul - 406
2. FGCU - 358
3. Western Illinois - 343
4. Saint Francis (Pa.) - 322
5. Syracuse - 315

3-point field goals made per game
1. DePaul - 12.8
2. FGCU - 12.5
3. Saint Francis (Pa.) - 11.4
4. Oregon - 11.0
5. Idaho - 10.8

3-point field goals made
1. DePaul - 141
2. FGCU - 125
3. Saint Francis (Pa.) - 114
4. Oral Roberts - 109
5. Syracuse - 108

Duo Earns ASUN Recognition
After Davion Wingate (Newcomer of the Week) and Tanner Bryant (Freshman of the Week) won weekly recognition from the ASUN on Monday, the Eagles have now won seven player, newcomer or freshman of the week awards this season:

Nov. 19 - Keri Jewett-Giles (Player of the Week)
Nov. 19 - Jewett-Giles (Newcomer of the Week)
Nov. 26 - Jewett-Giles (Player of the Week)
Nov. 26 - Jewett-Giles (Newcomer of the Week)
Dec. 3 - Chandler Ryan (Player of the Week)
Dec. 17 - Wingate (Newcomer of the Week)
Dec. 17 - Bryant (Freshman of the Week)

Double Digit Trio, More On The Way?
Jewett-Giles (15.3), Nasrin Ulel (15.0) and Ryan (Groveland, Ill./Morton HS) (10.4) are leading the Green and Blue in scoring this year, while Lisa Zderadicka (Vienna, Austria/HAK Korneuburg) isn't too far behind at 9.2 per contest. Since becoming a Division-I program, the Eagles have never had four players average 10 or more in a single season. In fact, they are looking for just the program's second year with three or more since 2011-12 and the sixth overall since becoming a Division-I program.

Should Ulel (Murrieta, Calif./Murrieta HS) and Jewett-Giles (Fort Myers, Fla./Dunbar HS) both finish above 14 PPG, it would represent just the third time since 2007-08 that the team has achieved that - joining the 2008-09 (Adrianne McNally - 14.6, Chelsea Lyles - 14.0) and 2014-15 (Whitney Knight - 14.8, Kaneisha Atwater - 14.2) teams. Sarah Hansen (16.3 PPG in 2012-13) holds the program's Division-I era single-season scoring average record. She's the only player to average more than 16 PPG since the era began in 2007-08. Trish Fleming (19.9, 2002-03) and Kate Schrader (17.4, 2006-07) are 1-2 all-time with Fleming's coming in the NAIA era and Schrader recording hers in the NCAA Division-II era.
 
600 Club
Adderly (Jupiter, Fla./Cardinal Newman HS) became just the sixth player in program history to achieve 600 career rebounds in the team's win over Houston. The junior forward now has 632 and is approaching Robyn Swain, who had 640 from 2002-04, for fourth-place all-time.

Mid-Major Power
Over the past four seasons, FGCU has recorded 121 wins, which is the most among all mid-majors and seventh-most among any Division-I program, trailing only UConn (148), Notre Dame (137), Baylor (135), South Carolina (129), Mississippi State (126) and Maryland (123). On top of that, the program is one of only six in Division-I with three 30-win seasons during that stretch – joining UConn, Baylor, Notre Dame, Maryland and South Carolina.
 
Leading the 3-Point Revolution
At FGCU, head coach Karl Smesko has turned FGCU into one of the premier 3-point shooting teams in the nation. In 16 + seasons, his teams have shot a combined 4,981-for-14,352 (.347) from long range, or 9.36 per game. In fact, the team has made at least one 3-point field goal in 419 straight games and went without at least one make in only one game in program history – Feb. 21, 2006 vs Lynn University (0-for-11).

In 2017-18, the Green and Blue made an NCAA Division-I single season record 431 3-pointers on 1,190 attempts, equating out to a .362 percentage. In doing so, the team made and attempted over twice as many as they did in the program's initial season in 2002-03 (212-for-535). Since that first year, FGCU has made at least 300 in a season 10 times, including each of the past nine seasons.

2002-03 --- 212-for-535 (.396)
2003-04 --- 118-for-406 (.291)
2004-05 --- 253-for-722 (.350)
2005-06 --- 242-for-747 (.324)
2006-07 --- 337-for-891 (.378)
2007-08 --- 255-for-734 (.347)
2008-09 --- 296-for-763 (.388)
2009-10 --- 317-for-876 (.362)
2010-11 --- 350-for-940 (.372)
2011-12 --- 342-for-925 (.370)
2012-13 --- 319-for-974 (.328)
2013-14 --- 347-for-1,000 (.347)
2014-15 --- 327-for-928 (.352)
2015-16 --- 372-for-1,194 (.312)
2016-17 --- 338-for-1,058 (.319)
2017-18 --- 431-for-1,190 (.362)
2018-19 --- 125-for-358 (.349)
TOTALS: 4,981-for-14,352 (.347)

Including seven of 10 games this season, FGCU has made at least 10 or more 3-point field goals in a single game 244 times, including a single-season record 25 times in 2017-18. They have at least 15 games with at least 10 or more in each of the past 10 seasons.

RPI Tracker
The Green and Blue enter Wednesday ranked 89th in the latest RPI poll. Upcoming opponent RPIs include: Coppin State (262), UAB (164) and Duke (41). FGCU's RPI is the highest among all ASUN teams. Here's how the rest of them stack up:

North Alabama - 144
Jacksonville - 219
Stetson - 233
North Florida - 235
Kennesaw State - 237
Liberty - 316
Lipscomb - 326
NJIT - 329

Next Up
After this week concludes, FGCU will have off until Dec. 30 when the team travels to face the Duke Blue Devils at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

FGCU Career Record Book

Rebounds 
1. 887 - Sarah HANSEN (329o-558d) - 2010-14
2. 735 - Whitney KNIGHT (114o-621d) - 2011-12,13-16
3. 658 - Adrianne MCNALLY (240o-418d) - 2006-10
4. 640 - Robyn SWAIN (236o-404d) - 2002-04
5. 632 - Tytionia ADDERLY (262o-370d) - 2016-present 
6. 603 - Courtney CHIHIL (183o-420d) - 2008-12
7. 508 - Kaneisha ATWATER (187o-321d) - 2013-16
8. 498 - Taylor GRADINJAN (117o-381d) - 2012-13,14-18
9. 422 - Katie MEADOR (193o-229d) - 2012-16
10. 408 - Kate SCHRADER (194o-214d) - 2005-07
 
Rebounding average (min. 40 games) 
1. 11.2 - Robyn SWAIN (57 games) - 2002-04
2. 8.2 - Tytionia ADDERLY (77 games) - 2016-present 
3. 6.7 - Sarah HANSEN (132 games) - 2010-14
4. 6.3 - Kate SCHRADER (65 games) - 2005-07
5. 5.8 - Andrea CLARKE (55 games) - 2003-05
6. 5.7 - Whitney KNIGHT (130 games) - 2011-12,13-16
7. 5.6 - Delia DE LA TORRE (61 games) - 2006-08
8. 5.5 - Noreen MCCALLUM (57 games) - 2002-04
9. 5.4 - Chelsea LYLES (62 games) - 2008-10
10. 5.1 - Adrianne MCNALLY (128 games) - 2006-10
 
Defensive rebounds 
1. 621 - Whitney KNIGHT (114o-621d) - 2011-12,13-16
2. 558 - Sarah HANSEN (329o-558d) - 2010-14
3. 420 - Courtney CHIHIL (183o-420d) - 2008-12
4. 418 - Adrianne MCNALLY (240o-418d) - 2006-10
5. 404 - Robyn SWAIN (236o-404d) - 2002-04
6. 381 - Taylor GRADINJAN (117o-381d) - 2012-13,14-18
7. 370 - Tytionia ADDERLY (262o-370d) - 2016-present
8. 324 - DyTiesha DUNSON (61o-324d) - 2012-16
9. 321 - Kaneisha ATWATER (187o-321d) - 2013-16
10. 269 - Stephanie HAAS (96o-269d) - 2012-16
 
Offensive rebounds 
1. 329 - Sarah HANSEN (329o-558d) - 2010-14
2. 262 - Tytionia ADDERLY (262o-370d) - 2016-present 
3. 240 - Adrianne MCNALLY (240o-418d) - 2006-10
4. 236 - Robyn SWAIN (236o-404d) - 2002-04
5. 194 - Kate SCHRADER (194o-214d) - 2005-07
6. 193 - Katie MEADOR (193o-229d) - 2012-16
7. 187 - Kaneisha ATWATER (187o-321d) - 2013-16
8. 183 - Courtney CHIHIL (183o-420d) - 2008-12
9. 127 - Noreen MCCALLUM (127o-189d) - 2002-04
10. 122 - Andrea CLARKE (122o-196d) - 2003-05
 
Assists average (min. 40 games) 
1. 4.7 - Chelsea DERMYER (65 games) - 2006-08
2. 4.5 - Brittany KENNEDY (58 games) - 2011-13
3. 3.9 - Megan JONES (86 games) - 2002-05
4. 3.9 - Ebonie HALLIBURTON (60 games) - 2004-06
5. 3.4 - DyTiesha DUNSON (132 games) - 2012-16
6. 3.4 - Shannon MURPHY (124 games) - 2007-11
7. 3.0 - Erica NELSON (66 games) - 2016-18
8. 2.9 - Lisa ZDERADICKA (45 games) - 2017-present
9. 2.8 - Courtney CHIHIL (120 games) - 2008-12
10. 2.6 - Adrianne MCNALLY (128 games) - 2006-10

WE'VE GOT YOUR SEAT
Experience FGCU basketball this season. The following ticket opportunities are on sale now:
Punch Pass
Three entries for $15 or seven entries for $30. Remaining Punch Pass Games: Men vs Keiser; Women vs Coppin State and UAB. Purchase online HERE or call 239-590-7145.
Group Sales
Bring your group of 20 or more to an FGCU Men's or Women's Basketball game. All group tickets include an FGCU hat ($15 value), a $5 game day discount at The Boardwalk restaurant, in-game group recognition and more. For more information on group outings, click HERE or call 239-590-7145.
Single Game Tickets
Single game tickets are available for all remaining home games. Discounts are available for current or former Military and Youth ages 3-15. Purchase online HERE or call 239-590-7145.
Military Appreciation Games
Military Appreciation Night is Saturday, Jan. 5. Discounted tickets are available for current or former Military and their families. Women's tickets start at $8 each and Men's tickets start at $9 each and the first 50 military discount orders include a free $10 gift card for Mission BBQ. Purchase online HERE or call 239-590-7145.

COACH SMESKO
FGCU head coach Karl Smesko led the 2017-18 Eagles to another historic season. The Green and Blue finished 31-5 overall and 13-1 in ASUN play, capturing the program's eighth ASUN regular season championship and fifth ASUN tournament championship. The team finished the season ranked 25th in the final USA Today Coaches Poll, recaptured the NCAA record for most 3-point field goals made in a season with 431 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the fifth time in seven seasons, where the Eagles knocked off 5th-seeded and No. 15 ranked Missouri in the opening round. It was the team's second tournament win over the past three appearances. Over the course of the season, FGCU knocked off three ranked teams - No. 15 Missouri, No. 20 Kentucky and No. 21 DePaul.

Over the past four seasons, Smesko has guided FGCU to three 30 plus win seasons while recording a 121-23 (.840) record overall. The now eight-time ASUN Coach of the Year rallied the 2016-17 team to its seventh straight 25-win campaign, culminating in an ASUN tournament title and NCAA Tournament appearance. In 2015-16, he was named the espnW mid-major coach of the year following a run that witnessed the Eagles claim a WNIT runner-up finish and a Division-I program best ever 33-6 record. In 2014-15, the team achieved its first-ever top-25 ranking and made another trip to the NCAA Tournament, where the Eagles earned a No. 7 seed and won the program's first-ever NCAA Tournament game, toppling No. 10 seed Oklahoma State.

Including the 2017-18 campaign, Smesko has guided the Eagles to 14-straight 20-win seasons and eight-straight 25-win seasons. He maintains a record of 504-116 (.813) overall in his career, including a 170-16 (.914) mark in ASUN play. Over the past seven seasons, he has guided FGCU to a 106-4 (.964) record in conference play with four undefeated seasons. Smesko earned his 400th career coaching win in 2014-15 in just 493 career games, two games faster than UConn's Geno Auriemma. Entering 2016-17, he ranked among an elite list of just four active Division I coaches with a career win percentage of .800 or higher, joining Auriemma, Baylor's Kim Mulkey and Stanford's Tara VanDerveer in the esteemed group. Over the past year, first-year NCAA Division-I head coaches Nancy Fahey (Illinois) and Bart Brooks (Belmont) pushed the list to six.

FOLLOW ALONG
For up-to-the-minute information and behind-the-scenes access to the women's basketball program, follow @FGCU_WBB on Twitter and Instagram and like us on Facebook at /FGCUWBB.

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 contribute, please visit www.fgcu.edu/foodpantry and utilize the hashtag #FeedFGCU to help.