GAME NOTES

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The Wagner-Kansas St. game will be also televised on FOX Sports Kansas City and will be available on DirecTV 672 and Dish Network 449. Fans will also be able to watch the contest on the ESPN Full Court package as well as ESPN360.com For more information on ESPN's Full Court package as well as ESPN360.com, fans should consult ESPN's website at http://proxy.espn.go.com/ncb/fullcourt/.

THE MATCHUP
Wagner (7-3), riding the throes of a two-game winning streak, travels to Kansas St. (8-3) for the second straight season and the Seahawks are hoping for better results than a year ago. The Seahawks are coming off wins over Brown and, most recently NJIT, a 68-58 road win on Sunday.

Led by current NBA players Michael Beasley and Bill Walker, the Wildcats thrashed Wagner 101-59 on Dec. 29, 2007. One of the lone bright spots for Wagner that afternoon was the play of guard Joey Mundweiler (Olathe, KS/ Olathe East) who scored a team-high 20 points in his return to his home state. 

THE MATCHUP
Wagner is 3-1 on the road thus far this season. Wagner is led in scoring by its quartet of seniors, led by 6-5 forward Jamal Smith (Baltimore, MD/ Towson Catholic), who checks in at 13.9 ppg. Mundweiler is next in scoring at 13.5 ppg. and has made a team-leading 30 three-pointers. Forward Llew Radford (Newport News, VA/ Heritage) and point guard Justin Drummond are averaging 13.0 and 9.0 points, respectively. A win over the Wildcats would match the best 11-game start for Wagner under sixth-year head coach Mike Deane. Last season, the Seahawks jumped out to an 8-3 start en route to school-record 23 wins (23-8 overall). Kansas St., a member of the powerful Big 12 Conference, is led in scoring by 6-0 sophomore guard Jason Pullen, who averages 14.4 ppg. while 6-1 junior guard Denis Clemente and 6-7 redshirt freshman forward Jamar Samuels average 12.2 and 10.2 ppg., respectively. The Wildcats employ a pressing, up-tempo system and are averaging 79.7 points per game while allowing just 61.5 points an outing, a scoring margin of 18.3 points.

THE COACHES
Wagner College head coach Mike Deane is in his 25th season as a head coach and his sixth as the head man of the Seahawks. He holds an overall coaching mark of 423-296, having eclipsed the 400-win plateau last season. His 416 wins entering the season ranked him 27th among all active coaches. In his sixth season at Wagner, Deane is 81-76 on Grymes Hill. In 2007-08, Wagner delivered a memorable and milestone season, recording that 23-8 overall record and a 15-3 mark in the NEC, which was good for second place. The 23 wins set a school record for most wins in a season, besting the old mark of 21 wins accomplished on three occasions, 1967-68, 1978-79 and 2002-03. Frank Martin is in his second season at Kansas St., having guided the Wildcats to a21-12 record, including a third-place finish in the Big 12 with a 10-6 mark last season. He became just the second rookie coach in school history to lead his team to the NCAA Tournament and the first since Lon Kruger did it in 1986-87, as the Wildcats advanced to the Big Dance for the first time since the 1995-96 season. Prior to taking over the reigns of the Kansas st. program, Martin served one season as an assistant under Bob Huggins, who accepted the West Virginia job following the 2006-07 season. Martin has also served as an assistant coach at Northeastern and Cincinnati.

WAGNER IN THE NEC
According to the latest NEC statistics (updated through games of Dec. 23), Wagner was No. 1 in the NEC in SEVEN statistical categories; scoring offense (71.0), scoring margin (+3.9), FG % (.474), FG % Defense (.409), 3-pt. FG % (.401), assists (15.67), and assist/TO ratio (0.96). 

Wagner-NJIT Recap (12/28)
Balanced scoring, led by a game-high 19 points from senior forward Jamal Smith, carried Wagner to a 68-58 victory over NJIT on Sunday. With the win, Wagner improved to 7-3 on the season while NJIT, which has now lost 45 straight games, fell to 0-12. Smith was one of four Seahawks to hit for double figures. Joining Smith in double digits were senior forward Llew Radford who finished with 13, while junior center Michael Orock and fifth-year senior guard Joey Mundweiler added 10 points apiece. Redshirt junior guard Doug Elwell dished out a career-high seven assists. Wagner built a comfortable 34-22 lead but the Highlanders opened the second half on a 25-12 tear to take its only lead of the game at 47-46 on a Paulius Skema free throw with 9:13 left to play. Wagner responded with a 12-2 run over the next 6:03, keyed by six points from Smith, to regain control of the game at 58-48 with 3:10 left to play.

Smith Climbing
Jamal Smith has now scored 1,043 career points to place 33rd overall in Wagner history. Smith enters the Kansas St. game with 485 career rebounds, just 19 shy of the 500-rebound mark. Smith has averaged19.5 points on 17-of-28 shooting (61%) in Wagner's last two games, leading the Seahawks to wins over Brown (12/21) and Kansas st. (12/28). Smith tallied 20 points on 8-of-15 shooting vs. Brown and followed up that effort with 19-point outing vs. NJIT where he shot 9-of-13 from the field.

Orock, Martin on Target
The junior center was a perfect 5-of-5 from the field vs. NJIT (12/28) and is shooting a team-best .636 from the floor. Freshman guard Chris Martin is second in the NEC in three-point shooting at 52.6%.

Murray is Efficient
Freshman guard Tyler Murray (Toronto, Ontario/Eastern Commerce) has 17 assists and just six turnovers. Against Brown (12/21), he registered career highs in minutes (21) and assists (4). 

Mundweiler Closing in on Milestones
Joey Mundweiler returns to his home state for the second straight season. A year ago, the Olathe native tallied a team-high 20 points vs. the Wildcats.
The 6-2 sharp-shooter is up to 988 career points, leaving him 12 points shy of the 1,000-point mark. He has also drained 244 three-pointers in his Seahawk career and is number two on the Wagner all-time list behind Dedrick Dye (1999-2003) who nailed 270 treys. Mundweiler has scored in double figures in eight straight games. For the season, Mundweiler has drained 30-of-72 three-poiners, a robust .417 clip.
Mundweiler's Brother to Don Green & White
The name Mundweiler will live on at Wagner next season when Danny Mundweiler becomes a Seahawk. At 5-10, 180 pounds, Danny is regarded as a true point guard who has the ability to make those around him better. He was named an Honorable Mention All-State performer in Class 6A by the
Topeka Journal at Olathe East High School in Olathe East, KS. Mundweiler guided his team to a 14-9 record as a junior and scored 14 points in a state playoff game. For the season, Mundweiler averaged 13 points per game while dishing out four assists per game.

“Danny's a heady player who sees the floor very well, is an excellent passer and has a burning desire to excel,” says Deane “He is, in many respects, the ultimate playmaker who obviously hails from an athletic family and is very familiar with our program and out style of play.”

“He acts like a point guard and thinks like a point guard,” said Olathe East High School coach Jim Super. “Danny watched his brother at Wagner. He saw the way Coach Deane handles his players, and he thought it was a great opportunity.”

Martin is Fearless
Freshman guard Chris Martin (Sicklerville, NJ/ Apex Academies) is not afraid to put up shots from anywhere and everywhere. The talented frosh is hitting 50% from beyond the arc in his first nine college games, having drained 11-of-22 three-pointers.