LIBERTY, Mo. - The William Jewell men's basketball returns to Great Lakes Valley Conference action this week, hosting Drury (6-4). With the NCAA-II mandatory seven-day break ending later than normal, the first conference slate of 2025 is scheduled for Friday as opposed to the traditional Thursday evening.

CARDINAL NOTES

• Jewell is looking to get back on track after dropping their final four games in December, including three by less than 10. In their 2024 finale, the Cardinals rallied from down nine at Newman to take a second half lead but a late cold spell ended in a 63-55 defeat.   
• The Cardinal roster has taken a beating this winter, with as many as five key players out at same time, ranging back to November 26. The return of some of those players should provide much needed additional depth as early as the coming days. 
• The silver lining of the injury bug is the critical growth of younger players over the last month. Kanukayi Gudza and Bryce Mitchell have moved into starting roles over the last five games while Kaleb Becker, Ashton Jermain, Caden McGuire, and Josh Allen all played key minutes in December. 
• Along with inexperience will come some natural dips in production as Jewell has a scoring average of 62.5 points over the last five games while shooting 42% from the floor but just 30.5% from long range on the season.  
• Jordan Jermain has enjoyed a career for the ages, averaging 15.2 points over 119 games played. On December 17 at Newman he became the Cardinals all-time career leader in minutes played, surpassing former teammate and now assistant coach Mason Alexander. The duo have combined for more than 8,000 minutes on the court during their illustrious careers. 
• In the scoring category, Jermain remains No. 7 on the all-time chart, reaching the 1,800 mark at Newman. He now chases Lee Roark's (1968-72) 1,880 points for sixth all-time and is just 197 from becoming the fourth player in program history score 2,000 career points.  
• With the depletion of healthy bodies with collegiate experience, Jermain and Jason Thirdkill, Jr. have been relied upon heavily over the last month. The pair are both among the top-10 in the GLVC in scoring, free throws, and minutes at more than 34 per game. Jermain and Thirdkill, Jr. have averaged 22.2 and 16.8 points, respectively, over the last five games. 
• The youngsters are still finding their scoring stride but have taken care of the basketball like veterans. As a team, Jewell is first in the conference and third in Division II in turnovers per game, committing just 8.7 while forcing an average of nearly 13.  
• This winter McCabe beefed up the schedule with hopes of preparing his team for the postseason. The Cardinals will face off with 28 Division II opponents, one of only five schools in the GLVC to do so, including seven who are among the preseason national polls. 
• The William Jewell College men's basketball program is the second oldest in NCAA Division II, beginning in 1898 and trailing only West Chester by one year. With their win over Purdue Northwest on November 11, 2023 the Cardinals reached the 1,700 victory plateau, becoming the fifth program in Division II to do so, joining Central Washington, Northern State, McKendree and Central Missouri.