OPENING TIP: Dixie State (13-5/10-2 PacWest) continues its five-game homestand this Saturday night, Jan. 28, as the Trailblazers welcome in PacWest foe Hawai'i Hilo (6-10/4-6 PacWest) to the Burns Arena at 7:30 p.m.
The Trailblazers enter Saturday's game winners of two-straight and eight of their last nine games overall, while the Vulcans have dropped four of their last five games to begin the 2017 calendar year.
Dixie State will also be playing for a little bit of history on Saturday night as DSU Head Coach
Jon Judkins enters the game looking for career victory No. 500.
WEEK IN REVIEW: Dixie State opened its five-game homestand with a hard-fought 67-62 triumph over Azusa Pacific last Saturday night. After a back-and-forth first-half battle that featured six ties and seven lead changes, the Trailblazers managed to turn a 31-30 halftime lead into a 44-37 advantage just five minutes into the second half. DSU never surrendered the lead in the second half and even though the Cougars mounted a couple of late rallies, Dixie State hit some clutch shots down and made key stops on defense the stretch to come away with the victory.
DIXIE STATE ON THE AIR: All Dixie State home and away games will be broadcast live on ESPN Radio 97.7 FM, with DSU Assistant Media Relations Coordinator
Keric Seegmiller calling the play-by-play action, along with Devin Dixon providing color analysis for all home games. All DSU home games are also televised live on KCEC-TV (TDS Cable Channel 22) with a simulcast feed from ESPN Radio, with tape-delay rebroadcasts throughout the following week. In addition live-streaming audio and video (home games only) are available on the internet at
www.southernutahlive.com.
THE SERIES: Dixie State owns a 13-4 series lead over Hawai'i Hilo and has won 12 of its last 14 overall in the series after the Vulcans took two of the first three meetings during the 2007-08 season. Last season the Trailblazers claimed the only meeting between the two teams, a 97-79 road win in Hilo on Jan. 21, 2016. DSU is 8-1 all-time against UHH inside the Burns Arena and is riding a seven-game home court winning streak vs. the Vulcans overall.
REGIONAL RANKINGS: Dixie State remained in the No. 7 slot in the latest D2SIDA West Region top-10 poll, which was released on Monday. California Baptist (18-1/10-1 PacWest) remained on top in the region rankings, while fellow PacWest member Hawai'i Pacific (18-1/10-1 PacWest) moved up one spot to No. 4 in the poll. One interesting note, four of the 14 opponents Dixie State has faced to this point of the season are currently ranked in this week's region poll and played to a 2-2 record in those games.
COACHING STAFF: Five-time PacWest Conference Coach of the Year
Jon Judkins (Utah State, 1988; 499-234 career record) is in his 12th season on the Dixie State bench, where he has compiled a 215-106 overall record, including a 195-94 mark during DSU's NCAA Division II era, and a 132-38 record in PacWest play.
Last season, Judkins led Dixie State to an 18-9 overall record and a 15-5 PacWest mark, which was good for a t-first place finish in the league standings. In 2014-15, Judkins led DSU to a 20-8 record, including the program's fifth Pacific West title in six years with a 17-3 league mark, and DSU's sixth trip to the NCAA Tournament.
Prior to his arrival at Dixie State, Judkins served as head coach at Snow College for 12 full seasons and posted a 284-128 overall record. He led the Badgers to a pair of Scenic West Athletic Conference titles in 1999 and 2000, which earned him SWAC Coach of the Year honors. Judkins played for one season at Dixie State before transferring to Utah State, where he became the first (and only) Aggie to post a triple-double. During the 1987-88 season, he helped lead the Aggies to the PCAA title and an NCAA Tournament bid.
Judkins is joined on the bench by former DSU player
Kasey Winters (Dixie State, 2008), who is in his fourth season as assistant coach, and
Kevin Williamson (University of Great Falls, 2007) who is in his second season on the Trailblazer sideline.
INCHING CLOSER TO 500/200/300/100: Head Coach
Jon Judkins is inching closer to two more career milestones as the Trailblazers head into the stretch run in the 2016-17 season. Entering this Saturday's game, Judkins is one coaching victory shy of 500 for his career (499-234), including 195 NCAA Division II coaching victories, leaving him needing five more for 200 NCAA-era wins.
In addition, a DSU victory Saturday would be the program's 100th NCAA-era victory. DSU is now nine games away from playing in its 300th NCAA game, and could reach that milestone in its opening game of the PacWest tournament in March. In addition, DSU is four wins away from reaching the 200-win plateau in its 10-plus seasons of NCAA membership. Overall DSU has played to a 196-95 (.673) record since making the move to four-year competition at the start of the 2006-07 season.
TRAILBLAZERS PICKED THIRD IN THE PACWEST: Dixie State was picked to finish third in the 2016-17 Pacific West Conference preseason coaches' poll released on October 26. Defending PacWest tournament champion California Baptist received six first place votes and 179 total points in being tabbed as the PacWest preseason favorite, while defending regular-season champ Azusa Pacific collected five first-place nods to place second with 171 points.
DSU did not received a first-place vote in taking third with 161 points, followed by Concordia-Irvine (156, one first place vote) in fourth, Point Loma (140, one first place vote) in fifth, Chaminade (129) in sixth and Hawai'i Pacific (118) in seventh to round out the top-half of the poll.
Dixie State junior guard
Trevor Hill (Sandy, Utah/Alta HS) was named to the PacWest Preseason all-Conference team, while CBU senior guard Michael Smith was named the PacWest Preseason Player of the Year.
AGAINST NON-CONFERENCE OPPONENTS: Dixie State closed the non-conference portion of its 2016-17 slate at 3-3 and moved to 57-52 (.523) overall against non-PacWest opponents. Since joining the PacWest in the 2007-08 season, DSU is 46-38 (.547) against non-conference foes, while during DSU's first season of four-year competition in 2006-07, Dixie State recorded an 11-14 record as an independent.
DSU has posted five winning records in non-conference games over the past eight seasons, including a program-best 6-1 mark in 2013-14, and an 8-3 record in 2010-11.
HOME SWEET HOME: Since becoming an NCAA Division II program in 2006-07, Dixie State has played to a 99-21 (.825) record inside the Burns Arena under Head Coach
Jon Judkins, which includes a 7-0 mark this year. DSU has posted six 10-plus win seasons over that span, including a perfect 12-0 record in 2009-10, and an 11-1 mark last season. In PacWest play, the Trailblazers are a dominant 74-10 (.881) at home through its now nine-plus seasons of conference play.
With the home win over APU last Saturday, Dixie State also clinched its 10th-straight home winning season record.
HOME SWEET HOME, PART 2: For the sixth-straight year, Dixie State finished a season ranked in the top-six nationally in home attendance. In 2015-16, DSU recorded the sixth-highest home attendance average in Division II at 2,190 fans per game for 12 home dates last season, which was also tops in the PacWest Conference. In all, a total of 26,284 fans attended a DSU game inside the Burns Arena.
Since the 2008-09 season, Dixie State has been annually ranked in the top-15 in Division II in attendance, including being ranked #2-overall in 2012-13 and 2013-14, and #3 in the country in 2010-11 and 2011-12 campaigns. DSU was also ranked fifth in 2014-15, ninth in 2009-10, and 14th in 2008-09.
Dixie State also finished sixth among Utah's other NCAA (Division I) members in average attendance in 2015-16, behind Brigham Young (14,699), Utah (12,997), Utah State (8,874), Weber State (6,785) and Utah Valley (2,383).
HOW ABOUT WHEN THE BAGS ARE PACKED?: With its SoCal road split this past Jan. 14-16, Dixie State moved to 97-74 (.567) away from home in its Division II era under Head Coach
Jon Judkins, including a 6-5 record this season (6-3 road/0-2 neutral), and a 9-6 mark in 2015-16. Overall, the Trailblazers have played to a 77-56 record (.579) in true road games, and a 20-18 mark (.526) in neutral site games during Judkins' tenure.
DSU has won eight or more games away from home in seven- straight seasons, and in eight of its 10 D-II campaigns overall, including a program-best 15-5 record (10-2 in road contests) in 2010-11.
Dixie State also owns a 58-28 (.674) road record in its nine-plus seasons of PacWest league membership (5-2 this season). The Trailblazers have posted a winning conference road mark in seven-straight seasons and have reached the seven-win plateau in five of their last six league campaigns overall.
FREE BASKETBALL: Dixie State has played in 18 games so far this season and has already had a school-record five of those contests go into overtime, including DSU's OT home victory over Point Loma this past Dec. 19. DSU is 3-2 in overtime games this season, 2-1 in PacWest play, including a 104-103 loss at APU (12/10/16), and the Trailblazers' 82-76 overtime home win over Concordia-Irvine (12/3/16).
DSU also split a pair of overtime games at the Seattle Pacific tournament (11/18-19), which marked just the second time in the program's NCAA Division II era that the Trailblazers needed overtime in consecutive games to decide the outcome, though it was the first time in 10-plus seasons that DSU played two overtime games on back-to-back nights.
In the 2010-11 season, DSU played consecutive overtime games, both of which were double-overtime affairs, at BYU-Hawaii (W, 99-96 - 2/26/11) and at Hawai'i Pacific (L, 88-93 - 2/28/11), however there was a day off between those contests.
Dixie State's five overtime games this year eclipsed the previous program-high of four set in the 2013-14 season and tied for the first time last year.
In all, Dixie State has played in just 25 overtime games (15-10 overall) in 291 total contests in the program's NCAA Division II era. Three of those 25 games have gone to double-overtime, including the two Hawaiian results in 2010-11, and an 81-80 2OT victory at Concordia-Irvine last season (1/9/16).
FROM WAY DOWN TOWN....BANG!: Dixie State has hit at least one 3-pointer in 71-straight games and in 194 of its last 195 games overall, including a season-high eight treys vs. Sonoma State (11/25). In fact in DSU's Division II era, the Trailblazers have made at least one 3-pointer in 288 of the program's 291 games since the beginning of the 2006-07 season.
In the 2014-15 season, the Trailblazers saw their program-best 127-game streak stopped at home vs. Western Oregon (11/25/14) in the second game of the 2014-15 season. That streak encompassed four full seasons and the final 13 games of the 2009-10 campaign. The other two times DSU failed to connect from the perimeter happened on the road at Academy of Art (1/16/10), and at Notre Dame de Namur (2/2/08) during the program's first year of PacWest play.
Dixie State has reached double-figures in made 3-pointers 12 times, including a 2015-16 season-high 10 treys at Chaminade (1/23/16), and a school-record 13 3-pointers at Carroll College on Nov. 11, 2008.
TEAM NOTES: Dixie State has seen 16 of its 18 games to this point of the season decided by eight points or less, including the first 12 games of the year and last Saturday's game vs. APU ... the other two games, both of which resulted in DSU victories, were decided by nearly 20 points, including a 73-48 road win at NDNU (1/7) and a 78-59 home triumph vs. Dominican (1/11).
DSU has shot 50 percent or better in seven of its last 13 games overall, including a season-best 54.5 percent (36-of-66) at Azusa Pacific (12/10) and a 54.0 percent clip (27-of-50) at NDNU (1/7), though DSU struggled from the field in its last three games (41.0% at PLNU; 38.2% at CUI; 41.9 vs. APU) ... for the season Dixie State is shooting 45.3 percent from the floor (.302 3FG), while DSU is ranked
15th-nationally in field-goal percentage defense at 40.1 percent (.314 3FG -
#27-nationally).
While DSU's field goal shooting has been solid, the free throw shooting has not as the Trailblazers are just 64.9 percent from the line this season (339-of-522), though DSU did hit on 23-of-28 (.821) at the charity stripe (10-of-10 in the second half) in the win over Dominican (1/11), and 22-of-29 (.759) at CUI (1/16) ... Dixie State enters this weekend ranked
12th-nationally in free throw attempts (522) and
31st in free throws made (339).
DSU survived a school-record 19 missed free throws in the win at Fresno Pacific (1/3), only to bounce back with a season-high 85.7 percent outing (12-of-14) in the win at AAU (1/5) ... DSU's current 64.9 percent clip at the line is just over five points lower than its program-low 70.2 season percentage set in the 2011-12 campaign.
DSU's school record 31 turnovers vs. Concordia-Irvine (12/3) eclipsed the previous mark of 30 set on the road at Metropolitan State University of Denver (12/6/08) during the 2008-09 season ... on the flipside, DSU committed a season-low eight turnovers in the win over Dominican (1/11).
DSU posted defensive season-highs of nine steals and eight blocks vs. Dominican (1/11), including three blocks apiece for junior guard
Trevor Hill (Sandy, Utah/Alta HS) and senior forward
Marcus Bradley (Anaheim, Calif./Corona del Mar HS), which were career-highs for both players ... the eight blocks just missed tying the school record of nine set twice at home vs. Fresno Pacific (2/5) and BYU-Hawaii (2/23) during the 2012-13 season.
The Trailblazers pulled down a season-high 56 rebounds vs. CUI (12/3), which was the second-highest single game total in program history, and was the most since DSU had 55 boards at Point Loma nearly a year-to-the-day (12/5/15) ... The DSU team single-game school record for rebounds is 57, which happened twice in the 2013-14 season - both at home vs. Academy of Art (1/30/14) and again vs. Hawai'i Hilo (2/13/14) ... DSU is also ranked 14th-nationally in defensive rebounds at 29.1 rpg.
Hill continues to fill up the stat sheet as he makes his way up the DSU career records lists ... Hill has averaged 13.2 points, 6.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 1.5 blocks and 1.9 steals over his last four games, including 16 points, six boards, three assists and a career-high tying three blocks in the win at CUI (1/16).
Hill, who currently leads the team in scoring (14.4 ppg, 15th PWC), rebounding (7.1 rpg, T-7th PWC) and assists (5.1 apg, 2nd PWC), has moved into first place on DSU's career FTA list with 454 in just 72 games ... in fact, Hill leads the PacWest and is ranked
THIRD-NATIONALLY in FT attempts this season (167) ... In addition, Hill enters this week second all-time in career FT made (292), fourth in steals (89), fifth in rebounds (353) and assists (234), sixth in blocks (40), eighth PPG (11.5), points (842) and made FGs (263), and ninth in FG attempts (581) ... Hill was named PacWest POW after he averaged 21.5 points, 12.0 rebounds and 4.5 assists in the Trailblazers' split at the SPU tourney Nov. 18-19.
Junior guard
Brandon Simister (St. George, Utah/Desert Hills HS) enters the week third on the team in scoring at 11.9 ppg - 13.0 ppg in PacWest play, and has scored in double figures in eight of his last 10 starts overall, including a game-high 15 points in the home win over APU (1/21) and a season-high 23 points at APU (12/10) ... Simister hit 7-of-10 from the floor with a career-high tying five 3-pointers in the APU road game, while his 23 points at APU was one-point shy of tying his career-high of 24 set last season in a win at Chaminade (1/23/16) ... Simister is second on the team in assists (61; 3.4 apg) and is averaging 3.5 dimes a game over his last eight starts.
Sophomore forwards
Dub Price (Draper, Utah/Alta HS) and
Quincy Mathews (St. George, Utah/Desert Hills HS) just missed scoring in double figures with nine points apiece in the win over APU (1/21) as part of a balanced DSU scoring attack ... Price's nine points tied his career high, which was set in DSU's road win at PacWest lead California Baptist (12/8), while Mathews just missed out reaching double figures for the fifth time this season ... Mathews, who scored 10 points in 19 reserve minutes in the Dominican win (1/11), is averaging 8.2 ppg and 5.7 rpg in 13 games this season ... Mathews earned CCAA/PacWest Challenge All-Tourney team honors after he posted his first two collegiate double-doubles to open the 2016-17 season ... Mathews tallied 10 points and a career-high 11 rebounds at UC San Diego (11/11), and followed that up with a career-high 15 points and 10 boards vs. Cal Poly Pomona (11/12).
Junior guard
Kyler Nielson (Cedar City, Utah/Cedar HS) has started in the last 12 games and has made the most of it as he has averaged 9.1 ppg during this current stretch, including a 13-point night at FPU (1/3) ... Nielson poured in a career-high 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting with two rebounds, and a career-best two blocks in 37 minutes at APU (12/10), which came on the heels of a 14-point night on 6-of-11 from the floor in the win at CBU (12/8) ... Nielson made his first collegiate start in the win over Concordia-Irvine (12/3) and he responded with 13 points and a career-high eight rebounds ... he scored six of his 13 points in the overtime period and connected on 7-of-9 from the foul line on the night ... Nielson enters the weekend averaging 7.7 points and 3.9 rebounds while shooting 49.4 percent (40-of-81) from the floor.
Sophomore F/C
Austin Montgomery (Gainesville, Ga./Lakeview Academy) has started in six of the last seven games, though he came off the bench vs. APU after battling an illness last week, and has averaged 6.4 points and 5.4 rebounds in those outings ... Montgomery scored nine points and pulled down a career-high tying eight boards vs. Dominican (1/11) and tallied a career-high 12 points on 5-of-9 shooting with six caroms at Academy of Art (1/5) ... Montgomery played a career-high 21 minutes at Point Loma (1/14) and responded with eight points and eight boards ... Montgomery has also showed some range as he has connected on 2-of-3 from the perimeter, including a first-half 3-pointer at CUI (1/16).
Senior forward
Marcus Bradley (Anaheim, Calif./Corona del Mar HS) was named PacWest Defender of the Week Monday after he averaged 9.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, 2.0 blocks and 0.5 steals last week ... he pulled down a career-high nine rebounds to go with six points, two blocks and an assist in 24 minutes off the bench in Dixie State's 67-64 road win at Concordia-Irvine Jan. 16. Bradley then made his first start of the season in the Trailblazers' 67-62 home win over Azusa Pacific Saturday and responded with 12 points, seven rebounds, two blocks, one steal and two assists in 24 minutes.
Overall, the DSU bench has averaged 23.5 points over the last seven games, including 30 reserve points in the Dominican win (1/11) ... in addition to Mathews, Bradley (6.3 ppg/3.2 rpg) has anchored the bench effort as he has averaged 8.4 points over the last seven games, including eight points vs. Dominican (1/11), nine points at FPU (1/3), followed by an 11-point effort on 5-of-7 shooting at AAU (1/5).
Overall the Trailblazer bench is averaging 20.6 ppg through the first 18 games, including a season-high 46 bench points vs. Central Washington (11/18) ... Bradley (14 pts) and sophomore guard
Brandon Miller (Sandy, Utah/Brighton HS) (16 pts) accounted for 30 of the 46 points.
ABOUT THE HAWAI'I HILO "VULCANS": Hawai'i Hilo enters Saturday's game looking to halt a current stretch that has seen the Vulcans drop four-of their last five, including home losses to Holy Names (85-89; 1/19) and Hawai'i Pacific (88-102; 1/21) last weekend. The Vulcans do boast the PacWest's second-leading scorer in senior guard Parker Farris, who leads four UHH players averaging double figures at 23.3 ppg. As a team UHH is averaging 79.3 ppg on 43.4 percent shooting while allowing 81.2 ppg.
UP NEXT: Dixie State begins the final month of the 2016-17 regular season at home with two more home games against visitors from the Hawaiian Islands. DSU will welcome in BYU-Hawaii for the Seasiders' final visit to St. George on Thursday, Feb. 2, followed by a date vs. Chaminade on Saturday, Feb. 4. Both games will be played in the Burns Arena beginning at 7:30 p.m.
