SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – It's NSIC action for the Augustana men's basketball team as it opens the conference slate Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. against Wayne State. The contest is the official home debut of Augustana inside the Sanford Pentagon although AU competed on the floor of Heritage Court in neutral-site games this past weekend.
 
Complete action can be followed on GoAugie.com/Live and the GoAugie app. The app can be downloaded in the app store or Google Play.
 
About the Wildcats
Wayne State enters with a 3-1 record after having won three-straight games since falling 91-78 in the season-opener against 2022 NCAA Tournament foe Southeastern Oklahoma State. The victories have come against Oklahoma Baptist (68-58), York (76-68) and Nebraska-Kearney (77-67). The contest with the Lopers was this past Saturday that saw Jordan Janssen score 25 points and secure nine rebounds and Nate Mohr tally 21 points.
 
The Wildcats were tabbed third in the Preseason NSIC Coaches' Poll while earning the unanimous nod atop the South Division poll. Most of that has to do with 2021 NSIC Player of the Year, Janssen, and his career average of 14.9 points and 8.9 rebounds per game.
 
In 2022-23, Janssen owns an average of 22 points and 10.3 rebounds per game while Mohr is at 16.8 points per outing. A third Wildcat, Justin Eagins, also reaches double-figure scoring as he pours in 11.8 points per game.
 
The two squads split the two meetings last season as Wayne State handed Augustana its first loss of the year on Nov. 23 in Wayne, America. Augustana returned the favor on Jan. 2 in a 71-55 victory in the Sanford Pentagon.
 
About the Vikings
Augustana is 2-2 after splitting this past weekend at the East/West Challenge. The Vikings roared past South Dakota Mines, 82-60, thanks to a career-high 24 points from Zac Johnson. The following day, the Vikings held the line with No. 10 Black Hills State but lost pace at the end of the game in the 82-73 setback. In that contest, Akoi Akoi recorded a career-best 18 points.
 
As will be the case for the season, newcomers will continue to step up for the new-look Vikings. Graduate transfer Ryan Miller leads AU in scoring with 13 points per outing. Johnson, behind his 24-point effort, averages 11.8 points over the first four games. Another newcomer, Jadan Graves, handles the point-guard duties while scoring 11 points, securing 5.3 rebounds and dishing 3.75 assists per outing. Akoi made his first career starts over the weekend and is also at double-digit points at 10 points per game.
 
The defending NSIC Champions have a completely new look in 2022-23 having graduated nearly 65% of its scoring output a year ago. With that, the NSIC coaches tabbed the Vikings to finish sixth in the overall preseason poll and fourth in the NSIC South Division.
 
One Last Thing
With how the NSIC schedule sets up year-after-year, 2022-23 marks the 10^th time in 11 seasons that Augustana has opened its conference slate with Wayne State. The lone year that the Vikings didn't open with Wayne State was the 2020 season where the entire NSIC schedule was revamped as part of the COVID-19 protocols.