CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. – The No. 5 Campbellsville men's basketball team will host Simmons College of Kentucky Monday night at 6 p.m. ET at the Powell Athletic Center. The game will be part of a double-header with Lady Tiger basketball, who will be facing Simmons at 4 p.m. ET.
 
The game will be aired on 88.7 FM The Tiger and WLCU-TV channel 10 as the voice of Tiger basketball, Matt Payton, will bring the action along with Zach Clements.
 
NUMBER FIVE IN THE NATION
In the first in-season NAIA Coaches' Top-25 Poll, the Tigers were ranked No. 5 in the nation on Dec. 4. The Tigers earned 189 voting points and earned one of the nine first-place votes. The No. 5 ranking is the highest since the Tigers spent three weeks as the No. 1 program in the country during the 2014-15 season. The Tigers are 17 points out of first place, while LSU Alexandria earned eight first-place votes and is No. 1. They're followed by The Master's University, Carroll College and William Penn University as Nos. 2-4.
 
LAST TIME OUT
One of the Tigers' worst offensive performances came away with one of the more memorable individual performances in CU's 90-53 win over Carver College last Friday night at the Lindsey Wilson Classic. One-third of the points scored by Campbellsville were scored by one man as senior guard Stephaun Adams tied his career-high with 30 points on 11-for-20 shooting from the field and 5-for-10 from distance. Adams was also an assist away from a double-double as well as an assist and three steals away from a triple double. The seven steals for Adams was a career-high and the nine assists was one shy of his career high of 10.
 
SCOUTING SIMMONS
Simmons, an NCCAA Division II team, is the second-straight winless team the Tigers will play as they are 0-7 so far on the season. They average 57.6 points per game and their leading scorer, Michaell Howell averages 11.7 points per game.
 
VERNON REACHES 50 WINS
Tiger men's basketball head coach Brent Vernon reached 50 career coaching wins last Saturday with CU's 103-62 win over Central Penn. Vernon, the seventh head coach in program history, is fourth in all-time wins in just his third season as head coach and will move to third with just four more wins. Vernon trails Lou Cunningham (335), Keith Adkins (322) and Travis Ford (54) at the moment for all-time wins.
 
ADAMS THE PLAYMAKER
After his second 30-point performance of the 2018-19 season and a near double-double, Tiger guard Stephaun Adams continues to solidify his role as the Tigers' playmaker.
 
Adams has been named Mid-South Conference Player of the Week twice this season in back-to-back weeks, first named on Nov. 19 then again on Nov. 26.
 
Throughout the season, Adams has been the offensive leader for the Tigers during the 2018-19 season. His averages of 21.3 points and 5.8 assists per game lead CU in those categories and he even averages 5.5 rebounds per game as a guard. He also has the highest individual game point total for any CU player this season when he dropped 30 against Allen on Nov. 24.
 
DECEMBER COOL DOWN
Along with the lowering temperatures, the schedule will severely cool off for Campbellsville during the month of December. After their game against Simmons, the Tigers will have a stretch of 18 days without a game during Winter break when they will not play again until Dec. 29. Dec. 29 and 30 will be their last non-conference games against Xavier University of Louisiana and Freed-Hardeman University in the University of the Cumberlands Classic.
 
SEASON OPENING STREAK
CU has started the 2018-19 season on a 12-game winning streak. That is their longest winning streak to start a season in 20 years when they started with a streak of 19-straight in the 1998-98 season. That season, the Tigers finished 29-3 but did not make the NAIA tournament. The Tigers are one of only one of three teams that are 11-0 and one of eight teams still undefeated so far in 2018-19. CU is also the only program that is undefeated in the Mid-South Conference through the non-conference schedule.
 
CATEGORY LEADERS
CU is in the top eight in the NAIA team rankings in the following stat categories.
 
- 2nd in total assists (242) and total 3-pt FG (143)
 
- 3rd in total scoring offense (1180)
 
- 4th in 3-pt FG Pct (42.4%), 3-pt FG per game (11.9) and scoring offense per game (98.3)
 
- 5th in defensive rebounds per game (33.6) and assist to turnover ratio (1.6)
 
- 6th in scoring margin (27.4) and total rebound offense (527)
 
- 8th in field goal percentage (51.9) and assists per game (20.2)
 
UNDERRATED DEFENSE
With many gaudy offensive numbers, the Tigers' defense has flown under the radar as CU may now be hitting their defensive stride in the 2018-19 season. Led by on ball pressure from Stephaun Adams and rim protection from Andrew Smith, the Tigers are 27th in the nation allowing 70.9 points per game. That average has dropped significantly after back-to-back games giving up 62 and 53 points. Adams is the NAIA leader in total steals (31) and eighth in steals per game (2.6). Smith is fourth in the country in blocks per game (2.6) and eighth in total blocks (23) even though he missed three games at the start of the season.
 
HOME GAMES ON CU SPORTS NETWORK
All Tiger basketball home games will be streamed on the CU Sports Network on campbellsvilletigers.com as well as the home games in the Mid-South Conference schedule being aired on WLCU-TV. Even if anyone won't be able to make it out to the Powell Athletic Center for CU home games, you can watch the Tigers play all of their home games for free on our athletics website. New this season on the CU Sports Network will be the inclusion of four-camera broadcasts as we attempt to bring a more in-depth, professional broadcast feel to basketball games during the 2018-19 season.
 
TYLER MOVING ON UP
Senior Guard Hagen Tyler currently has 1,587 points scored in his CU career, good for seventh place all time in program history. Hagen entered the top-10 in scoring all-time in CU history in the season opener against Kentucky Christian. He has moved up three spots since then, two spots in two games as he passed Marcio Kardosh with his 20-point game on Nov. 23 then followed it up with 21 the next night to pass Ramont Smith.
 
MID-SOUTH CONFERENCE IN THE RANKINGS
Along with Campbellsville being near the top of the NAIA Coaches' Top-25 at No. 5 overall, Georgetown, Pikeville and Cumberlands remain in the top-25 but have dropped since their original placements in the preseason poll. Georgetown moved from No. 4 to No. 9, Pikeville moved from No. 8 to No. 16 and Cumberlands moved from No. 16 to No. 21. Also at the start of the season, Lindsey Wilson was ranked No. 25 but has now fallen out of the top-25 and not even receiving votes.
 
UP NEXT
After their game against Simmons, the Tigers will have a much needed break of 18 days before getting back into action with their final two non-conference games against Xavier University of Louisiana on Dec. 29 and Freed-Hardeman on Dec. 30.