GAME NOTES: Four-time All-American guard Jason Gardner will make his head coaching debut on Friday, as his IUPUI Jaguars host the Indiana State Sycamores for a season-opening duel.

As the starting point guard for Lute Olsen's Arizona Wildcats, losses were a rare occurrence for Gardner. He has his work cut out for him if he hopes to continue his winning ways. The Jaguars finished last in the Summit League standings for the second straight season in 2013-14, finishing a lowly 1-13 in the league while finishing with the exact same woeful overall record as they did during the 2012-13 campaign (6-26). The poor season unsurprisingly brought an end to the Todd Howard (26-70 in three seasons) era, and the team ushered in Gardner, former Memphis and Loyola-Chicago assistant, as the new head coach.

IUPUI disappointed both offensively (66.4 ppg) and defensively (74.5 ppg) last season and has lost Ian Chiles (15.8 ppg), Mitch Patton (12.4 ppg, 5.6 rpg) and Ja'Rob McCallum (9.4 ppg) from last season's squad, but a new-look roster is likely the best thing for the program right now. Khufu Najee (9.9 ppg) and Marcellus Barksdale (8.6 ppg, 6.8 rpg, 3.7 apg) bring valuable starting experience to the table, and freshmen Aaron Brennan (6-6, 200), John Hubler (6-5, 185) and D.J. McCall (6-5, 180) are all anxious to make an immediate impact.

The visiting Sycamores lose some firepower from a squad that won 23 games last season and finished second in the MVC with a 12-6 league record. Gone are starters Jake Odum (13.1 ppg, 4.6 apg, 4.2 rpg), Manny Arop (109 ppg, 4.6 rpg) and Dawon Cummings (9.9 ppg). In fact, Odum was first-team all- conference each of the last two years and stands at No. 5 on the school's all- time scoring list. Coach Greg Lansing managed to lead ISU to the Missouri Valley Conference Championship game where it fell to No. 1 Wichita State and set a new school record with four consecutive seasons of 18 or more victories in 2013-14.

Making up for the loss of Odum will be difficult to overcome, but there is potential on the ISU roster. Khristian Smith (10.5 ppg, 4.3 rpg) became the first Sycamore to earn the Missouri Valley Conference's Sixth Man Of The Year Award last season. Senior forward Justin Gant (10.2 ppg, 3.8 rpg) has also proven himself as a capable scorer in the past. Lansing may need production out of one of his freshman guards, Brenton Scott, Alex Etherington or Laquarious Page, to keep his school record streak alive.

This one could go either way, as both programs are in a rebuilding mode. The Sycamores have built up a tradition of winning and an experienced adversary like Lansing may be too tall of a task for Gardner to take down in his debut.