In honor of tradition, Central Michigan men's basketball will host rivals Western Michigan for its toilet paper toss game, marking its third consecutive year being played. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 25.

The toilet paper toss tradition started during the 1982-1983 season but was quickly scrapped, only coming back a few times to honor significant milestones for the men's basketball program.

Notably the tradition returned to CMU in 2004 to celebrate the 100th season of Central Michigan men's basketball, and more recently in 2023 to pay tribute to the 40-year anniversary of the first toilet paper toss game.

After the 2023 toilet paper toss broke the McGuirk Arena attendance record with 5,425 people in the crowd, Central Michigan athletics decided to renew the tradition for the 2024 season where it once again drew a sizeable crowd of 5,032.

How to secure tickets

According to the CMU athletic website, student tickets are being distributed on a first come first serve basis, with 1,200 student tickets being allotted for the event.

In order to attend the game, students can claim a ticket through the Maroon and Gold Rewards prize store on the CMU Athletics mobile app. Student tickets have since gone down to 50 points, which can be earned by logging into the app daily or attending other CMU Athletics' events.

Students who have claimed a ticket may pick up a physical copy from Ticket Central in the Kulhavi Events Center atrium any time from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on any day Monday to Friday. The first 250 student ticket holders will receive a free meal courtesy of Buffalo Wild Wings.

General admission tickets and single-game parking passes in lot 62W are also available online at www.cmuchippewas.com or by stopping by Ticket Central.

With the theme being a whiteout, white pompoms and rolls of toilet paper will be distributed to anyone with tickets upon entrance. All toilet paper is set to be recycled after the throw.

The Opponent

Western Michigan sits at 5-13 on the season, posting a 2-4 record in the Mid-American Conference. The Broncos are 2-1 in its last three games after shaking off a seven-game losing streak that stretched from Dec. 3 to Jan. 11.

The rivaling school from Kalamazoo is led in scoring by junior guard Chansey Willis Jr, who has recorded an average of 16.2 points, 5.2 assists and 4.3 rebounds per game.

Through 18 games, WMU has averaged 72.6 points per game while allowing 76.5, ranking ninth in the MAC in both total offense and defense.

Western Michigan enters as one of the top rebounding teams in the Mid-American conference, averaging 38.8 rebounds per game, which may cause problems for a CMU team that has struggled with injuries at the forward and center position.

Keys to victory

The key for the Chippewas to come out on top in Saturday's contest is limiting mistakes and continuing to dominate defensively. Defensively CMU ranks second in the Mid-American Conference in opponents points per game, holding its foes to only 70.7 points per game.

The squad from Mount Pleasant enters Saturday's game with questions about what the starting five will look like with injury problems at the forward position and forward Ugnius Jarusevicius having missed Tuesday's contest with Ball State.

The guard tandem of Jakobi Heady and Anthony Pritchard has continued to improve as MAC conference play has continued with Heady leading the team offensively with 13.8 points per game.

If Central Michigan is able to continue its dominant defensive efforts and allow its star guards to heat up in place of an injured forward position, CMU should be able to close out a win in the first game of a two-game series between the two rivals.

The details:

Central Michigan (8-10) versus Western Michigan (5-13)

Time: 7 p.m. ET

Date: Saturday, Jan. 25

Stadium: McGuirk Arena

Location: Mount Pleasant

TV: ESPN+