There is an assortment of positive news circulating around the IPFW men's basketball program today.

After opening its season Sunday with a 75-46 drubbing at Wisconsin, the Mastodons (0-1) return home to begin their home season at 7 p.m. today at Memorial Coliseum against NAIA program Madonna (0-4).

The IPFW coaches and players feel good about coming home, particularly since they won't be playing a a Big Ten power. Also, the team is getting a 6-foot-8-inch jolt of energy for tonight's contest.

Senior Deilvez Yearby will return to the starting lineup after sitting out Sunday's game against the Badgers due to violating an unspecified team rule.

“Deilvez has served his sentence and he'll be back (tonight),” Mastodon coach Dane Fife said.

Yearby, a Summit League Pre-season second team selection, was sorely missed Sunday, as Fife had to start 6-foot-5-inch Antwone Snead in the post against the much larger Badgers.

IPFW also started 6-foot-10 Trey McCorkle, as it did much of last year; however, as he was much of last year, McCorkle was plagued with foul problems Sunday.

“When we actually executed the game plan (against Wisconsin), we did all right,” Fife said. “It was when we had breakdowns that problems happened.”

A big problem Sunday was the fact that IPFW struggled to shoot the ball. The Dons connected on just 34 percent of their shots, including a frigid 3 of 13 from long range. The only remedy that Fife could muster following Sunday's game to fix that problem was to “not play Wisconsin.”

A bright spot for Fife's team was the offensive production of Jeremy Mixon. The sophomore guard led his team with 17 points against the Badgers.

Though Fife blamed the Badgers for his team's ineptness from the field Sunday, he did put his team through drills Monday to try aid in their recovery.

“We did some shooting and we worked on our spacing,” Fife said of Monday's workout.

The return of Yearby will certainly help the Dons, however, with forwards John Peckinpaugh “out indefinitely” according to Fife, as well as Aaron Richie, both on the bench with injuries, IPFW will have to rely on first-year players Snead, Oleg Kovalov and Ethan Peabody up front.

A familiar face will be suiting up for Madonna in tonight's clash.

Woodlan graduate Josh Gay is a redshirt sophomore for the Crusaders and has made a solid contribution in their four games this season.

After starting 18 times last year, Gay is scoring nine points per outing this season, including a season-high 20.

The 6-foot guard is also dishing out 1.75 assists per game.