Bears look to shake up MVC log jam Saturday at Drake

February 03, 2012|By Rick Kindhart, MSU Sports Information | cerwin@ky3.com

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - With just six games remaining on the 2011-12 conference slate, Missouri State takes to the road Saturday (7:05 p.m.) to battle the Drake Bulldogs in a pivotal Valley contest. Both teams are part of a four-team log jam (with Illinois State and Evansville) in a third-place tie in the MVC standings. Two more teams, Northern Iowa and Indiana State, sit at 5-7 headed into this weekend's action with just one game separating third and eighth place in the ever-competitive Valley race.
Playing once again without the services of the injured Caleb Patterson (Sr., C, Ames, Okla.), the Bears were undersized against Wichita State on Wednesday at JQH Arena. Shockers' big man Garrett Stutz took advantage of the situation, scoring 25 points and gathering 11 rebounds to lead WSU to a 74-67 victory. The Bears, who led 36-34 at the half, had four players in double figures, including 21 points by Kyle Weems (Sr., F, Topeka, Kan.) who knocked down 5 three-pointers, and 14 by Jarmar Gulley (Jr., G/F, Beaumont, Texas). Keith Pickens (So., G, St. Louis) also scored a career-high 12 off the bench for the Bears.
Drake has not won a game in regulation since Jan. 15 and has dropped 3-of-4 overall headed into the weekend. Four days after knocking of WSU in triple overtime, the Bulldogs shot just 33.3 percent from the field in a 61-54 loss at Indiana State on Wednesday. Rayvonte Rice scored 17 points and had 5 assists to lead DU, while Ben Simons added 13 points and 3 steals.

COACH Paul Lusk:

Paul Lusk (Southern Illinois, 1995) is 13-11 in his first season at MSU and 15-34 in two years overall. He is 6-6 in MVC play (3-4 at home, 3-2 on the road), 7-5 at JQH Arena, 6-4 on the road, and 0-2 at neutral sites. He is 1-0 against Drake (0-0 in DesMoines). Lusk is also 1-1 against Top 25 opponents.
Lusk took the reigns as MSU's 17th head coach on April 1, 2011. He came to Springfield after seven seasons at Purdue (2004-11), including the last three as associate head coach. Now in his 14th season in the coaching profession, Lusk has previous assistant coaching stops at Southwestern Illinois (1996-97), Missouri Southern (1999-2002) and Southern Illinois (2003-04) in addition to a one-year head coaching stint at (Div. III) Dubuque (2002-03). Lusk has coached in six of the last eight NCAA Tournaments after playing in three NCAA Tourneys as a player at SIU.

THE TEN COUNT:

Anthony Downing (Jr., G, Atchison, Kan.) is this week's MVC Newcomer of the Week. This is the third time he has been recognized with the honor this season and the sixth time the Bears have received the award in 2011-12. Downing also received the distinction on Nov. 14 and Jan. 2. He averaged 12.5 points per game with 5 three-pointers last week, including 16 points in the Jan. 28 home win over UNI. He registered 3 three-pointers, all in the second half, and was 3-for-3 at the free throw line against the Panthers. MSU improved to 4-1 when Downing scores 16 or more points.
The Bears are 8-1 on Saturdays this season, a stark contrast their 1-6 record in Wednesday contests.
Kyle Weems (Sr., F, Topeka, Kan.) had a streak of 22 straight free throws snapped in the Wichita State game Wednesday.
Missouri State will host Old Dominion from the Colonial Athletic Conference on Saturday, Feb. 18 in the 2012 SEARS BracketBusters in a nationally televised game on ESPNU, starting at 4 p.m. It will be the first-ever meeting between the Bears and Monarchs. The Bears are playing in one of 13 nationally-televised games in the 71-game event.
MSU has controlled the opening tip 10 times this year, including 5 times in Christian Kirk's (Fr., F, Springfield, Mo.) nine starts.
A total of 12 Division I teams have eight or more road wins this year. No BCS conference team has more than five, and three MVC teams have six or more, including Creighton (8), Wichita State (7) and Missouri State (6).
The Bears moved up two spots to No. 5 in the nation this week in turnovers per game (10.43), the best in the MVC. MSU trails only Wisconsin (8.9), Purdue (9.4), Northwestern (10.40) and Notre Dame (10.41) among the national leaders. Last season, MSU finished 7th among 336 Division I teams in fewest turnovers (10.3). (See sidebar on page 5)
Michael Bizoukas (Sr., G, Munster, Ind.), ranks No. 3 in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (+3.39) this week and 21st in assists (6.0). He leads the MVC in both categories and also needs 4 points for 300 in his career. (See sidebar on page 6).
In 126 career games, Kyle Weems (Sr., F, Topeka, Kan.) has led MSU in scoring 51 times (41 percent). He has also scored in double figures 103 times (82 percent), which is tied for the national lead among active Division I players with Alex Young of IUPUI. His current streak of 23 straight double-digit scoring games is the second-longest of his career (longest is 24 games).

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