Paul Lusk

Paul Lusk has been hired as the head coach of the Missouri State University men's basketball team. Lusk comes to the Bears from Purdue University, where he served as assistant head coach. Lusk replaces Cuonzo Martin, who left MSU last week to become head coach at the University of Tennessee. Ironically Martin was also an assistant at Purdue before coming to MSU so Lusk is literally following in Cuonzo's footsteps. Lusk will be introduced at a news conference Saturday (April 2)

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Missouri State returns to JQH Arena Sunday at 2 p.m. to battle Bradley in a pivotal home game for the Bears who have reeled off a pair of road wins in the last week. Paul Lusk's squad begins a three-game week after winning three of its last four games overall. The Bears have maintained a share of third place in the MVC standings after recent victories on the road over Drake (57-39) and Southern Illinois (56-54) have pushed the Bears' ledger to 15-11 overall and 8-6 in the MVC which is tied with Illinois State for the league's third-best mark.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - The Missouri State Bears wrap a two-game conference road swing on Wednesday when Coach Paul Lusk returns to his alma mater to take on the Southern Illinois Salukis in another key Missouri Valley Conference battle. MSU is coming off its seventh road win of the season on Saturday at Drake.  The Bears forced 14 turnovers and held the Bulldogs to just 27.3 percent shooting in a decisive 57-39 victory. Kyle Weems (Sr., F, Topeka, Kan.) had a game-high 17 points and 7 rebounds with 3 three-pointers, while Anthony Downing (Jr., G, Atchison, Kan.)

NIXA, Mo. -- The Willard Tigers gave the fans at Nixa something to cheer for on Thursday night, as the Tigers overcame several deficits and a horrendous start to come back and defeat Kansas City Hogan Prep 74-71.  The game remained in doubt until the final buzzer sounded, as Willard got a huge rebound on a Hogan Prep desperation three pointer to seal the win.  Hogan Prep looked like a team on their way to an easy victory in the first quarter, as...

ST. LOUIS -- Missouri State men's basketball players Isaiah Rhine (Sr., C, Versailles, Mo.) and Nathan Scheer (So., F, Washington, Mo.) have been named to the Missouri Valley Conference Scholar-Athlete Team, the league announced this week. Both MSU players earned a spot on the second team. Rhine has a 3.75 grade point average working on his graduate degree in Speech and Language Pathology. He played in 105 games as a Bear, scored 189 points and grabbed 153 rebounds. He made 7 career starts, including a pair this season.

SPRINGFIELD -- Five Missouri State players scored in double figures, including three freshman, as the Bears secured an 89-61 win over visiting Philander Smith here Friday in the season opener for MSU. Freshman standouts Gavin Thurman, Marcus Marshall and Drew Wilson led the way for MSU which won its 10th straight home opener. Thurman scored 19, Marshall added 16, and Wilson had 12 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Christian Kirk (14) and Anthony Downing (12) also posted double figures for Missouri State.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Headed by Missouri State University athletics director Kyle Moats, a search committee is meeting behind closed doors to choose the Bears' new head men's basketball coach.  And, while Moats has stated that no information will be released to the public, there are obviously some high-profile names out there that circulate whenever a coaching position comes up, just like Cuonzo Martin's name kept surfacing in all the major college openings...

SPRINGFIELD -- Missouri State (11-6, 4-1) used impressive free throw shooting and solid rebounding to hold off visiting Southern Illinois here Tuesday, 77-65, as the Bears held on to a share of the Missouri Valley Conference lead with fellow front-runners Creighton and Wichita State. Jarmar Gulley scored a game-high 18 points to lead four MSU players in double figures.  Kyle Weems added 16 points for the Bears, while Caleb Patterson posted 15 in his return to the floor after missing two games with a concussion.

    SPRINGFIELD -- Missouri State (9-5, 2-0) shot a season-best 60.4 percent from the field and got 22 points from a red-hot Kyle Weems here Saturday afternoon to turn back Drake, 72-61, in Missouri Valley Conference play. It was a league-best eighth straight conference win for the Bears who also got 14 points from Jarmar Gulley and 11 from Anthony Downing. Weems, who scored 31 points in Wednesday's win at No. 19 Creighton, was 10-for-12 from the field with a game-high 9 rebounds.

  While the Dallas Mavericks were wrapping up their first NBA title this weekend, Missouri St. basketball fans were getting a chance to see some future Bears around town.     New head coach Paul Lusk along with his wife and two children appeared at the Springfield Cardinal baseball game on Saturday night where Lusk threw out the first pitch.     At the same time across town at Baptist Bible College, incoming Bear freshman Christian Kirk, a 6-7 forward, was playing in the Lions Club All-Star Game, where he scored 19 points and helped the Springfield city team beat all-stars from the outlying area, 100-72.  Kirk, who was not allowed to play varsity basketball during his senior season after a transfer eligibility ruling from the Missouri State High School Activities Assocation, said he didn't think the year away from varsity high school basketball would effect his college career.

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Missouri State senior Caleb Patterson (C, Ames, Okla.) recently returned from Europe where he spent part of August touring with a Global Sports Academy team and gaining invaluable experience playing against teams of European professionals. "I felt like I played good over there," Patterson said. "I felt like I can play with anybody if I just go out and do it. " Patterson started three of the five games in Belgium, Great Britain and The Netherlands and averaged double figures in scoring during those games, including a team-high 14 points in the final game of the tour.  Over the course of the five-game tour, Patterson averaged 8.0 points per game.

SPRINGFIELD - Missouri State University Director of Athletics Kyle Moats has announced that the Missouri State men's basketball team will officially raise its 2010-11 Missouri Valley Conference regular-season championship banner during ceremonies at JQH Arena on Saturday, Nov. 19.  The Bears will host Emporia State that night in their first regular-season home game of the new year.  The match-up with Emporia State also completes the non-conference...

Paul Lusk has been hired as the head coach of the Missouri State University men's basketball team. Lusk comes to the Bears from Purdue University, where he served as assistant head coach. Lusk replaces Cuonzo Martin, who left MSU last week to become head coach at the University of Tennessee. Ironically Martin was also an assistant at Purdue before coming to MSU so Lusk is literally following in Cuonzo's footsteps. Lusk will be introduced at a news conference Saturday (April 2)