The start of the 2006-07 basketball season is at hand with the Bears of coach Barry Hinson and the Lady Bears of coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson scheduled to begin formal workouts this weekend. Both Missouri State teams look to build on successful 2005-06 campaigns that saw each reach postseason play.
Practice starts Saturday for both teams, with the Lady Bears working out at Hammons Student Center while the Bears will conduct practice off-campus. After a busy opening weekend of drills, the normal weekday routine will begin Monday, as the Lady Bears will practice in the main arena of Hammons daily from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. while the Bears will be on the floor from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Weekend schedules will vary for both teams during the preseason.
Both the Bears and Lady Bears have been through extensive conditioning programs since the start of the Missouri State fall semester, and the players have also been working in individual drills prior to the start of organized team functions.
Missouri State, now entering its 25th year of Division I competition, has had one or both of its basketball teams in postseason play 21 years in a row.
Having compiled an 88-40 overall record with two regular season Missouri Valley Conference titles, three trips to the NCAA Tournament and the 2005 Women’s National Invitation Tournament championship in her first four years at Missouri State, Abrahamson-Henderson must replace a veteran nucleus that led a late-season charge to the State Farm MVC Tournament title and accounted for 68 percent of the Lady Bears’ offense a year ago. With just five letterwinners returning, the young Lady Bears will look to a trio of juniors for veteran leadership on a roster dominated by underclassmen.
Tiff Terwelp, a 6-2 forward, is the most experienced Lady Bear and top returning rebounder from last season when she pulled down 5.6 boards a contest while posting 8.0 points a game. She started 28 of her 33 games as a freshman and 25 of 32 contests last season and her breakthrough year in 2005-06 provided the backbone for the Lady Bears’ inside attack. Point guard Tahnee Balerio was a key performer off Abrahamson-Henderson’s very short bench much of last season and has far and away the most experience on the perimeter. Balerio started 13 contests, saw the team struggle when she missed six games with a mid-season hand injury, then played a starring role in the Lady Bears’ post-season run, picking up MVC all-tournament honors. The 5-6, Buhler, Kan., native finished the season with averages of 8.2 points, 2.3 rebounds and 3.3 assists a game. Forward Brandi Johnson was expected to be a key contributor a year ago after a standout two-year stint at Panola JC, but missed all of the 2005-06 season after suffering a knee injury during the preseason. Johnson averaged 18.3 points and 10.6 rebounds per contest to earn a spot on the NJCAA All-America second team after leading the Fillies to a 29-5 record and top10 national ranking as a sophomore.
The Lady Bears will kick off the regular season on Saturday, Nov.11, against Iowa in the WBCA Preseason Classic at Municipal Auditorium in Kansas City, Mo. before opening the home portion of their schedule on Monday, Nov. 20, when Arkansas State pays a visit to Hammons Student Center.
On the men’s side, Hinson enters his eighth year guiding the men’s program with a record of 130-90 (166-113 in nine seasons overall) having put together two 20-win campaigns and six winning seasons since his arrival in Springfield. He has directed the Bears to the finals of the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament three times and into the National Invitation Tournament three times as 2006-07 approaches.
Hinson’s teams have watched their win totals improve steadily in recent seasons, with two seasons of 17 wins, two of 19 and last year’s 22 victories over the past five seasons. Last year’s team had the 21st best RPI in the nation and the 22-9 Bears reached the quarterfinals of the NIT for the third time in school history in a league which had six 20-win, postseason tournament clubs among its 10 members.
There are two very strong factors which would seem to be in the Bears’ favor as they look ahead to 2006-07. The first is a deep, talented and experienced roster which has been through the wars in one of the nation’s best conferences. The second is the very strong motivation to prove that last year’s season was not a fluke and that the Bears’ non-NCAA selection was an oversight.
The key features of the last three Bear ballclubs have been good athletes up and down the roster, good depth and exceptional balance from performers who worked hard to achieve notable successes in the areas of rebounding and defense.
The 2006-07 club figures to fall right into the same mold.
Last year’s nucleus was a nine-man unit of virtually interchangeable parts. It was the first team in school history on which nine different players tallied 100 or more points for the season.They all played, they all played a lot and the selflessness and balance they found made the whole much better than the sum of its parts.
Seven of last year’s top nine return. All-Valley first team guard Blake Ahearn, workhorse low post Nathan Bilyeu and all-purpose guard Tyler Chaney are the team’s three senior captains. Ahearn averaged 16 points a game last season and this year will bid to do something that’s never been done in NCAA Division I history: Lead the nation in an individual statistical category four years in a row. Ahearn has been the nation’s top free throw marksman as a freshman, sophomore and junior.
Bilyeu finds ways to get points and rebounds in the heavy traffic around the goal and led the Bears on the boards last year with 6.5 a game while scoring 9.0 a contest. Chaney causes matchup problems on both ends as a big, strong 6-5 guard who can shoot, rebound and play defense. He averaged 8.8 points a year ago.
The Bears will open the regular season with home contests against Delaware State on Sunday, Nov. 19 and Lincoln on Tuesday, Nov. 21 before taking part in the South Padre Island Classic against the likes of Wisconsin, Auburn and Oklahoma State over the Thanksgiving break. The Bears will also host the Price Cutter Classic (Nov. 30-Dec. 2) once again in 2006-07, featuring Alabama State and Santa Clara, as well as a non-conference match-up with defending Horizon League champion Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Dec. 6) before kicking off the conference portion of their schedule.
The start of practice signals the arrival of several other preseason events:
MVC Media Day: Missouri Valley Conference Basketball Media Day will be at the St. Louis Renaissance Grand Hotel, Monday, Oct. 30. Hinson, Abrahamson-Henderson and selected players from both MSU teams will join the league’s other head coaches and players in a preseason assessment of the upcoming campaign. The 2006-07 Missouri State media guides will be distributed at MVC Media Day. An 11:45 a.m. combined luncheon will follow the morning media sessions.
MVC Centennial Gala: The MVC’s Centennial Gala will take place on Sunday, Oct. 29 at The Sheldon Concert Hall in St. Louis, Mo. The event will commemorate the Valley’s 100th anniversary and include multi-media presentations and interviews with league greats and culminate with the formal induction of Lady Bear great Jackie Stiles into the MVC Hall of Fame. Stiles remains the only MVC women’s basketball player to earn league most valuable player honors three consecutive seasons (1999 to 2001). An academic All-America choice in 2001, she received first-team All-MVC and All-America honors all four seasons at MSU and led the Lady Bears to the 2001 Final Four. Tickets to the event are $50 and can be purchase through the MVC’s website (mvc-sports.com).
Meet The Bears Night: The Missouri State Bears and Lady Bears will make their first public appearances on Saturday, Oct. 28, in Hammons. The basketball event will follow a 6 p.m. volleyball match between Missouri State and Belmont. Players and coaches on both basketball teams will be introduced and each squad will hold a brief scrimmage. There will be posters, schedule cards and other items available for fans. Players and coaches will be available to sign autographs.
Exhibitions: Each Missouri State squad will have two exhibition games before the start of the regular season. The Bears will entertain Truman State on Nov.1 and Upper Iowa on Nov. 6. The Lady Bears play host to Arkansas Tech on Nov. 2 and Pittsburg State on Nov. 5. There will be no radio broadcasts of the four exhibition games.
