The Missouri State Bears open their 2007-08 home season Friday (Nov. 16) when they host the Harding University Bisons at 8:05 p.m. in Hammons Student Center in the second game of the 21st annual Price Cutter Classic. The Price Cutter Classic schedule:
Friday, Nov. 16 Texas-Pan American vs. UNC Greensboro 5:35 p.m.
Harding vs. Missouri State 8:05 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 17 Texas-Pan American vs. Harding 5:35 p.m.
UNC Greensboro vs. Missouri State 8:05 p.m.
  Missouri State has begun its 96th season of intercollegiate basketball and the Bears are coming off a 22-11 season which saw them finish third in the Missouri Valley Conference regular season race with a 12-6 Valley mark, reach the semifinals of the State Farm MVC Tournament and play in the National Invitation Tournament. It was the Bears’ third straight NIT appearance. This season will be the Bears’ third year as Missouri State (previously Southwest Missouri State).
  The Bears dropped their season opener 57-53 Saturday (Nov. 10) at the University of Toledo. Harding will be in its season opener at Hammons Friday night. The Bisons are a member of the Division II Gulf South Conference and were 17-12 overall in the 2006-07 season.
 Missouri State has a busy non-league slate that will see the Bears visit five states before Christmas. After this weekend’s Price Cutter Classic at Hammons, Missouri State plays at Winthrop, Arkansas and Utah between Thanksgiving and Christmas and has home dates with Saint Louis (11/21) and UNC-Wilmington (12/5). The Bears then play four games in the exempt Findlay Toyota Las Vegas Classic, hosting UTPA Dec. 17 and Bethune-Cookman Dec. 19 in Hammons. The team heads west for the semifinals and finals of the event at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., Dec. 22-23. MSU plays Alabama in the semifinals and the other semifinal event pits Purdue and Iowa State. The Bears open Missouri Valley Conference play Dec. 30 at defending league champ Southern Illinois and the team’s only remaining non-conference game is a home test in an O’Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters test in Hammons either Feb. 22 or 23, with the opponent to be announced in early February.
 Hammons Student Center Farewell, JQH opens next year: The 2007-08 season is the Bears’ 32nd and final season of basketball in Hammons Student Center. The new $67 million, 11,000-seat JQH Arena is being constructed just east of HSC and is expected to be ready for the opening of the 2008-09 Missouri State Bears and Lady Bears basketball season.
 The Coaches: Barry Hinson (Oklahoma State, ’83) is 152-102 in his ninth year at Missouri State and 188-125 in his 11th year as a college head coach. He’s 0-0 vs. Harding. Hinson is fifth on the all-time Missouri State coaching win list and is the sixth MSU coach to record 100 wins with the Bears.
 Jeff Morgan (West Texas A&M, ’89) is 236-157 in his 14th year at Harding and 253-167 in his 15th year overall as a college head coach. He is 0-0 vs. Missouri State.
 Series Record: 0-0; first basketball meeting between Missouri State and Harding.
 Affiliation: Missouri State is in its 26th year in Division I and 18th in the MVC. The Bears are 487-282 in Div. I and 183-121 in regular season Valley play since 1990. MSU has been second five times and third five times in its best MVC finishes. MSU had eight straight 20-win, postseason tourney teams (1986-93), with three NIT clubs and five NCAA teams in that span. The Bears returned to postseason play in the 1997 NIT, and in 1999 had their first NCAA trip since 1992, advancing to the Sweet 16. The Bears upset Wisconsin and Tennessee and fell to top-ranked Duke in the East regional semifinals. MSU got to the second round of the NIT in both 2000 and 2005 and Missouri State reached the NIT quarterfinals in 1986, 1993 and 2006.
 All-Time: The UNI game 1/11/04 was the 1,400th win in Bears’ basketball history. The 1,300th was 11/18/98 at Missouri and the Bears’ 2,000th game was 1/13/99 vs. Bradley. This is the 96th season of Bear basketball. MSU is 1,472-790 (.651) all-time; 27th among Division I schools in all-time wins and 13th in all-time winning percentage. The Bears have had 76 winning seasons, 15 losing years, four seasons at .500, 26 years with 20 or more wins, and 29 postseason teams. Missouri State first played intercollegiate basketball in 1908-09. This is the 100th year since the Bears first played but there were not teams in the 1911-12, 1912-13, 1943-44 or 1944-45 seasons.
Last year: Missouri State posted its sixth straight winning season in 2006-07 and the Bears’ 22-11 record gave them an average of 20.5 wins a season over the past four years. Missouri State started 4-0, including a 66-64 win over #7 Wisconsin, then lost by three in overtime to unbeaten Oklahoma State in the finals of the South Padre Island Invitational. The Bears raced through their early non-league slate at 8-2, including wins over UW-Milwaukee, UNC-Wilmington, Santa Clara and South Florida. The Bears stumbled at the start of their league slate but righted the ship to finish 12-6, alone in third place. The Bears, after not having beaten Wichita State in four years, completed a three-game sweep over the Shockers by downing WSU in the quarterfinals of the MVC tourney. Missouri State lost to Creighton in the semifinals and then dropped a four-point decision to San Diego State on a late three in the first round of the NIT.
n A-B-C Seniors Shine: The Bears’ three senior co-captains last year were all four-year lettermen and started either three or four years and all played in well over 100 Missouri State games. Guard Blake Ahearn averaged 15.4 points a game to lead the team in scoring and collect his second straight all-MVC first team nod and selection as the MSU Coors Player of the Year. His 1,677 points ranks him seventh all-time at MSU. He also finished third in the nation in free throw accuracy but his four-year .946 figure set a new NCAA career mark. Low post Nathan Bilyeu led the way in rebounding at 5.4 a game and wound up 15th in MSU career rebounding with 628 while finishing 29th in career points with 939. Swingman Tyler Chaney earned the Guy Thompson Award for the program and averaged 10.3 points, reached fifth in career three-pointers, and got to 28th in all-time scoring with 957 points.
n League honors for ex-Chiefs: In addition to Ahearn’s all-MVC first team selection last season, Bears’ junior forward Deven Mitchell was named the Valley’s Sixth Man of the Year in 2006-07 and MSU junior guard Spencer Laurie was selected as the Newcomer of the Year. Tyler Chaney drew all-MVC honorable mention and Dale Lamberth joined Mitchell on the all-bench team.
nAhearn to NBA Development League:
Blake Ahearn, the all-time leading free throw shooter in Division I history, has signed with the National Basketball Association Development League and will play this season for the Dakota Wizards, in Bismarck, N.D.
 Ahearn was selected in the fourth round of the 10-round D League draft and joins a Dakota team which is the reigning D League champion. Dakota finished 33-17 last year and won the league playoffs in its first season in the D League. The Wizards are coached by Duane Ticknor and play in the 8,000-seat Bismarck Civic Center. Dakota opens play for 2007-08 when the Wizards host the Iowa Stampede in Bismarck, Nov. 23 and 24.
 Ahearn led MSU in scoring and was an MVC all-league first team selection as a junior and senior. He set school and Valley records for consecutive free throws made with 60 in a row once each in his freshman and sophomore seasons. His .975 free throw percentage (117/120) as a freshman set a new Division I single season percentage mark, and his final figure of .946 (435/460) established a new NCAA career record. Ahearn graduated from MSU in August with a degree in marketing.
 22 straight years: The Missouri State men’s and women’s basketball teams have had notable Division I success, with one or both having advanced to postseason play 22 years in a row. The men’s team played in the NIT in 1986, 1991, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2005, 2006 and 2007 and in the NCAA in 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992 and 1999. The women’s team was in the NCAA from 1991 through 1996, 1998 through 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2006; in the WNIT 2002 and 2005, winning the 2005 WNIT title.
Personnel:MSU has a 14-player roster this season, with seven lettermen and two starters back from last year. Squadman Ryan Jehle is a redshirt freshman. Chris Cooks is a junior transfer from Redlands (Okla.) JC, Wade Knapp is a junior transfer from Dodge City (Kan.) CC, and, of the four true freshmen, Kyle Weems, Tomas Brock and David Cline are redshirting this season.
Show-Me Bears: With six members of the Bears’ 14-man roster from the state of Missouri, 2007-08 marks the first time in five seasons there haven’t been at least 10 Missourians on the team. The ’72-73 roster had 25 players, 20 from Missouri, including one from each of the seven Springfield high schools, the only time on record a Bears’ team has had players from all seven local high schools.
BruiNotes:
nBears top 3,000,000: The Bears’ average home attendance of 7,176 in 2006-07 pushed the MSU all-time total for 478 games in Hammons Student Center to 3,032,501. Missouri State broke the three million mark for HSC with the crowd for the Illinois State game Feb. 6.
nPrice Cutter History: The Bears’ win in the ’06 Price Cutter Classic was MSU’s fourth in a row and 14th in the 20-year history of the event. MSU is 34-6 all-time in Price Cutter play, with 14 titles and six runner-up finishes (1987-90-93-99-01-02). The Bears won the meet five years in a row (94-98) in their longest stretch of titles, with the current run the second longest. Blake Ahearn, Tyler Chaney and Nathan Bilyeu join Ben Kandlbinder (94-98) and Ryan Bettenhausen (95-99) as the only Bears to play on four Price Cutter title teams. Kandlbinder is the only player to be on the all-tourney team four times and Scott Brakebill (99-00-01) was the only other three-time pick until Ahearn (04-05-06) and Bilyeu (04-05-06) this year. Ahearn (04-05), Kandlbinder (94-95) and Danny Moore (96-98) are the only players to win tourney MVP honors twice.
nFor Openers: Last week’s loss at Toledo made MSU 18-8 in Div. I openers (12-1 home, 5-5 away, 1-2 neutral). MSU won 25 straight home openers before losing in 2002-03 to North Texas. The only previous MSU HSC opener loss was a 72-71 setback to Arkansas 12/1/76 in the first game ever played in Hammons. The Bears are 29-2 in Hammons home openers.
nBears fall in opener: Missouri State fell behind 14-4 at the outset and trailed by 14 points at halftime before closing to one point late in the game in a 57-53 loss at Toledo Saturday in the season opener for both teams. Drew Richards hit 8-of-8 from the field in the game, the most baskets without a miss by a Bear player in a game since Eric Gray hit 9/9 in 1983-84 vs. Cleveland State. Richards finished with 16 points and Dale Lamberth, Deven Mitchell and Chris Cooks added 10 each. The Bears were down 37-23 at the half and got within 52-51 before the Rockets pulled away in the final minute. Lamberth’s 11 rebounds led the Bears to a 39-27 rebound margin but the Bears committed 23 turnovers in the contest.
