The Missouri State Bears play host to the Saint Louis University Billikens Wednesday in Hammons Student Center in a continuation of the in-state, non-conference rivalry.
  Both teams are coming into the game after two victories at home last week. The Bills knocked off Detroit Mercy and Furman in St. Louis while the Bears defeated Harding and UNC Greensboro in Hammons Student Center to win the title of the 21st annual Price Cutter Classic. Saint Louis won two of three in a tournament in Pittsburgh the previous week to bring a 4-1 record into Wednesday’s game, while Missouri State enters the contest 2-1 with its only other competition in the young campaign a season-opening loss at Toledo Nov. 10.
  The Bears shot over 60 percent from the floor in building a 20-point first half lead over Harding Friday night on the way to an 86-67 win in the contest. Saturday against UNCG, the Bears held a six-point lead at halftime but hit 62 percent from the floor after intermission and dominated in all other phases of the game to roll to a 79-52 victory. Deven Mitchell of Missouri State was the tournament Most Valuable Player and was joined on the all-tourney team by Dale Lamberth and Drew Richards of Missouri State, Kyle Hines of UNCG and Paul Stoll of Texas-Pan American. UTPA beat Harding Saturday 83-64 after UNCG had knocked off Texas-Pan American 70-56 in the first game of the tournament on Friday night.
  Missouri State is in 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).
  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 a home date with 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 154-102 in his ninth year at Missouri State and 190-125 in his 11th year as a college head coach. He’s 4-2 vs. SLU. 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. (Hinson bio attached).
 Rick Majerus (Marquette, ’70) is 4-1 in his first year at Saint Louis and 426-148 in his 21st year overall as a college head coach. He is 0-1 vs. Missouri State. Majerus was head coach at Marquette in 1986 when the Bears beat Warriors in the second round of the NIT in Hammons.
 Series Record: Missouri State leads, 14-7 (series scores attached).
 The Bears and Billikens: An in-state rivalry that's drawn great interest across Missouri and beyond in the quarter century since it began reaches another milestone Wednesday when Saint Louis and Missouri State meet in Hammons for the final time.
  The series, which started in 1983-84, has seen a bit of everything. Saint Louis has hosted the Bears at home in Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis Arena and Scottrade Center and SLU is moving into a new on-campus arena next season, as is Missouri State. Hammons is the only Springfield location at which the teams have played. As a member of the Mid-Continent Conference and Missouri Valley Conference, Missouri State has played Saint Louis teams which belonged to the Midwestern Collegiate Conference, Great Midwest Conference, Conference USA and Atlantic 10 Conference. The Bills in the series have been coached by Rich Grawer, Lorenzo Romar, Brad Soderberg, Rick Majerus for the first time this year, and . . . Charlie Spoonhour. The Bears in the series have been coached by Mark Bernsen, Steve Alford, Barry Hinson and . . . Charlie Spoonhour.
 The Bears lead the series 14-7, including a 7-4 log in St. Louis and a 7-3 mark in Springfield. Last year's meeting in St. Louis was the first game in three years between the two schools and resulted in a 51-50 victory for the Bills on a last-second tipin which was counted before it was discovered that an incorrect clock was used in reviewing the replay which produced the final outcome.
 Barry Hinson is in his ninth year at Missouri State and is 4-2 against Saint Louis. Majerus takes over the SLU reins this year after four years away from coaching. He's had 11 NCAA appearances and four NIT visits in a career spanning three years at Marquette, two at Ball State and 15 at Utah. He is Division I's seventh winningest active coach by percentage and his lone previous trip to Hammons was with Marquette as the Bears beat the Warriors here in the second round of the NIT in 1986.
 Affiliation: Missouri State is in its 26th year in Division I and 18th in the MVC. The Bears are 490-282 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 1,474-790 (.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 teamer 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 add three prep standouts: A Missouri prepster and two high schoolers from out of state have committed to join the Missouri State basketball program for 2008-09.
  The trio includes Damen Bell-Holter, a 6-foot-9, 240-pound center from Ketchikan (Alaska) High; Ken Holdman, a 6-foot, 170-pound guard from Tulsa (Okla.) East Central High; and Isaiah Rhine, a 6-10, 225-pound center from Versailles (Mo.) High.
  Bell-Holter is entering his third season as a starter for the Ketchikan Kings of Coach Doug Nausid. Ketchikan knocked off Juneau last year in the regional finals to go to the Alaska state tournament and Bell-Holter was a first team all-conference choice in the Alaska Southeast League as the Kings were conference runners-up.
 Holdman is a two-year starter at East Central for Coach Brian Morgan and his team also reached the state tournament in 2007, losing in the state finals to Carl Albert in Class 5A. East Central also won the Green County Conference title and Holdman was a second team all-conference, second team all-district and Oklahoma all-star selection.
  Rhine is also looking to make his senior season his third year as a starter for the Versailles Tigers of coach Kent Chamberlain. Rhine won all-conference, all-district, and all-area laurels as a sophomore and junior and was a Class 3 all-state second team selection last year. He has also played AAU basketball for two summers for the Missouri Titans.
nPrice Cutter History: The Bears’ win in the last week’s Price Cutter Classic was MSU’s fifth in a row and 15th in the 21-year history of the event. MSU is 36-6 all-time in Price Cutter play, with 15 titles and six runner-up finishes (1987-90-93-99-01-02). The Bears won the meet five years in a row (1994-98) in their previous longest stretch of titles, and matched that with this year’s classic win (2003-07). Blake Ahearn, Tyler Chaney and Nathan Bilyeu last year joined Ben Kandlbinder (94-98) and Ryan Bettenhausen (95-99) as the only Bears to play on four Price Cutter title teams and Deven Mitchell and Drew Richards joined that select group last week. The selection of Richards to the all-tourney team last week was a repeat for him from last year. 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) last year. Ahearn (04-05), Kandlbinder (94-95) and Danny Moore (96-98) are the only players to win tourney MVP honors twice.
nBalanced Bears: With the Bears’ front line of Mitchell, Lamberth and Richards putting on two dominating performances, they were all near-unanimous choices to the all-tourney team last week after the Bears’ 27-point win over UNCG in the title game. The three combined to average 56 points and 18.5 rebounds in the wins over Harding and UNCG and combined to shoot .667 (40/60) among them for the two games. But, they had help. Guards Shane Laurie and Spencer Laurie and Justin Fuehrmeyer were all among the tournament leaders in multiple stat categories with Fuehrmeyer leading the meet in assists. His 12 in the title game vs. UNCG were the most for a Bear since William Fontleroy had a dozen in 1997-98 vs. Illinois State. Spencer Laurie and Fuehrmeyer combined for 21 assists and just three turnovers in the final game, and Shane Laurie added five assists.
nMVP Deven: Deven Mitchell had new career highs of 24 points in each game of the Price Cutter, averaged 8.0 rebounds for the weekend, had five steals and five blocked shots and hit .727 (16/22) from the field and .889 (16/18) from the line to dominate all-tourney and Most Valuable Player voting in the meet.
 Mitchell’s five steals in three games thus far give him 119, moving him to within three steals of 10th place on the Bears’ career list.
nDrew’s hot: After opening the season with a perfect 8/8 shooting night from the field at Toledo (11/10), Drew Richards hit his first two shots Friday vs. Harding for 10 in a row, to tie the school record for consecutive field goals made. The record is now shared with Eric Gray (1983-84). Richards came back Saturday vs. UNCG with another perfect night at 7/7 and his string of makes is at seven going into SLU.
 Richards’s six blocked shots vs. Harding were his career high, and most for a Bear since Danny Moore had six in two different games as a senior in 1998-99. Drew’s eight blocks this season gives him 100 for his career and fourth place in MSU career blocks. Next ahead is Ricky Johnson at 125, and Danny Moore has the career record at 167
nBears picked 3rd: The Bears were picked third in the 2007-08 MVC preseason poll. With their third-place finish last year, the Bears have come in better that their preseason prediction four years in a row. Deven Mitchell, last year’s MVC Sixth Man of the Year, was on the preseason all-Valley team.
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 30-2 in Hammons home openers after last Friday’s win over Harding in the 2007-08 home opener.
