The Missouri State Bears close the month of December and the 2007 calendar year and open their 2007-08 Missouri Valley Conference schedule when they take on the defending league champion Southern Illinois Salukis Sunday afternoon in Carbondale, Ill., in a game that will air on the Valley-TV Network. The 7-5 Bears returned to practice Dec. 27 following a two-day Christmas break after coming back from Las Vegas, Nev., the night of Dec. 24. The Bears got a split of four games last week in the Findlay Toyota Las Vegas Classic, beating Texas-Pan American 64-53 at home (12/17) and Bethune-Cookman 63-49 at home (12/19) before losing to Alabama 81-73 (12/22) in the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas in the semifinals and falling to Purdue 72-70 (12/23) in the third-place game. Coupled with a 66-54 loss at Utah (12/15), the Bears had five games in nine days coming off fall semester final exams and leading up to Christmas.

  The Bears played twice a week and a half before Utah, losing 70-51 at Arkansas (12/3) and beat UNC Wilmington 73-66 at home (12/5). MSU opened its season with a 57-53 loss at Toledo, rolled past Harding (86-67) and UNC Greensboro (79-52) Nov. 16-17 to win the Price Cutter Classic at Hammons Student Center. The Bears then turned back Saint Louis (60-56) at home Nov. 21, and won at Winthrop (73-69) Nov. 25 before the two-game split to open December.

 Last Games: The Bears’ two games in Las Vegas had a number of similarities. Against Alabama Saturday, the Bears enjoyed near double-digit leads in both halves of a game that was tied six times and saw 17 lead changes. The Bears also had a good first-half lead over Purdue in a game which had 16 ties and 11 lead changes. Against Alabama, the Bears last led 71-70 on a trey by Justin Fuehrmeyer with 2:21 left but the Crimson Tide took advantage of a key turnover and some late free throws to win by eight. Chris Cooks and Shane Laurie led the Bears with 13 points each and starting forward Dale Lamberth played just seven minutes before an injury put him out of action for the rest of the contest. The Bears and Boilermakers battled throughout their contest and a long trey by Cooks got the Bears back even at 68-68 with a minute to play. Fuehrmeyer added a pair of free throws for a 70-69 margin with half a minute left but Purdue got a bucket and a late free throw and the Bears missed a game-winning shot attempt just ahead of the final buzzer. Deven Mitchell had 19 points, Lamberth came back wtih 17 and Fuehrmeyer added a career-high 13 for the Bears as they lost two in a row for the first time all year.

 Southern Illinois: Like the Bears, SIU built an early tough slate and the Salukis carried a 5-5 record into their Friday non-conference finale at home vs. Butler. The Salukis, bidding for their sixth MVC title in the past seven years and a seventh straight NCAA tourney trip, have wins over Northern Illinois, Chattanooga, Mississippi State, #24 Saint Mary’s and Western Kentucky with setbacks to USC, #15 Indiana, Charlotte, Saint Louis and Western Michigan. Three starters lead the way from last year’s NCAA Sweet 16 team in forward Matt Shaw, center Randal Falker and guard Bryan Mullins.

 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 mark, reach the semifinals of the State Farm MVC Tourney and play in the National Invitation Tourney. It was the Bears’ third straight NIT appearance. This is the Bears’ third year as Missouri State (previously Southwest Missouri State).

  Last week’s four-game schedule concluded a busy Missouri State non-league slate in which the Bears visited five states before Christmas, concluding with the trip to Las Vegas. After the game at SIU, Missouri State has three straight MVC tests at Hammons, hosting Bradley Jan. 2, Creighton Jan. 5 and Wichita State Jan. 8. The team’s only remaining non-conference game is a home game in an O’Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters test Feb. 22 or 23, with the opponent to be announced in early February.

 Hammons Student Center Farewell, JQH here next year: The 2007-08 season is the Bears’ 32nd and final year of basketball in Hammons Student Center. The new $67 million, 11,000-seat JQH Arena is being constructed just east of HSC and will 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 159-106 in his ninth season at Missouri State and 195-129 overall in his 11th year as a college head coach. He’s 9-13 vs. SIU. Hinson is fifth on the all-time MSU coaching win list, needs five wins to catch Eddie Matthews for fourth, and is the sixth Bears’ coach to post 100 wins.

 Chris Lowery (SIU, ’95) is 83-31 in his fourth year at SIU and overall as a college head coach. He’s 4-3 vs. MSU.

 Series Record: SIU leads, 34-25. The Salukis won both meetings vs. MSU last year and have won three in a row against the Bears, snapping a three-game MSU win streak against SIU.

 Affiliation: Missouri State is in its 26th year in Division I and 18th in the MVC. The Bears are 495-286 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 2000 and 2005 and 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 1,479-794 (.650) 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 three or four-year starters with well over 100 MSU games each. Blake Ahearn averaged 15.4 points to lead Bear scoring and collect his second straight all-MVC first team nod and selection as MSU Coors Player of the Year. His 1,677 points rank seventh all-time at MSU. He finished third in the nation in FT accuracy but his four-year .946 figure set a new NCAA career mark. Nathan Bilyeu led rebounding at 5.4 a game and wound up 15th in career rebounding (628) and 29th in career points (939). Tyler Chaney earned the Guy Thompson Award for the program and averaged 10.3 points, reached fifth in career three-pointers, and 28th in all-time scoring (957).

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 begun his first professional season with the National Basketball Association Development League Dakota Wizards, Bismarck, N.D.

  Ahearn, a fourth round pick in the 10-round D League draft, joins a Dakota team which is the reigning D League champ. Ahearn scored 24 in the Wizards’ lone exhibition game and is averaging 13.8 through the team’s first 12 (7-5) regular season games three 20+ outings and he’s 42-of-44 from the foul line.

 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.

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:

Personnel:MSU presently has a 15-player squad, 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 and David Cline are redshirting this season. Guard Tomas Brock, a freshman from Mt. Vernon, Mo., had been participating as a redshirt but joined the active roster to add more depth in the backcourt following the injury to Lamont Austin. Transfer Will Creekmore has just joined the squad and will be eligible in December of 2008

nAustin out: Lamont Austin sustained a broken bone in his right foot in practice Dec. 9 and will be out for the rest of the 2007-08 season. Austin, a freshman guard from Topeka, Kan., played in two of the Bears’ first seven games, seeing a total of 14 minutes of action with no points. Coach Barry Hinson indicates Missouri State will seek a medical hardship for Austin at the end of the year.

nLamberth graduates: Senior forward Dale Lamberth was one of 23 Missouri State student-athletes in a graduating class of 1,264 who received MSU degrees at Fall Semester Commencement exercises Dec. 14 at Hammons Student Center. Lamberth, a recreation and leisure studies major, was with the Bears in Utah when his degree was conferred.

nCreekmore transfers: Freshman forward-center Will Creekmore has left the basketball program at Boston University to transfer to Missouri State for the start of the 2008 spring semester. Creekmore, a 6-foot-9, 235-pounder from Tulsa (Okla.) Thomas Edison High, will sit out a full year to regain his athletic eligibility and will have three seasons to compete for the Bears when he becomes eligible after the 2008 fall semester at MSU.

  Creekmore played in four of Boston’s first eight games this season. He averaged 12 minutes a game and totaled 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Terriers of coach Dennis Wolff.

  At Edison, Creekmore was a four-year varsity starter for the Eagles of head coach Michael Parish. Creekmore won all-state honors as a senior. He was a two-time Tulsa World All-Metro pick and a three-time all-district and all-conference selection. He averaged 23 points, 17 rebounds, four assists, three steals and three blocks per game his final year, shooting 68 percent from the field and 57 percent from three-point range. He was the state’s leading scorer and rebounder in Class 5A as a senior and the state’s top rebounder as a junior.

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 in his third season as a starter for the Ketchikan Kings of Coach Doug Nausid. KHS knocked off Juneau last year in the regional finals to go to the state tournament and Bell-Holter was a first team all-conference choice in the Alaska Southeast League.

 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 this year’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 this year. The selection of Richards to the all-tourney team this year 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.

nMVP Deven: Deven Mitchell had new career highs of 24 points in the first game of the Prince Cutter Classic and then matched that total the second night. He 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-tournament selection and Most Valuable Player voting in the meet.

nBusy December: Although their 7-5 season record doesn’t match up to the 10-2 records the Bears have had after a dozen games each of the past two seasons, the Bruins have faced a challenging early schedule, including two SEC schools, one Big 10 team and a Mountain West club. The schedule has also been somewhat uneven, with eight days off after the Winthrop game, two games in three days, 10 days off after the UNC Wilmington game and then five games in the next nine days. The Bears remain unbeaten at home but have dropped three of four road starts and both their neutral site games last week in the Las Vegas Classic.

nPlayin’ ’em close: Close was the order of the day for the semifinal and final day games in Las Vegas. The Bears’ game vs. Alabama was tied six times with 17 lead changes and the game vs. Purdue game was tied 16 times with 11 lead changes. All four tourney games in Las Vegas were tied at the half. MSU-Alabama was tied 31-31 at the break and the Bears led with two minutes to play before 81-73 loss. Iowa State-Purdue was tied 37-37 at half before ISU came back for 83-80 win in the other semifinal. Bears-Purdue was deadlocked 32-32 at half before PU claimed a 72-70 win in the third place game, and Iowa State and Alabama were tied 40-40 at the half in the championship game before the Tide got away late and won, 83-68.

nBanged-Up Bears: The first three games of the Las Vegas Classic saw the Bears lose a starting player within the first 10 minutes of each contest. In each case, the player was through for the evening but came back to start the next game. Forward Dale Lamberth had a right side muscle injury early in the Texas-Pan American game but started two nights later vs. Bethune-Cookman. Center Drew Richards suffered a partially dislocated jaw early in the Bethune-Cookman game but came back to start three days later against Alabama. And, Lamberth suffered a cut to his head early in the Alabama game and had to have a dozen stitches to close the wound but came back to start the next night vs. Purdue.

nVegas Ofer: Don’t ask Bears’ coach Barry Hinson to schedule another trip to Las Vegas any time soon. The Bears’ 0-2 venture to Nevada this season came after an 0-3 finish in a Las Vegas tournament in 2001-02. All five losses were single-digit setbacks, two were in overtime, and the closest games--a one-point OT loss and a two-point loss--came at the hands of the same school; Purdue.

nFuehrmeyer finds the range: Guard Justin Fuehrmeyer had the best week of his young Missouri State career in the four games of the Las Vegas Classic as he finally started to find the range from beyond the three-point arc. After missing his first nine three-point tries of the season and hitting 1 of his first 17, he connected on a pair vs. UTPA and three each against Alabama and Purdue in Las Vegas for a .500 (8/16) shooting week from long range. His 13 points vs. Purdue were a career-high. Fuehrmeyer’s points came at key spots as well, with his deep three from the right wing with 2:21 left in the Alabama game giving the Bears their last lead in that contest, while his two free throws with half a minute left against Purdue gave the Bears their last advantage in the game against the Boilermakers.

nDeven at the line: Forward Deven Mitchell has made solid and steady improvement at the foul line throughout his Missouri State career, hiking his season figure more than 50 percentage points each year he’s played for the Bears. Mitchell had a string of 24 free throws made in a row at one point in the 2006-07 season, 12th best string on record for Missouri State and one of only three streaks on the top dozen for anyone other than all-time NCAA free throw accuracy leader Blake Ahearn. Mitchel had a string of 18 free throws made in a row over five games (Dec. 3-23) before he missed two (of 13) vs. PU. He’s still the Bears’ runaway leader from the line at for the season at .877 (59/67), and, equally important, he’s easily the Bears’ volume leader for attempts from the line. Mitchell’s yearly MSU free throw stats:

Year FTM FTA FT%

2003-04 34 51 .667

2004-05 33 46 .717

2006-07 109 135 .807

2007-08 59 67 .881

nIn the Valley: The Bears have been strong finishers in Missouri Valley Conference play the past three years, and, have had quick starts the past two seasons. Last year, the Bears jumped out to a 3-1 league record, were 5-5 after 10 MVC games, and finished 12-6. In the 2005-06 season, MSU was 4-1 to start, slipped to 5-5, and again rebounded to come home at 12-6. In 2004-05, the Bears lagged at 1-6 in the early going but finished strong for a final 10-8 league record.

 Missouri State has had four 12-6 finishes in its first 17 seasons in the Valley and the best the Bears have been in MVC play was a 13-5 mark in 1991-92 in Charlie Spoonhour's final season at the MSU helm and a 13-5 mark in 1999-00 in Barry Hinson's first year at Missouri State. In 17 Valley seasons, the Bears have had a winning conference record 13 times, finished .500 twice and been below .500 twice. Missouri State has had 14 first-division finishes in 17 league races, finishing five times, third five times, fourth twice, fifth twice, sixth twice and seventh once. Missouri State has never won the MVC regular season title, although the Missouri State program owns 19 conference crowns in its basketball history.