The Missouri State University women’s basketball team will test its mettle early in the 2007-08 season with a formidable non-conference schedule that will include contests against three 2007 NCAA Tournament teams, as well as a season-opening matchup at traditional power Texas. The 2007-08 Lady Bears will play a total of 14 home games and 10 regular-season contests against clubs that earned postseason bids last year, including games with NCAA participants Wisconsin-Green Bay, DePaul, Oral Roberts and reigning MVC champion Drake.
"We’re very eager for November to arrive," Missouri State head coach Nyla Milleson stated. " We think we’ve got a great balance of matchups in our non-conference schedule that will certainly challenge us each time out and prepare us for conference play. But we also feel like we can compete with each of these teams and we’re excited about all of the possibilities the season holds."
After exhibition games against Arkansas Tech (Nov. 4) and Lambuth (Nov. 6), the Lady Bears will open the season with a Nov. 11 road tilt against the University of Texas. The matchup will feature a pair of coaches making their respective debuts at new schools, as both Milleson and new Texas boss Gail Goestenkors will lead their squads into game action for the first time at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas. Goestenkors, who compiled a 396-99 record in 15 years as the head coach at Duke, accepted the UT job in April following Jody Conradt’s retirement after 31 years as coach of the Longhorns.
With the anticipated dedication of JQH Arena just one year away, the Lady Bears will kick off their final home season in Hammons Student Center with a Nov. 17 matchup against the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. The Phoenix will also feature a new head coach, as Matt Bollant took the reins of the program this past spring. Last year, UW-Green Bay went 29-4, won the Horizon League title and posted a first-round NCAA Tournament win over New Mexico.
Missouri State will travel to Arkansas State (Nov. 20) and Arkansas-Little Rock (Nov. 25) before returning home to take on the University of Texas at San Antonio (Nov. 29). The Lady Bears hit the road again to kick off the month of December when they meet DePaul (Dec. 1) in Chicago. The Blue Demons claimed a 77-56 decision over MSU last December in Springfield en route to earning their fifth consecutive NCAA Tournament bid and finishing with a 19-13 overall mark.
The Lady Bears will entertain Tulsa (Dec. 4) before renewing their rivalry with Saint Louis University on Dec. 7 at Hammons. Missouri State which holds an 11-1 series lead over the Billikens, will be looking for its ninth straight win over SLU. Another tough road game awaits MSU on Dec. 15, as the Lady Bears will travel to Tulsa to take on Oral Roberts University. After going 22-11 with an NCAA Tournament appearance a season ago, the Golden Eagles will attempt to avenge a 90-85 home loss to the Lady Bears in December of 2005, the last time the two schools met.
Rounding out the non-conference slate will be a home contest against Canisius (Dec. 21), followed by another difficult road matchup against a team that reached the postseason last year, Western Kentucky (Dec. 29). The Lady Toppers went 23-9 in 2006-07, advancing all the way to the semifinal round of the WNIT before falling to Wisconsin.
The complete 2007-08 Missouri Valley Conference schedule, culminating in the State Farm MVC Tournament, will be announced in mid-August. In 2008, the MVC meet will move to a neutral site for the first time in its 16-year history. The 10-team tournament will be held at Family Arena in St. Charles, Mo., beginning with two opening-round games on Thursday, March 13 and concluding with the championship game on Sunday, March 16.
The 2008 NCAA Women’s Final Four will be played at St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Fla., April 6 and 8. The first and second rounds will take place March 22-25 in Albuquerque, N.M., Baton Rouge, La., Bridgeport, Conn., College Park, Md., Des Moines, Iowa, Norfolk, Va., Stanford, Calif., and West Lafayette, Ind. The regionals run March 29-April 1, and will be hosted in Greensboro, N.C., New Orleans, La., Oklahoma City, Okla., and Spokane, Wash.
