The Missouri State basketball Bears and everything which surrounds them have been at the forefront of the Ozarks sports scene for generations, but it has been a number of years since the Bears’ family saw so many different factors come together in a single season of transitions as was the case in 2007-08.

The Bears played their last season in their home of 32 years, ended the era of players who had competed for the Bears, said farewell to the fourth winningest coach they’d had and missed reaching postseason play for the first time in four years.

Along the way, they wrapped up the first century in the history of the program. And, the season was the end of a remarkable streak of 22 straight years in which the Missouri State men’s team or women’s squad, or both, had advanced to postseason play.

The nuts and bolts were a 17-16 season in which the ballclub was almost unbeatable in Hammons Student Center in its final season in the facility, but struggled on the road and slipped to a second division Missouri Valley Conference finish for just the fourth time in 18 seasons of Valley play. Missouri State’s seventh straight winning season was the 75th winning year for a program which has won more games than all but 26 other Division I schools.

The season ended with a quarterfinal loss in the State Farm MVC tournament and was immediately followed by the reaching of an agreement whereby Barry Hinson would not return as the Bears’ head coach. Hinson’s 169-117 mark in nine seasons gave him the fourth best win total among the 15 coaches in the history of the program. Hinson’s nine MSU seasons tied him with Charlie Spoonhour for the longest tenure of the six men who coached the Bears in their 32 years in Hammons.

High Hopes as the Year Began

The Bears began the campaign as the last MSU team to have a chance to have a perfect home season in Hammons. Six previous teams had gone through a season with just one loss in Hammons, but a clean home slate had never been achieved. Missouri State was also bidding to bring home an MVC regular season title, an accomplishment which would have also been a first for Bears’ basketball. A club with five seniors among seven returning lettermen had an equal number of newcomers on a team which would have to find its identity as the season unfolded.

Senior lettermen Deven Mitchell and Dale Lamberth at the forwards and Drew Richards at center gave the Bears a solid front line with excellent scoring and rebounding potential.

Senior Spencer Laurie, junior Shane Laurie and sophomore Justin Fuehrmeyer provided three experienced lettermen to occupy the two backcourt positions and the trio was generally solid all year. Forward-center Dex Manswell was the ballclub’s fifth senior and seventh lettermen and had seen limited duty after transferring to Missouri State as a junior, but came on and sparkled at mid-year as a senior when he saw greatly increased playing time when an injury forced Richards to the sidelines for several ballgames.

Missouri State opened the season with a game that would set a tone that became all too familiar during the year. The Bears had a really bad half and a really good one. The result was a huge deficit early in the game at Toledo. Missouri State erased all but one point of that margin down the stretch before falling to the Rockets by a 57-53 score in a return game for the season-opening win over TU in Hammons in 2006. Richards was perfect in his eight field goal tries for 16 points but it wasn’t enough.

The Bears came home to host what would be the last edition of a 21-year run of early-season home tournaments in the Price Cutter Classic. The Bears pounded Harding, 86-67, in the Friday night semifinals and rolled past UNC Greensboro 79-52 in the championship round Saturday for the team’s first two wins of the campaign. Deven Mitchell scored 24 points in each of the two ballgames, averaged eight rebounds for the meet and was the tourney’s Most Valuable Player. Mitchell was joined on the all-tourney team by senior mates Richards and Lamberth. The scoring and rebounding leadership of that trio would set the tone for the Bears through the first month of the campaign. Fuehrmeyer sparkled in the backcourt and had a spectacular assist-to-turnover ratio that would serve the Bears well all year.

Missouri State stayed at home for a renewal of an in-state rivalry against Saint Louis University, which the Bears have dominated since its inception a quarter century earlier. Missouri State ran out to a big lead in the second half then withstood a late charge by the Billikens to win, 60-56. The win avenged a loss after the buzzer the year before at Saint Louis when the review of a television replay would have given MSU the win was made on video displaying the wrong clock.

Back on the road, the Bears were out for payback from another tough loss of the previous year. The 2006-07 O’Reilly ESPNU BracketBusters matchup saw the Bears drop a home decision to a Winthrop team headed for the NCAA tourney. In the 2007-08 clash in the first-ever visit of a Missouri State basketball team to the state of South Carolina, Winthrop shackled the Bears for a half and ran out to a big lead. The Bears, however, caught lightning in a bottle after intermission on the 19-point scoring leadership of newcomer Chris Cooks and roared back to climb to 4-1 for the year with a 73-69 win. It would turn out to be one of the Bears’ best halves of the year as Missouri State did everything right the last 10 minutes of the contest. It would also be the team’s final road win for more than three months.

The Bears took their four-game win streak across the border to tangle with a third straight opponent playing for a new head coach. The Bears had another disastrous first half and never got untracked in a 70-51 road loss to the Arkansas Razorbacks. The Bears came home two nights later and got back on the winning track with a 73-66 win over the UNC Wilmington Seahawks as Mitchell poured in a season-high 25 points and added 10 rebounds.

After four games in eight days, followed by eight days off, the Bears played twice in three days and were then idle for 10 days before a long trip for a Dec. 15 visit to the University of Utah. Once again, the Bears fell way behind early in the contest. MSU fought to get back into the contest, but didn’t make a serious run at the Utes and lost by a dozen, 66-54. Lamberth led the Bears with 18 points.

The 10 days off before the Utah game moved Missouri State into another busy stretch with five games in nine days. MSU returned from Utah and hosted Texas-Pan American and Bethune-Cookman in Hammons over a three-night span in the opening rounds of the Findlay Toyota Las Vegas Classic. Missouri State prevailed twice to start the tournament on the right foot, beating Texas-Pan American, 64-53, and knocking off Bethune-Cookman, 63-49, to take a bright 7-3 mark into the tournament semifinals three days before Christmas at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.

The Bears were in a first-ever meeting against the Alabama Crimson Tide in the semifinals in Vegas and had substantial leads in the contest before faltering at the end in an 81-73 loss. The next night against Purdue in the third place game, the contest was again deadlocked at halftime and the Boilermakers got a driving bucket in the lane in the closing seconds to pull out a 72-70 win over Missouri State. Deven Mitchell was the Bears’ lone representative on the all-tourney team.

Starting on the Old Valley Road

The 2007 portion of the season schedule ended with the beginning of the Bears’ MVC play as the Bruins opened on the road with the defending league champs from Southern Illinois. The Salukis took charge of what had been a close game late in the first half and kept MSU at bay down the stretch for a 79-71 win as Missouri State dipped to 7-6 for the season. Mitchell had 23 points and nine rebounds for the Bears. The Bears began their home Valley slate and the month of January with three straight games in Hammons. The Bears got 25 points from Mitchell and a career-best 16 rebounds from Lamberth as they got the better of the Bradley Braves 91-80 to start the homestand. Missouri State then suffered its first home loss of the season in a 50-49 defeat at the hands of the Creighton Bluejays. The Bears had a final crack at the bucket with the last possession of the contest but couldn’t get off a good shot in the closing seconds. Missouri State then climbed to 2-2 in the league and 9-7 overall with a 71-47 romp past Wichita State as Lamberth scored 27 points and Spencer Laurie had seven assists.

Back on the road, Missouri State visited a suddenly-resurgent Drake quintet, enjoying its best season in more than 30 years. The see-saw contest saw the host Bulldogs break a tie with the last 11 points of the contest to come away with a 65-54 win. Lamberth scored 19 points in the loss at Drake and added 15 three nights later in a 65-44 home win over Indiana State as the Bears moved to 10-8 and got back to .500 in the Valley at 3-3.

The Bears’ pattern of alternating league losses and wins continued in a 70-55 setback to Northern Iowa on a sub-zero Sunday afternoon in Cedar Falls, followed by a 63-62 home decision over Southern Illinois. In the SIU clash, there was no daylight between the two evenly-matched ballclubs over the last 26 minutes of the contest. Down by a point in the closing seconds, the Bears set up a play but missed a shot. Dale Lamberth grabbed the rebound and went up for a follow attempt, but drew a foul. He dropped in two free throws with 1.7 seconds to play to give Missouri State its final margin. Lamberth finished the contest with 24 points and nine rebounds for the Bears.

For the first eight games of their league schedule, the Bears had alternated wins and losses and the home win over Southern Illinois left Missouri State at 4-4 in the league and 11-9 for the year. Four straight wins after the season-opening setback at Toledo had kept the Bears with a winning record through December and January, however that came to an end as February began.

For the second year in a row, the Bears appeared to have statistical advantages over an Evansville team mired deep in the Valley basement. And, for the second year in a row, the Aces rose up to bite the Bears at their home in Roberts Stadium. The Bears dropped to 11-10 with the 84-65 setback as Lamberth and Fuehrmeyer scored 14 each for Missouri State.

 Bidding to bounce back with a win, the Bears instead fell to .500 at 11-11 with a 70-62 overtime loss at Wichita State. MSU lagged much of the contest but it was close throughout and Lamberth hit a three-pointer with 15 seconds left to tie the game at 57-57 and send it to overtime. WSU jumped up early in the extra period and never looked back. Chris Cooks had a career-best 20 points for the Bears and Dex Manswell sparkled with 10 boards.

Missouri State came home bidding to get back on the win side of the ledger as the Bears opened the month of February against a greatly-improved Illinois State club that was in second place in the Valley and chasing Drake for the league lead. The game was again close throughout with 10 ties and 14 lead changes. Cooks put the Bears up 63-62 on a pair of free throws with 38 seconds left. ISU answered with two free throws with 23 seconds left and the Bears’ late attempts to retake the lead failed. Lamberth scored 20 for the Bears.

The losing string reached four in an 83-71 setback at Bradley Feb. 6 as MSU dipped to 11-13 overall and 4-8 in the MVC.Once below the .500 mark, the Bears had a tough time returning to the break-even point as they resumed alternating wins and losses. MSU belted UNI at home 71-54 for their first Hammons win over the Panthers in three seasons as Lamberth scored 20. The Bears then had a quick rematch with Illinois State and came away on the short end of a 69-57 decision at ISU.

The rematch with Evansville was as one-sided as the home game with the Aces had been the previous season. Missouri State double-scored the visitors in a 76-38 rout, making the 57-point differential between the two teams in their two meetings during the season the second largest for two clubs in the same year in Valley history. The only time two teams had a greater scoring disparity against each other for a campaign was the 2007-08 series between the Bears and Aces when the difference in their winning margins was 59 points -- an all-time Valley record.

Missouri State suffered an 88-67 setback at Creighton to drop back to two games below .500 at 13-15 and fell to 6-10 in the league. Justin Fuehrmeyer led the way with 14 points.

The Bears took a break from the Valley wars Feb. 23 when they hosted Central Michigan in non-league play in an O’Reilly ESPNU BracketBuster matchup in Hammons. The Bears played well throughout and chalked up a 90-76 triumph as Dale Lamberth scored 25 points and Spencer Laurie added seven assists.

Facility Farewell

The home finale would be the Bears’ last game in Hammons Student Center. The facility had served Missouri State well since its opening in time for the 1976-77 season. The final game turned out to be one of the best ever as Missouri State took on a resurgent Drake University team in its best season in nearly four decades. The Bulldogs were ranked 20th in the country and came to town with 23 wins and the regular season Valley title already under their collective belts.

With a season-best crowd of 7,507 looking on, Coach Hinson started his five seniors. After Dex Manswell got a tipin for the first basket of the game, the seniors contribued 55 points and 27 rebounds to the cause. The Bears pulled out to a 66-49 advantage with 8:27 to play before the Bulldogs used a barrage of threes to close to within four points at 77-73. Drake continued to apply pressure down the stretch. The teams traded baskets until it was 85-81 with a minute left. Adam Emmenecker of Drake, the eventual Valley Player of the Year, scored but Fuehrmeyer answered with two free throws to make it 86-83 with 26 seconds left. The Bears got a defensive stop and got the ball back and Lamberth was fouled with two seconds left. He missed both free throws but a long inbounds pass after a time out was intercepted by Deven Mitchell and the Bears had their victory.

Mitchell finished with 20 points, Lamberth had eight rebounds and Cooks and Fuehrmeyer had six assists each. The Bears’ win got them back to the .500 mark at 15-15 and it marked the 19th year in a row Missouri State had won on Senior Night in its home finale. 20th-ranked Drake became the highest-ranked team the Bears had ever beaten in Hammons. The crowd knew the significance of closing HSC on a winning note against such a potent opponent and poured onto the floor at the end of the contest to salute the Bears’ players and coaches after the win.

The final crowd pushed the final Hammons 32-year attendance total to 3,132,619 and the Bears’ overall HSC record to a notable 391-103 (.791) for 494 regular season games in the 8,846-seat arena. The Bears never got their perfect home season in Hammons with a 14-2 mark in 2007-08 that would rank with the top Missouri State home seasons in HSC.

Missouri State closed its regular season three days later with an 83-73 win at Indiana State to finish the regular season at 16-15. Dale Lamberth was on fire all night as he tossed in 37 points for the highest point total for a game of any Missouri State player in the Bears’ Division I era. Lamberth added 11 rebounds and Fuehrmeyer handed out nine assists.

The Valley Tournament

For only the fourth time in 18 Valley seasons, the Bears found themselves in the second division of the regular season league standings, and found themselves with a "play-in" game to get to the quarterfinal round for just the third time.

The Bears hooked in the up State Farm MVC Tournament opener at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis against an Evansville team against which they had had such mixed results over the previous two seasons. Missouri State left little to chance on this night, however, moving out to a double-digit lead by halftime and rolling on to a 69-46 victory over the Purple Aces. Deven Mitchell scored 16 points and Drew Richards yanked down a career-best 14 rebounds.

  In the Friday night quarterfinal test, the seventh-seeded Bears faced off against a second-seeded Illinois State ballclub which had defeated MSU twice during the year. The Bears fought gamely and enjoyed a double-digit advantage midway through the first half. Down by six early in the second half, MSU went on a 10-0 run for a 49-45 margin, but the Redbirds fought back with some late threes and a long string of free throws and pulled out a 63-58 win to claim their 23rd victory of the season and end the Bears’ campaign at 17-16.

Regular season champ Drake would go on to clobber second-place Illinois State 79-49 in the tourney finals and Drake wound up as the Valley’s only selection into the NCAA tourney field. The Bulldogs got a fifth seed and drew 12th-seeded Western Kentucky in the first round. The fired-up Hilltoppers knocked off the Bulldogs, 101-99, to end Drake’s dream season at 28-5.

 Illinois State, Creighton and Southern Illinois all played in the National Invitation Tournament and each split two games. ISU beat Utah State and lost at Dayton to finish 25-10. SIU beat Oklahoma State and lost at Arizona State to finish 18-15. Creighton beat Rhode Island and lost at Florida to finish 22-11.

Bradley got to the finals of the College Basketball Invitational with wins over Cincinnati, Ohio and Virginia before losing two of three to Tulsa.The Braves concluded their campaign with a 21-17 record.