Overview
The 2008-09 season will bring a series of firsts to the storied Missouri State University basketball program.
First-year head coach Cuonzo Martin, one of the nation’s most sought-after young coaches, was an easy choice to take over the program’s head coaching duties. His inaugural head coaching assignment will see him inherit a squad with an even balance of six returning lettermen and seven newcomers.
Six of the seven Bears’ rookies will be freshmen, but the team’s starting back court returns along with one of the Missouri Valley Conference’s best sixth men last season.
The other first will be the opening of JQH Arena, the team’s new, state-of-the-art home basketball facility that will debut with the regular-season opener on November 22.
Introducing . . .
With the March 26 announcement of Cuonzo Martin as Missouri State’s 16th head men’s coach, one of the nation’s winningest programs snagged a highly-respected recruiter, motivator and student of the game to build on its great basketball tradition.
Missouri State has compiled a 1489-815 all-time basketball record, the 27th best among all NCAA Division I programs. However, despite several close calls and a couple of inexplicable snubs since, the Bears have been shut out of the NCAA Tournament since 1999. Martin, a participant in three NCAA Tournaments as a player and three more as an assistant coach, welcomes the challenge of getting the Bears back to the top of the Missouri Valley Conference and into the "Big Dance."
"Getting to the NCAA Tournament is a reward for winning games and performing consistently throughout the season," said Martin. "It starts with playing a competitive non-conference schedule, protecting your home court, and ultimately getting better as the season goes on. Our goal will be to meet those standards every year and be very competitive in the Missouri Valley Conference."
Martin, a Purdue University product and National Basketball Association veteran, comes to Springfield after having spent the past eight seasons at his alma mater as an assistant coach. He was promoted to associate head coach at Purdue in September 2007 and will take on his first head coaching assignment this season. He noted that his head coaching philosophy will go beyond the court and focus on the basketball player as student, person and citizen.
 "Our goal is to be competitive, first and foremost," Martin said. "But it’s all about developing young men, which is a full-time job. We want our players to be successful on and off the court, make good decisions and get their degrees. That success will follow them the rest of their lives."
Martin, who turned 37 on September 23, noted that his coaching philosophy on the court will resemble the style he played at Purdue and the style that helped produce three NCAA bids and one NIT run during his tenure as a Boilermakers’ assistant.
"We want to take good shots and take care of the basketball," he said. "Our team will run at every opportunity and try to get easy transition baskets. We want to get better every day and make our daily progress part of our motivation."
He adds assistant coaches Jon Harris (Marquette, 2002) and Kent Williams (Southern Illinois, 2003) to his coaching staff that also includes third-year assistant Steve Woodberry (Kansas, 1994) and fourth-year operations director Trevyor Fisher (MSU, 2005).
New Digs
The upcoming campaign will also feature the unveiling of the Missouri Valley Conference’s largest on-campus basketball arena. Missouri State’s new basketball home, JQH Arena, an 11,000-seat, state-of-the-art facility will open on November 22 when the Bears host 2008 NCAA Tournament qualifier Arkansas.
The $67 million arena will undoubtedly give Missouri State fans a taste of big-time college basketball. It will feature 22 suites, 50 courtside seats, 114 loge seats, more than 9,600 chairback seats, the PRIME Overtime Club, The Missouri State University Hall of Fame and Legacy of Competition presented by Price Cutter in the East Concourse, unobstructed sightlines, first-rate concession and dining opportunities, new large-screen video scoreboard, and many other modern features.
"JQH Arena brings Missouri State University into college basketball’s elite in terms of facilities," Martin said. "This building is going to provide a phenomenal experience for our students, our fans, and our University as a whole. It will mark a great milestone in our program’s history and something we can be very proud of."
The number of student seats will more than triple from the Hammons Student Center days, and the number of lower-level seats will nearly triple at JQH Arena. Fans will also enjoy the 20-25 feet wide concourses and 42 points of sale for concessions, compared to the 4-6 feet wide concourses and 16 concession points at Hammons.
Ironically, Arkansas was the team’s first opponent in its previous facility, Hammons Student Center, which opened on December 1, 1976 with the Razorbacks winning a 72-71 thriller. Missouri State was 391-103 in 32 seasons at Hammons, including an 86-83 win over No. 20 Drake in the team’s final regular-season game in the facility on February 26, 2008.
No Changing of the Guard(s)
All three of the Bears’ returning starters and three of the six returning lettermen are guards by trade. The backcourt experience gives the Bears a solid foundation on which to frame its 2008-09 success. The trio of Justin Fuehrmeyer, Spencer Laurie and Shane Laurie combined to start 64 games last season and will undoubtedly be the envy of the Missouri Valley headed into this season.
"We have a lot of experience coming back to the guard positions, and the senior leadership of Shane and Spencer (Laurie), along with the experience Justin (Fuehrmeyer) has will be invaluable," Martin said. "Chris Cooks is versatile enough that he can also play a guard spot, and we will play a three-guard combination at times."
Fuehrmeyer (St. Charles, Mo.) led the MVC in assist-to-turnover ratio, dished out 134 assists and hit 40 three-pointers, while establishing himself as one of the top points in the Valley a year ago. Not bad for a sophomore who averaged just over seven minutes of playing time his freshman season. He led the 2007-08 squad in assists 20 times and in scoring three times, including a pair of 14-point scoring efforts in road conference games.
Spencer Laurie (Springfield, Mo.) was reinstated for a third season of eligibility at Missouri State after a late-summer waiver ruling by the NCAA. He hit a team-high 63 three-pointers in 2007-08 and averaged just under 10 points per game in conference play. He was second on the team in assists (103) and finished with an 8.0 scoring average to go along with his 18 starts.
Shane Laurie (Springfield, Mo.) started 17 games a year ago and made 39 percent of his three-point shots, second on the team. He had 59 assists and led the guard corps with 84 rebounds to go along with an impressive steal total that exemplifies his versatility and defensive prowess.
Joining the upper classmen will be freshmen newcomers Derron Hobbs (St. Louis, Mo.) and Cardell McFarland (Evansville, Ind.) who will both contribute during their first season in maroon and white.
"Hobbs is a combo guard who is unselfish," explained Martin. "He can score, create with his quickness, and he makes people better around him. McFarland is also a combo guard who is more of a scorer, but he can play any role we put him in."
Pay It Forward
At the forward positions, the Bears have a lot of promise to complement the series of question marks the team has going into the new season.
2007-08 MVC All-Bench Team selection Chris Cooks (Idabel, Okla.) is the team’s top returning scorer at 8.6 points per game and will bring senior leadership to the small forward spot. He led the team in scoring five times a year ago and was the Bears’ top rebounder in six games, but also dished out 62 assists and grabbed 130 rebounds third-best on last year’s team. The flexible nature of Cooks’ game, however, is his strongest asset, according to Martin.
  "Cooks is a guy who gives us a lot of flexibility and range," Martin said. "He is our best returning scorer and a guy who had honors from the league last year, so he understands we need him to score and take on an active leadership role."
Also vying for playing time at the three spot will be redshirt freshman Kyle Weems (Topeka, Kan.) and 6-foot-7 freshman Dominick Brumfield (Woodland Hills, Calif.) who will be expected to contribute right away.
"Weems is a shooter who can play either forward spot, and could be tough to defend," Martin said. "Brumfield is also a swing player who will help us out in a variety of roles, and we’re anxious to see what he can do against players he matches up with."
At the power forward spot, sophomore letterman Ryan Jehle (Overland Park, Kan.) returns and is anxious to prove his abilities after injuries set him back his freshman season. Freshman newcomer John Hayward-Mayhew (Eugene, Ore.) will also use his 6-foot-8, 210-pound frame to push for
