Dec. 20, 2011

Missouri State (7-3) vs. West Virginia (8-2)
Thu., Dec. 22, 2011, 7:00 p.m. (Central)

Missouri State vs. St. Mary's (9-1)
Fri., Dec. 23, 2011, 10:30 p.m. (Central)

Orleans Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada. I Game Notes (PDF) I Tickets

GAME INFORMATION:

Series: MSU is 0-0 vs. WVU; MSU is 1-0 vs. SMC (1-0 at neutral sites)
Radio: KTXR (101.3 FM) and MSU Bears Radio Network (LISTEN LIVE)
Live Stats: I Watch Live: ESPN3.com
GameDay Gear I MSU Game Notes I MVC Notes

THE GAMES:

After a pair of opening-round wins at home, the Missouri State Bears (7-3) now head to the Orleans Arena (7,500) for the championship rounds of the 2011 Continental Tire Las Vegas Classic. MSU was victorious over visiting Kennesaw State, 78-55, on Saturday (Dec. 17) in the first round of the tournament, before topping Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 66-53, on Monday night, also at JQH Arena.
This is MSU's third appearance in the Las Vegas Classic. The Bears were part of the inaugural event in 2001-02 and defeated Texas A&M (76-65) in Springfield before dropping three heart-breakers in Vegas to Purdue (84-83), UIC (86-80) and Richmond (67-60). In 2007-08, MSU beat Texas-Pan American and Bethune-Cookman at home and again dropped a pair of close decisions in Vegas to Alabama (81-73) and Purdue (72-70). Both current MSU head coach Paul Lusk and former Bears' head coach Cuonzo Martin (now at Tennessee) were part of that Purdue staff.
The Bears will meet West Virginia for the first time ever on Thursday night with a 7 p.m. tipoff on ESPN3.com. Win or lose, MSU will play St. Mary's in the tournament's final game on Friday at 10:30 p.m. (Central), also on ESPN3.com.

COACH Paul Lusk:

Paul Lusk (Southern Illinois, 1995) is 7-3 in his first season at MSU and 9-26 in two years overall. He is 4-1 at JQH Arena, 3-2 in road games and will meet the Mountaineers and Gaels for the first time as a head coach.
Lusk took the reigns as MSU's 17th head coach on April 1, 2011. Lusk came to Springfield after seven seasons at Purdue (2004-11), including the last three as associate head coach for the Boilermakers. Now in his 14th season in the coaching profession, Lusk has previous assistant coaching stops at Southwestern Illinois (1996-97), Missouri Southern (1999-2002) and Southern Illinois (2003-04) in addition to a one-year head coaching stint at (Div. III) Dubuque (2002-03). Lusk has coached in six of the last eight NCAA Tournaments and played in three NCAA Tournaments as a player at SIU.

THE TEN COUNT:

• The Bears have held all 10 of their 2011-12 opponents under 43-percent shooting from the field, pushing the Bears to 15th in the nation in FG Percentage Defense (.367), which is also tops in the Missouri Valley Conference. MSU has shot a higher percentage from the field than nine of its first 10 foes, despite ranking fifth in the MVC in that category (.449).
• Two more Missouri State seniors completed their undergraduate degrees last Friday (Dec. 16) as Kyle Weems (Hotel and Restaurant Administration) and Caleb Patterson (Psychology) completed their bachelor's requirements. Michael Bizoukas (Sports Management) was a spring 2011 graduate of DePaul before transferring to Missouri State, while Isaiah Rhine (Speech and Language Pathology) finished his degree during the summer of 2011. All four MSU seniors will be working on graduate degrees during the 2012 spring semester. Since 2000, 40-of-45 (89%) seniors who completed their playing careers at Missouri State have earned their degrees.
• Kyle Weems (Sr., F, Topeka, Kan.), the reigning MVC Player of the Year, is coming off his 100th career start and is hitting on all cylinders of late. He has three 20-point outings over the last six games, has scored in double figures in 9 straight games is coming off his 90th career double-figure scoring effort. He has started 92 straight games -- the sixth-best active streak among Division I players -- and is 6 three-pointers shy of 200 for his career. Only three other MSU players have 200 three-pointers in their career: Blake Ahearn (2003-07) 276; Johnny Murdock (1991-95) 266; and Kevin Ault (1996-2000) 254.
• West Virginia head coach Bob Huggins (West Virginia, 1977) enters Thursday's game against the Bears needing one more victory to reach 700 for his 30-year head coaching career. MSU head coach Paul Lusk (Southern Illinois, 1995) will be in search of his 10th career victory in the same game.
• In the only previous meeting between Missouri State and St. Mary's, the Bears scored a 52-35 win over the Gaels on Nov. 25, 1989 in the third-place game of the Coors Light Classic at Selland Arena in Fresno, Calif. The Bears, who would go on to the NCAA Tournament that season, shot a dismal 37.5 percent from the field, but got 16 points from Chris Stange, 11 points from Darryl Reid and 13 rebounds from Lee Campbell to win the low-scoring affair. St. Mary's shot 27.1 percent from the field and got 8 points from Brian Sitter to lead the way. MSU has never played West Virginia.
• The Bears are 9th in the nation this week in turnovers per game (10.6). Last season, MSU finished 7th among 336 Division I teams in fewest turnovers (10.3).
• Michael Bizoukas (Sr., G, Munster, Ind.) broke a JQH Arena record on Dec. 17 with 11 assists against Kennesaw State. His output was the most by a MSU player since Justin Fuehermeyer notched 12 assists at UNC Greensoboro on Nov. 17, 2007.
• Missouri State is making its third appearance in the Las Vegas Classic. The Bears were part of the inaugural event in 2001-02 and defeated Texas A&M (76-65) in Springfield before dropping three heart-breakers in Vegas to Purdue (84-83), UIC (86-80) and Richmond (67-60), two in overtime. In 2007-08, MSU beat Texas-Pan American and Bethune-Cookman at home and again dropped a pair of close decisions in Vegas to Alabama (81-73) and Purdue (72-70). MSU's five Vegas losses have been by an average of 4.8 points.
• Michael Bizoukas (Sr., G, Munster, Ind.) has played four career games against West Virginia, all during his tenure at DePaul. He has scored 11 points (2.8), grabbed 9 rebounds (2.3) and dished out 14 assists (3.5) all-time against the Mountaineers.
• Missouri State has landed three different Missouri Valley Conference Newcomer of the Week honors this season and has earned the award four times in the last six weeks. Michael Bizoukas (Sr., G, Munster, Ind., DePaul University) is this week's MVC Newcomer of the Week and also claimed the honor on Nov. 21. Anthony Downing (Jr., G, Atchison, Kan., Independence [Kan.] CC) earned the award on Nov. 14, while Jarmar Gulley (Jr., G/F, Beaumont, Texas, Highland [Kan.] CC) was presented the laurels on Dec. 12. Since the inception of the league award in 2003-04, three or more players from the same school have won the honor in the same season just three times -- (5 Creighton in 2007-08, 4 Illinois State in 2006-07, and 4 Bradley in 2004-05).

CONTINENTAL TIRE LAS VEGAS CLASSIC:

Wednesday, Dec. 14
Baylor 69, Bethune-Cookman 42

Saturday, Dec. 17
West Virginia 84, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 64
Missouri State 78, Kennesaw State 55
St. Mary's 77, Bethune-Cookman 52

Monday, Dec. 19
West Virginia 72, Tennessee Tech 53
Missouri State 66, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 53
St. Mary's 74, Kennesaw State 51
Stanford 75, Bethune-Cookman 56

Thursday, Dec. 22
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi vs. Bethune-Cookman, 2 p.m.
Tennessee Tech vs. Kennesaw State, 4:30 p.m.
Missouri State vs. West Virginia, 7 p.m. (ESPN3.com)
Baylor vs. St. Mary's, 9:30 p.m. (ESPN3.com)

Friday, Dec. 23
TBA vs. TBA, 2 p.m.
TBA vs. TBA, 4:30 p.m.
Baylor vs. West Virginia, 8 p.m. (ESPN)
Missouri State vs. St. Mary's, 10:30 p.m. (ESPN3.com)

(Central times)