Dec. 27, 2011

Missouri State Bears (7-5) at Creighton Bluejays (10-1)
Wed., Dec. 28, 2011, 7:00 p.m. (Central)

JQH Arena, Springfield, Mo. I Game Notes (PDF) I Tickets

GAME INFORMATION:

Series: MSU is 27-30 all-time against Creighton
Radio: KTXR (101.3 FM) and MSU Bears Radio Network (LISTEN LIVE)
Live Stats: Creighton Live Stats I Watch Live: FOX Sports Midwest
GameDay Gear I MSU Game Notes I MVC Notes

THE GAME:

Missouri State (7-5, 0-0) returns to the road Wednesday (Dec. 28) when the Bears take on the No. 19-ranked Creighton Bluejays (10-1, 0-0) in Omaha in the Missouri Valley Conference opener for both squads.
The game will air live on FOX Sports Midwest and the MVC Television Network with Mitch Holthus and Mark Adams calling the action. This is the first of at least four appearances on FSN for the Bears this season.
Coach Paul Lusk's squad looks to bounce back from a pair of heart-breakers last week in the finals of the Las Vegas Classic. The Bears lost 70-68 in overtime to West Virginia on Dec. 22 -- a game MSU led by five points with 1:02 to go -- before falling to St. Mary's on Dec. 23 by a 77-61 count in a game that was much closer than the final score. Caleb Patterson led all MSU players on the Vegas trip with an 18.0 scoring average, three three-pointers, and a .696 (16-for23) shooting percentage.
The Bears are 12-9 all-time in MVC openers with wins in their last two conference debuts. The last time MSU opened league play with Creighton was on Dec. 28, 2005, a 78-56 Bluejays' win in Omaha before 13,898 fans. Missouri State is also 5-18 all-time against Top 25 foes (0-5 on the road) with its last win being an 86-83 victory over No. 20 Drake at home on Feb. 26, 2008.

COACH Paul Lusk:

Paul Lusk (Southern Illinois, 1995) is 7-5 in his first season at MSU and 9-28 in two years overall. He is 4-1 at JQH Arena, 3-2 on the road, and 0-2 at neutral sites. This is his first game against Creighton 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:

• All four Missouri State seniors have now completed their undergraduate degrees. Kyle Weems (Hotel and Restaurant Administration) and Caleb Patterson (Psychology) completed their bachelor's requirements on Dec. 16, joining classmates Michael Bizoukas (Sports Management) and Isaiah Rhine (Speech and Language Pathology) to the impressive list. Bizoukas was a spring 2011 graduate of DePaul before transferring to Missouri State, while Rhine finished his degree during the summer of 2011. 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 2 three-pointers shy of 200 for his career. Only three other MSU players have 200 career three-pointers: Blake Ahearn (2003-07) 276; Johnny Murdock (1991-95) 266; and Kevin Ault (1996-2000) 254.

• Creighton is 25-3 over the last two seasons at home, with MSU defeating the Bluejays 67-55 on Jan. 4, 2011 in the Bears' most-recent trip to the facility formerly known as the Qwest Center. CU's other two home losses during that span are to No. 21 BYU (12/1/10) and Wichita State (1/12/11).

• In last week's trip to the Las Vegas Classic, the Bears fell to 0-7 all-time in Vegas with another pair of close outings in their third trip to the event. Those seven losses have come by an average margin of just 6.0 points with three overtime defeats.

• 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).

• Now in their 22nd season in the Missouri Valley Conference, the Bears are 12-9 all-time in MVC openers, including last year's 58-57 win at UNI (12/29/10), which was decided on a three by Kyle Weems (Sr., F, Topeka, Kan.) with 2.5 seconds remaining.

• MSU shot a collective 49.1 percent from the field in its two games in Las Vegas last week, including 53.8 percent -- the team's third-best effort of the season -- against West Virginia. MSU connected on 65-percent of its second-half shots against the Mountaineers in the overtime loss. Six different MSU players knocked down three-pointers in that game with standout shooting efforts from Caleb Patterson (8-for-11), Jarmar Gulley (5-for-6) and Corey Copeland (3-for-5) setting the pace.

• All-American Kyle Weems (Sr., F, Topeka, Kan.) has scored in double figures 11 straight games. He also has 92 double-digit scoring affairs, which ranks second on Missouri State's career list behind Daryel Garrison's 97. He also climbed to No. 8 on the MSU career scoring list (1,540), 37 points behind Blake Ahearn (2003-07) for the No. 7 spot.

• Last week, Missouri State senior Caleb Patterson hit for double figures three times, averaged 16.3 points and shot 65.6 percent from the field (21-for-32). The markedly-improved 6-foot-11 sensation was also 3-for-5 from three-point range on the week and tallied 18 points against both West Virginia and St. Mary's.

• The Bears have held 11 of their 12 opponents this season under 43-percent shooting from the field, pushing the Bears to 15th in the nation in FG Percentage Defense (.380), which is also tops in the MVC. MSU has shot a higher percentage from the field than 10 of its first 12 foes, despite ranking fourth in the MVC in that category (.451).

THE OPPONENT:

Creighton and second-year head coach Greg McDermott (Northern Iowa, 1988) are off to a stellar 10-1 start to the 2011-12 season and have attracted national attention and a No. 21 ranking this week by the Associated Press and No. 19 billing by the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll. Creighton has 10 lettermen and three starters back from a 23-16 team that finished as runners-up in the CBI last year after finishing 10-8 in the MVC (tied for fourth).

The Jays are 6-0 at the CenturyLink Center (17,260) and have gotten 30 percent of their points this season from super sophomore Doug McDermott (F, Ames, Iowa). The 2010-11 MVC Freshman of the Year has attempted a quarter of the team's shots and is averaging 25.4 points, 8.3 rebounds and 2.4 three-pointers per game. Antoine Young (Sr., G, Bellevue, Neb.) is also averaging double figures with 10.5 points and 4.5 assists each night, while Gregory Echenique (Jr., C, Guartire, Venezuela) has contributed 9.4 points, 6.2 rebounds and made good on 68 percent of his field goal attempts.

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