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Missouri State

Men's Basketball

Bears Prepare for Oklahoma State Opportunity Wednesday

Dec. 6, 2011

Missouri State Bears (4-2) vs. Oklahoma State Cowboys (5-2)
Dec. 7, 2011, 8 p.m. (Central)
JQH Arena, Springfield, Mo. I Game Notes (PDF) I Tickets
Promotion: "Gray Out" I Gray Out TShirts

GAME INFORMATION:

Series: OSU leads 6-0 (OSU is 1-0 in Springfield)
Radio: KTXR (101.3 FM) and MSU Bears Radio Network (LISTEN LIVE)
Live Stats: I Watch Live: ESPNU
GameDay Gear I MSU Game Notes I MVC Notes

THE GAME:

After a difficult two-game road swing through Tulsa and Albuquerque, the Missouri State Bears (4-2) return to JQH Arena Wednesday at 8 p.m. when they welcome the Oklahoma State Cowboys (5-2) to Springfield for the first time since 1994.
The game will air nationally on ESPNU with Mitch Holthus and Reid Gettys describing the action.
Last week, MSU dropped a pair of road games with a 68-63 loss at Oral Roberts on Wednesday followed by a 76-60 defeat at New Mexico in the MWC-MVC Challenge on Saturday at The Pit. After falling behind 23-4 out of the gates at New Mexico, Jarmar Gulley (Jr., G/F, Beaumont, Texas) helped stage an MSU comeback in the second half as he scored 15 of his team-high 17 points in the second stanza and collected a game-high 8 rebounds. Despite scoring five more field goals than UNM, the Lobos shot 30 more free throws than MSU to seal their win.
The Cowboys of Coach Travis Ford defeated Tulsa 59-56 last Wednesday in Stillwater before destroying Langston by an 80-56 count on Sunday night at home and will be playing in their first true road game of the 2011-12 campaign.
The Bears and Cowboys have met just once in Springfield -- a 68-63 Cowboys' victory on Jan. 19, 1994.

COACH Paul Lusk:

Paul Lusk (Southern Illinois, 1995) is 4-2 in his first season at Missouri State and 6-25 in two years overall as a head coach. He is 2-0 at JQH Arena, 2-2 in road games and will be meeting Oklahoma State 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.

THE TEN COUNT:

  • The Bears have held all six of their 2011-12 opponents under 42-percent shooting from the field, pushing the Bears to 11th in the nation in FG Percentage Defense (.353). MSU has shot a higher percentage from the field than five of its first six foes, despite ranking 9th in the MVC in that category (.423).
  • Highland (Kan.) Community College product and NJCAA Division II All-AmericanJarmar Gulley (Jr., G/F, Beaumont, Texas) has started five of MSU's first six games and leads the Bears in field goal percentage (.581) and rebounding (6.8), while averaging 10.3 points per game for Paul Lusk's squad. He is this week's Missouri State Coors Player of the Week after notching a career-high 17 points (15 in the second half) on 8-of-9 shooting at New Mexico on Saturday. Gulley ranks fourth in the MVC in FG Pct.
  • The Bears are in their fourth season at JQH Arena (capacity 11,000) and have won seven straight there. Missouri State has also won 22straight non-conference games at The Q, dating back to a loss to Middle Tennessee (63-51) on Dec. 22, 2008. Over the last three seasons, MSU is 37-3at JQH Arena with those three losses coming by a combined five points.
  • Missouri State ranks 29thin NCAA all-time wins (1,553) and 15thin all-time win-loss percentage (.644) among programs with at least 25 years in Division I. Comparitively, Oklahoma State is 33rd on the victories list with 1,519 entering the season, and the Cowboys are not among the all-time top 50 in win-loss percentage (.591).
  • Tonight's game against Oklahoma State will mark just the seventh time a current member of the Big XII Conference has visited Springfield. It is also the first time the Bears have battled a Big XII opponent at JQH Arena. MSU is 1-0 against Missouri, 1-0 against Texas A&M, 1-0 against Kansas State, 0-2 against Texas Tech and 0-1 against OSU. The Bears were 1-0 at McDonald Arena against current Big XII teams and 2-3 at Hammons Student Center with the last visit being a 76-76 Bears win over Texas A&M on 12/17/01.
  • The Bears are 9thin the nation this week in turnovers per game (10.5) and 24thin turnover margin (+4.8). Last season, MSU finished 7th among 336 Division I teams in turnovers (10.3).
  • A transfer from DePaul, Michael Bizoukas(Sr., G, Munster, Ind.) ranks among the Missouri Valley Conference leaders in three categories -- 2nd in assists (5.3), 3rd in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.3), and 9th in three-point FG percentage (.467). He also ranks 45th nationally in assists and 64th in assist-to-TO.
  • Reigning MVC Player of the Year Kyle Weems (Sr., F, Topeka, Kan.) has scored in double figures five straight games and has now scored 10 or more points 86 times in his 108-game career with 12 double-doubles.
  • Isaiah Rhine(Sr., C, Versailles, Mo.) earned his first start since his sophomore season Saturday when got the call at New Mexico (12/3/11). It was the sixth start of his MSU career and first since the 2010 CIT quarterfinals against Louisiana Tech (3/22/10) -- his only start of his sophomore year. He started four games as a true freshman in 2008-09, including his collegiate debut at Auburn on 11/14/08.
  • Caleb Patterson(Sr., C, Ames, Okla.) leads the Missouri Valley Conference in free throw percentage (.933) with makes in 14 of his first 15 charity attempts this season. Patterson has scored in double figures in four games this season (with two 9-point games) and has matched or surpassed his career scoring high twice already this year.
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