Jan. 2, 2012

Missouri State Bears (9-5, 2-0) vs. Illinois State Redbirds (9-4, 1-1)
Wed., Jan. 4, 2012, 7:05 p.m. (Central)

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

GAME INFORMATION:

Series: MSU is 25-32 against Illinois State (17-9 in Springfield)
Radio: KTXR (101.3 FM) and MSU Bears Radio Network (LISTEN LIVE)
Live Stats: Game Tracker I Watch Live: Bears All-Access
GameDay Gear I MSU Game Notes I MVC Notes

THE GAME:

Through the opening week of Missouri Valley Conference play, Missouri State (9-5, 2-0) sits in a two-way tie for first place in the conference standings as it prepares to host Illinois State (9-4, 1-1) at JQH Arena Wednesday at 7:05 p.m.
Coach Paul Lusk's squad is coming off a solid 72-61 home win over Drake on Saturday afternoon. The Bears fired a season-best 60.4 percent from the field, including an equally-impressive 62.5 percent from three-point range. MSU got 22 points from this week's MVC Player of the Week Kyle Weems (Sr., F, Topeka, Kan.) who was an efficient 10-for-12 from the field against the Bulldogs on the heels of a career-high 31 points against Creighton in the league opener. Jarmar Gulley (Jr., G/F, Beaumont, Texas) collected 14 points in the Drake win, while MVC Newcomer of the Week Anthony Downing (Jr., G, Atchison, Kan.) contributed 11 in his second career start.
The series between the Bears and Redbirds dates back to 1967 with ISU leading 32-25. MSU, which is 17-9 at home against ISU over the years, has won two in a row in the series.

COACH Paul Lusk:

Paul Lusk (Southern Illinois, 1995) is 9-5 in his first season at MSU and 11-28 in two years overall. He is 2-0 in MVC play (1-0 at home), 5-1 at JQH Arena, 4-2 on the road, and 0-2 at neutral sites. This is his first game against Illinois State 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:

• Missouri State's eight-game conference win streak is tied for the eighth-longest streak in Division I basketball and is the longest in the Missouri Valley Conference. George Mason (Colonial Athletic) leads the nation with 15 straight league victories.

• Kyle Weems (Sr., F, Topeka, Kan.), has earned MVC Player of the Week honors for the sixth time in his career, the league announced Monday. He helped Missouri State to a 2-0 start in league play with a career-high 31-point output in last Wednesday's win at No. 19 Creighton and 22 points in Saturday's home win over Drake. He was 21-for-34 (.618) from the field in two games, including 5-of-6 (.833) from three-point range. He also led MSU in rebounding in both games, averaging 8.0 caroms per game. Weems was 11-for-22 from the field against Creighton with 7 rebounds and knocked down all six free throws he attempted in the final 42 seconds to help the Bears secure their first-ever road win against a ranked opponent. He followed that with a 10-for-12 effort against Drake with 9 rebounds. Only three players in MVC history -- Hersey Hawkins, Bradley (14), Bob Harstad, Creighton (8) and Kyle Korver, Creighton (7) have earned MVC Player of the Week honors more times than Weems.

• Missouri State is approaching its 50th win at JQH Arena, which opened on Nov. 22, 2008. The Bears are 49-12 all-time at the facility, including a 40-4 mark since Nov. 16, 2009. MSU's four home losses during that span are by a combined 10 points.

• Illinois State is 18th in the nation this week in three-point field goals per game (8.7) and is 17-for-37 (.459) from bonus distance in conference play.

• The Bears are 6th in the nation last week in turnovers per game (10.3). This week's top five teams are: Wisconsin (8.5), Notre Dame (9.7), Purdue (9.7), Missouri (9.8) and Northwestern (10.1). Last season, MSU finished 7th among 336 Division I teams in fewest turnovers (10.3).
  

• The Bears have won five straight home games against Missouri Valley Conference foes. The last MVC team to beat the Bears at JQH Arena was Northern Iowa on Jan. 30, 2011 (60-59). Overall, the Bears have won eight straight conference games, dating back to Feb. 5, 2011, the longest streak in the MVC.

• All-American Kyle Weems (Sr., F, Topeka, Kan.) has scored in double figures 13 straight games. His 93 double-digit scoring affairs rank second on Missouri State's career list behind Daryel Garrison's 97 and are also second among active Division I players behind IUPUI's Alex Young (94). He ranks No. 8 on the MSU career scoring list (1,593), just 84 points behind Blake Ahearn (1,677 points / 2003-07) for the No. 7 spot.

• Nathan Scheer (So., G/F, Washington, Mo.) will be playing his 50th career game today and needs 15 points for 200 in his career.

• Jarmar Gulley (Jr., G/F, Beaumont, Texas) is coming off his fourth straight double-figure scoring game. He is averaging 12.8 points per game over the last four games with 19 (4.8) rebounds in that span.

• Michael Bizoukas (Sr., G, Munster, Ind.) needs just 17 points to match his season career scoring mark of 85 set in 2009-10. Bizoukas also needs 6 assists for 250 in his career, 13 rebounds for 200 and 2 games for 100.

• Anthony Downing (Jr., G, Atchison, Kan.) is MVC Newcomer of the Week for the second time this season. He averaged 18.5 points per game this week in helping the Bears to a 2-0 start in league play. He was 11-for-14 from the field in Wednesday's win at No. 19 Creighton to pace his career-high 26-point night. He was 4-for-6 from three-point range with 4 rebounds and 5 assists against CU. He followed that with an 11-point game aginst Drake.

• The Bears are 5-0 this season when scoring first and 9-2 when they shoot a higher free throw percentage than their opponents. MSU has also shot a higher field goal percentage than 12-of-14 foes so far this season.

THE OPPONENT:

Illinois State (9-4, 1-1) had a four-game winning streak snapped on Sunday at Southern Illinois as the Redbirds suffered their first league loss of the season, 86-71 to the Salukis. ISU opened conference play with a 65-61 home win over Northern Iowa that saw the Redbirds post four players in double figures. Coach Tim Jankovich's squad was led by a 19-point outburst from Jackie Carmichael (Jr., F, Manhattan, Kan.) and a double-double by Jon Ekey (So., F, Independence, Mo.) who posted 11 points and a game-high 13 rebounds in the win over UNI.

Carmichael averages a team-best 13.8 points and 8.3 rebounds per game for the Redbirds, while Ekey posts 11.1 points and 4.8 boards. ISU is 1-1 on the road so far in 2011-12, including a solid 78-73 win at Morehead State on Dec. 7.

Illinois State has three starters and six lettermen back from a 12-19 squad that was 4-14 (tied for ninth) in the MVC last year.