Jan. 5, 2012

Missouri State Bears (9-6, 2-1) at Indiana State Sycamores (10-4, 1-2)
Sat., Jan. 7, 2012, 12:05 p.m. (Central)

Hulman Center, Terre Haute, Ind. I Game Notes (PDF) I Tickets

GAME INFORMATION:

Series: MSU is 36-20 all-time against Indiana State (11-15 in Terre Haute)
Radio: KTXR (101.3 FM) and MSU Bears Radio Network (LISTEN LIVE)
Live Stats: Live Stats I Watch Live: Ozarks CW & ESPN3.com
GameDay Gear I MSU Game Notes I MVC Notes

THE GAME:

On the heels of a rugged 68-60 home loss to Illinois State on Wednesday night, the Missouri State Bears (9-6, 2-1 MVC) now head to Terre Haute, Ind., on Saturday in hopes of maintaining a share of the Missouri Valley Conference lead. The Bears, who currently sit in a six-way tie atop the MVC standings, will have a tall order ahead of them with the Sycamores of Indiana State (10-4, 1-2) holding a perfect 6-0 home record so far this season. ISU has four starters and 10 lettermen back from the team that dashed MSU's NCAA Tournament hopes last March in the MVC Tournament finals in St. Louis.
On Wednesday at JQH Arena, the Bears were out-rebounded 44-33 by Illinois State and surrendered 14 offensive boards and 10 three-pointers for their worst home loss (68-60) since Feb. 7, 2009. Kyle Weems (Sr., F, Topeka, Kan.), this week's USBWA National Player of the Week and MVC Player of the Week, scored all 18 of his points in the second half while collecting 7 rebounds and 4 three-pointers. Teammate Jarmar Gulley (Jr., G/F, Beaumont, Texas) contributed 16 points and a team-high 9 rebounds.
MSU leads the all-time series, 36-20, including an 11-15 mark in Terre Haute. ISU has won three of the last four meetings.

COACH Paul Lusk:

Paul Lusk (Southern Illinois, 1995) is 9-6 in his first season at MSU and 11-29 in two years overall. He is 2-1 in MVC play (1-1 at home, 1-0 on the road), 5-2 at JQH Arena, 4-2 on the road, and 0-2 at neutral sites. This is his first game against Indiana 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:

• Through the first three league games, MSU standout Kyle Weems (Sr., F, Topeka, Kan.) is averaging 17.0 points in the second half alone. He has second-half scoring efforts of 25, 8 and 18 points, respectively against Creighton, Drake and Illinois State to complement his overall 23.7 scoring average in MVC contests.

• The Bears are 3-0 in day games so far in 2011-12 with a 68-60 win at Arkansas State (Dec. 10), a 78-55 home win over Kennesaw State (Dec. 17) and a 72-61 home win over Drake (Dec. 31) to their credit.

• 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 the Dec. 28 win at No. 19 Creighton and 22 points in the Dec. 31 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.

• Reserve Keith Pickens (So., G, St. Louis, Mo.), a part-time starter on the 2009-10 squad, is averaging 7.5 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists in 27.5 minutes over the last two conference games. He has also drawn four charges in that span. His dunk in Wednesday's game against Illinois State was his first of the season and sixth of his career.
  

• Michael Bizoukas (Sr., G, Munster, Ind.) has now played 100 career games and needs just 14 points to match his season high scoring mark of 85 points set in 2009-10. Bizoukas also needs 8 rebounds for 200 career. He has logged 30 or more minutes the last five games and has made 4-of-5 free throws (.800) since the Dec. 22 game against West Virginia.
  

• Jarmar Gulley (Jr., G/F, Beaumont, Texas) has scored in double figures in five straight ball games. The talented transfer from Highland (Kan.) Community College is averaging 13.4 points during that stretch with 5.6 rebounds and an impressive .565 field goal percentage.

• All-American Kyle Weems (Sr., F, Topeka, Kan.) has now scored in double figures 14 straight games. His 94 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 (95). He ranks No. 8 on the MSU career scoring list (1,611), just 66 points behind Blake Ahearn (1,677 points from 2003-07) for the No. 7 spot.

• 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).
  

• In Wednesday's loss to Illinois State, the Bears surrendered 10 three-pointers for the fourth time this season. New Mexico (Dec. 3), Corpus Christi (Dec. 19) and West Virginia (Dec. 22) also knocked down 10 shots from bonus distance against MSU which is 1-3 when that happens.

• Four of the last five Missouri State opponents have registered double-digit offensive rebounds. MSU foes are averaging 12.2 offensive rebounds per game over the last five and posting an overall rebound margin of +1.6.

THE OPPONENT:

After a sensational 9-2 run through the non-conference portion of its schedule, Indiana State (10-4, 1-2) has lost two of its last three contests heading into Saturday's showdown with the Bears. The Sycamores dropped a 65-48 decision at Northern Iowa on Wednesday night despite 15 points off the bench from Dwayne Lathan (Sr., G, Chatham, La.) who was 7-for-10 from the field.

Lathan leads ISU at 11.8 points per game, followed by Carl Richard (Sr., G/F, Chicago, Ill.) at 10.2. Hometown product Jake Odum (So., G, Terre Haute, Ind.) scores 9.9 points per night with a team-high 5.4 rebounds and 82 assists, while Jordan Printy (Sr., G, Marion, Iowa) has a team-best 28 three-pointers to account for most of his 8.4 points per game.

Inidana State has four starters (Richard, Lathan, Odum and Myles Walker) back from a 20-14 club that finished 12-6 (third) in the MVC a year ago and defeated the Bears, 60-56, in the MVC Touranment finals to take the league's automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament. Coach Greg Lansing (South Dakota, 1990) also has 10 lettermen back from that club which is 6-0 at the Hulman Center this winter.