Feb. 6, 2012

Missouri State Bears (14-11, 7-6) at Southern Illinois Salukis (8-16, 5-8)
Wed., Feb. 8, 2012, 7:00 p.m. (Central)
SIU Arena (8,500), Carbondale, Ill. I Game Notes (PDF) I Tickets

GAME INFORMATION:

Series: SIU leads 38-31 (MSU is 7-21 in Carbondale)
Radio: KTXR (101.3 FM) and MSU Bears Radio Network (LISTEN LIVE)
Live Stats: Live Stats I Watch Live: ESPN3.com
GameDay Gear I MSU Game Notes I MVC Notes I Charlie Spoonhour Tribute Page

THE GAME:

The Missouri State Bears wrap a two-game conference road swing on Wednesday when Coach Paul Lusk returns to his alma mater to take on the Southern Illinois Salukis in another key Missouri Valley Conference battle.
MSU is coming off its seventh road win of the season on Saturday at Drake. The Bears forced 14 turnovers and held the Bulldogs to just 27.3 percent shooting in a decisive 57-39 victory. Kyle Weems (Sr., F, Topeka, Kan.) had a game-high 17 points and 7 rebounds with 3 three-pointers, while Anthony Downing (Jr., G, Atchison, Kan.) contributed 12 points and 4 assists, and Jarmar Gulley (Jr., G/F, Beaumont, Texas) pulled down a game-high 8 rebounds. Missouri State out-rebounded Drake by a 36-27 margin and fired at a 44.7 percent clip from the field. The Bears also improved to 4-2 in MVC road games this season.
The Salukis are coming off a thrilling 53-52 home win over Evansville on Saturday at SIU Arena. Coach Chris Lowery's squad held off a late surge by the Purple Aces and overcame a 2-for-5 (.400) free throw percentage in the second half to improve to 6-5 at home this season. Jeff Early (Jr., G, Glasgow, Va.) led three Salukis in double figures with 14 points.
MSU has won five straight meetings, but SIU still holds the all-time series lead, 38-31, including a 21-7 mark in Carbondale.

COACH Paul Lusk:

Paul Lusk (Southern Illinois, 1995) is 14-11 in his first season at MSU and 16-34 in two years overall. He is 7-6 in MVC play (3-4 at home, 4-2 on the road), 7-5 at JQH Arena, 7-4 on the road, and 0-2 at neutral sites. He is 1-0 against his alma mater (0-0 in Carbondale) and is also 1-1 against Top 25 opponents.
Lusk took the reigns as MSU's 17th head coach on April 1, 2011. He came to Springfield after seven seasons at Purdue (2004-11), including the last three as associate head coach. 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 after playing in three NCAA Tourneys as a player at SIU.

THE TEN COUNT:

• Reigning MVC Player of the Year Kyle Weems (Sr., F, Topeka, Kan.) has had the hot hand of late for the Bears. Over the last seven conference games, he is 24-for-25 (.960) from the free throw line and has been scorching nets at an amazing 61-percent clip (11-for-18) from three-point range over the club's last three contests. He is also averaging 19.3 points per game over the last three games with 7.0 rebounds.
  

• The Bears are 1-6 in Wednesday contests this season.

• MSU held Drake to 39 points and 27.3 percent shooting at the Knapp Center on Saturday night in Des Moines. The effort marked the fewest points allowed by the Bears since a 59-37 home win over Arkansas-Little Rock on Dec. 3, 2008, a game in which Cuonzo Martin's squad held the Trojans to a JQH Arena record-low 23.4 percent shooting. The last time the Bears allowed less than 40 points on the road was a 52-39 win at Indiana State on Jan. 31, 2004. The last time the Bears held an opponent to 27.3 percent shooting on the road was also against Indiana State when the Sycamores shot 17.6 percent (9-for-51) on Feb. 3, 2007 in Terre Haute.

• The Bears have led eight of their last 10 games at halftime and have come from behind to win the two games they trailed at the half in that span. Missouri State is 11-6 overall this season when taking a lead into the intermission and 4-4 over the last 10 contests. MSU is also 3-4 when trailing at the break this season and 0-1 when tied.
  

• Kyle Weems needs just 1 rebound to give him 800 total for his career, a feat achieved by just four other Bears -- Curtis Perry (1,424), Danny Bolden (1,133), William Doolittle (1,042), and Don Carlson (844). Doolittle (1974) was the last Bear to snag 800 career boards. Weems is also 12 assists shy of 200 for his career. He is likely to become MSU's first player ever to record 800 rebounds and 200 assists and just the third player, along with Bolden and Perry, to post 1,000 career points and 800 rebounds.

• Weems' current run of 24 consecutive double-figure scoring games matches the longest stretch of his career.
  

• The Bears remained No. 5 in the nation this week in turnovers per game (10.48), the best in the MVC. MSU trails only Wisconsin (8.8), Purdue (9.1), Weber State (10.2), and Northwestern (10.3). Last season, MSU finished 7th among 336 Division I teams in fewest turnovers (10.3).
  

• Michael Bizoukas (Sr., G, Munster, Ind.), ranks No. 4 in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (+3.19) this week and 23rd in assists (5.9). He leads the MVC in both categories.
  

• MSU head coach Paul Lusk and SIU head coach Chris Lowery both graduated from SIU in 1995 and were teammates and roomates together for the Salukis. Both played on the 1993 and 1994 NCAA Tournament teams and were both All-MVC second-team picks during their careers. They later went on to coach on the same staff at Missouri Southern for head coach Robert Corn for the 1999-2000 season, leading the Lions to a 30-3 record and NCAA Division II Tournament.

• Kyle Weems (Sr., F, Topeka, Kan.) currently sits in fourth place on MSU's career scoring list with 1,775 points. He trails only Daryel Garrison (1,975 - 200 points ahead of Weems), Curtis Perry (1,835 - 60) and Johnny Murdock (1,834 - 59) among the Bears' all-time great scorers. He now has 934 career points in MVC games.

• The last time the two teams met on Jan. 10, the Salukis forced the Bears into a season-high 20 turnovers, the most mishaps by an MSU squad since Dec. 3, 2007 (at Arkansas).

• Michael Bizoukas (Sr., G, Munster, Ind.) is third among active MVC players in career assists (311), trailing only Antoine Young of Creighton (454) and Toure' Murry of WSU (391).

THE OPPONENT:

Southern Illinois starts the week with an 8-16 overall record, but is coming off a solid 53-52 win over Evansville on Saturday and is 4-2 at SIU Arena in conference play. The Salukis got 14 points and 8 rebounds from Jeff Early (Jr., G, Glasgow, Va.), while Mamadou Seck (Sr., F, Dakar, Senegal) had 10 points and a game-high 11 rebounds to secure the victory. SIU collected 9 steals and forced 16 turnovers, while holding the Purple Aces to 40.9 percent shooting from the field.

For the season, Seck leads the Salukis with 12.3 points, 8.0 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. He is a 48-percent field goal shooter and 79-percent free-throw shooter. Dantiel Daniels (Fr., F, Wentzville, Mo.) is second on the club with 8.4 ppg and 4.7 rpg and a team-best 1.8 blocks. SIU ranks 77th nationally in steals (7.7).

Eighth-year head coach Chris Lowery (Southern Illinois, 1995) returns two starters -- Seck and Kendal Brown-Surles (Jr., G, Evansville, Ind.) -- from a 13-19 squad that was 3-13 in the MVC last year (9th). The Salukis also have five lettermen returning. SIU is 6-5 at SIU Arena this winter and has not lost a home game in regulation since Jan. 7 (Wichita State).