Feb. 11, 2016

Missouri State Game Notes | Indiana State Game Notes | MVC Weekly Notebook

Missouri State Bears (10-15, 6-7 MVC) vs. Indiana State Sycamores (13-12, 7-6 MVC)
Sat., Feb. 13, 2016	JQH Arena, Springfield, Mo. | 3:04 p.m. | ESPN3
Location	JQH Arena (11,000) | Springfield, Mo. | @JQHArena
Promotions	Glow Game (First 2,000 fans receive glow-in-the-dark shirt) | Hall of Fame Weekend
MSU Tickets	Game 26 vs. Indiana State
Fan Information	BearWear | Browser Theme | Visitors Guide | MSU Bookstore
Television	ESPN3 with Ned Reynolds & Kelby Stuckey
Radio	Missouri State Radio Network with Art Hains & Mike Keltner
Online Coverage	Live Audio Stream | ESPN3 |
MissouriStateBears.com	| Basketball Home Page
Connect	@MissouriStBears | @MSUBearsHoops | Bears on Facebook |Bears on Instagram | #MSUBears | #MVCHoops
All-Time Series	MSU leads 40-25 | MSU Streak: L1 | Last Meeting: ISU 68, MSU 59 (1/27/16)
Up Next	MSU travels to Wichita State on Thursday, Feb. 18 at 6 p.m. on CBS Sports Network

The 10 Count

• MSU is 27-5 all-time against the Sycamores in Springfield and 5-2 in JQH Arena with 3 straight wins at home.
  
• Chris Kendrix (So., Willard, Mo.) has scored 20 points in three straight ball games. The last MSU player to reach that milestone was Kyle Weems in 2010-11. Kendrix is second among all MVC players in February scoring (20.7 ppg.)
  
• Kendrix has already eclipsed his MVC scoring total from last season (147 in 18 games) with 148 points in just 11 MVC games this season. He has upped his Valley scoring average from 8.2 points per game to 13.5 since last year.
  
• Ryan Kreklow (Fr., Columbia, Mo.) is shooting .451 from 3-point range in Valley games, which is third among all league players and tops among the league's newcomers. He has scored multiple treys in 8 of his last 11 games.
  
• MSU's four freshmen - Dixon, Church, Kreklow and Thompson - have combined to score 524 points (21.0 ppg) and 31.2% of the team's offense. They are just the fourth freshman class in program history to score 500 points. MSU also ranks 18th nationally in freshman minutes played (1,769), which is second only to Bradley among Valley programs.
  
• Five-time MVC Newcomer of the week Dequon Miller (Jr., Charleston, W.Va.) is coming off career highs for rebounds (7) and assists (7) in Wednesday's game at Northern Iowa. He has 12 3-pointers in his last 4 games at JQH Arena.
  
• Loomis Gerring's (Sr., Kansas City, Mo.) 7 points at UNI were his most since Dec. 22 and first points in MVC play.
  
• Jarred Dixon (Fr., Kansas City, Mo.) is just 8 points shy of becoming the 16th MSU freshman to eclipse 200 points. His 125 pts. in MVC games is 2nd in the league among the frosh, while he leads all MVC newbies in steals with 32.
  
• Jordan Martin (Jr., St. Louis, Mo.) blocked a career-high 3 shots in Wednesday's game at Northern Iowa.
  
• Obediah Church (Fr., Springfield, Ill.) has recorded a dunk in 10 straight ball games, shattering the unofficial club record with 29 slams this year. He ranks 2nd in the league in blocks (12) and 5th in rebounds (6.4) during MVC games.

The Series

The Bears and Sycamores first met in 1951-52 and have met 65 times, including a memorable matchup in the 1953 national semifinals. MSU leads the all-time series, 40-25, including a 27-5 mark in Springfield and 5-2 record in JQH Arena. MSU has won three in a row in Springfield and are pushing for a series split for the seventh year in a row.
Khristian Smith had 20 points and 8 rebounds to lead ISU over MSU earlier this year in Terre Haute, 68-59 with Jarred Dixon dumping in 19 for MSU.

Scouting the Sycamores

Sixth-year head coach Greg Lansing has three starters and nine lettermen back from a 15-16 club that held the No. 3 seed in St. Louis last March. Devonte Brown (G, 6-2, Sr.) leads the Sycamores with 16.2 points and 4.8 rebounds per game and is one of the nation's top 20 performers in free throws (159) and attempts (204). Sophomore Brenton Scott (G-1, G) has scored 15.4 points per game with a team-high 62 3-pointers. The Sycamores are 2-8 in true road games this year (1-5 in Valley road games).

Coach Paul Lusk

Paul Lusk (Southern Illinois, 1995) is 68-86 (.442) in his fifth season at MSU and 70-109 (.391) in his sixth season overall as a head coach. He is 36-49 in MVC games (24-18 at home, 12-31 on the road), 2-4 in MVC Tournament games and 30-33 against all non-conference foes (20-11 at JQH Arena, 9-12 away and 1-10 at neutral sites). In all games, he is 44-29 at home, 21-43 on the road, and 3-14 at neutral sites. Lusk is 2-7 against UNI, including an 0-4 mark at McLeod Center.
The 44-year-old Lusk took the reins as MSU's 17th head coach on April 1, 2011. He came to Springfield after seven seasons at Purdue (2004-11), including his last three as associate head coach there. Now in his 17th 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 played or coached in 10 NCAA Tournaments.
Lusk finished third in the MVC Coach of the Year voting in 2014 and was a finalist for the Skip Prosser Man of the Year Award that same year. He was also named one of the Top 25 high-major assistants by FoxSports.com in 2010, and CollegeSportsMadness.com named him MVC coach of the year in 2012. He is a member of the Illinois Basketball Hall of Fame after scoring 2,743 points during a highly-touted prep career at Wesclin High in New Baden, Ill. He went on to play 107 college games at Iowa and Southern Illinois, earning All-MVC second-team honors in 1994 for the Salukis.

Miller Earns MVC Newcomer Award for Fifth Time

For the fifth time this season, Missouri State junior guard Dequon Miller (Charleston, W.Va.) was named Missouri Valley Conference Newcomer of the Week on Jan. 25.
For the week, Miller posted a pair of 20-point games with a career-high 23-point effort helping the Bears secure a come-from-behind win at Drake on Jan. 20. He averaged 22.5 points per game for the week and was also 11-for-12 (.917) at the foul line with six 3-pointers, 4 assists and 6 rebounds.
Since the award began in 2003-04, only three other MVC players have won the award more times in their rookie season -- seven-time winner Doug McDermott (Creighton 2010-11), and six-time winners Cleanthony Early (Wichita State 2012-13) and Marcellus Sommerville (Bradley 2003-04).
Only four Missouri State players -- Danny Moore (1997), Mike Wallace (2001), Spencer Laurie (2007) and Adam Leonard (2010) -- have earned the prestigious honor of MVC Newcomer of the Year.

Dixon Picks Up League Honor

After breaking a school record and posting a career high, freshman guard Jarred Dixon (Kansas City, Mo.) was named Missouri Valley Conference Newcomer of the Week on Feb. 1. Dixon had a breakout week for the Bears, posting a career-high 19 points at Indiana State and then taking over in overtime to help MSU topple Illinois State at home. His 6 steals against Illinois State -- including 2 in the final two minutes of regulation -- were a new MSU freshman single-game record and matched the third-best effort in program history. For the week, he averaged 16.5 points, 4.0 rebounds, 3.5 steals and 2.5 assists.

Sixth Place at the Turn

After being picked eighth in the MVC preseason poll, the Bears have compiled a 3-2 record on the Valley road, gone 4-4 in January and sit in sixth place at 4-5 in the league standings at the midway point.
Over the previous six seasons, MSU has been 2-7 (2014-15), 4-5 (2013-14), 4-5 (2012-13), 5-4 (2011-12), 8-1 (2010-11) and 4-5 (2009-10), respectively at the turn. The Bears made postseason appearances in three of those seasons with CIT bids in 2010 and 2014 and an NIT appearance in 2011.

Up Next

MSU travels to Wichita State on Thursday, Feb. 18 to take on the No. 25-ranked Shockers at 6 p.m. The game will be televised live on CBS Sports Network.

MVC Standings

Team	MVC	Pct.	Overall	Pct.
Wichita State	12-1	.923	18-6	.750
Evansville	8-4	.667	19-6	.760
Illinois State	8-4	.667	14-11	.560
Southern Illinois	8-5	.615	19-7	.731
Indiana State	7-6	.538	13-12	.520
Northern Iowa	7-6	.538	15-11	.577
Missouri State	6-7	.462	10-15	.400
Loyola Chicago	5-8	.385	12-13	.480
Bradley	2-11	.154	4-22	.154
Drake	1-12	.077	6-919	.240