Bears Prepare for Friday Matchup at Big East Foe Xavier

Game 9 - Missouri State Bears (4-4) at Xavier Musketeers (7-3)
Date and Time	Friday, Dec. 12, 2025 \| 6:00 p.m. (Central)
Location	Cintas Center (10,224) \| Cincinnati, Ohio
Tickets	GoXavier.com \| (513) 745-3411
Radio	KWTO (FM 93.3 / AM 560) (Corey Riggs, Mike Keltner) \| Listen Live \| Bears Radio Network \| Varsity Network App
Television	truTV (Brandon Gaudin, Jim Spanarkel) \| Watch
Series	Xavier leads 1-0 \| Last Meeting: (21) XU 59, MSU 56 (11/15/19) \| Box Score
Live Stats	StatBroadcast
Game Notes	Missouri State \| Xavier \| CUSA Weekly Notebook \| MSU Meda Guide
Follow	Facebook \| Athletics Twitter \| Basketball Twitter \| Instagram \| #WeAreMoState \| #ItAllCounts
Bears Mobile App	App Store (Apple Devices) \| Google Play Store (Android Devices)
Up Next	Tuesday, Dec. 16 vs. Oral Roberts (7:00 p.m.) \| Tickets

The Ten Count

Missouri State wraps a difficult two-game road swing Friday when the Bears travel to Cincinnati to take on the Xavier Musketeers at 6:00 p.m. (Central) in a nationally-televised tilt on TruTV. MoState is chasing its first road victory of the young season, while its Big East foes are 6-1 at Cintas Center.
KenPom ranks the Bears No. 13 in Division I in FTRate (49.8), a "Four Factor" metric that represents a team's ability to get to the line (=FTA/FGA). MSU is shooting 67.5 percent at the stripe this season and has recorded more free throw attempts than its opponents in 7-of-8 games.
Missouri State forward Keith Palek III (Woodbine, N.J.) is the only player in Conference USA to rank in the top 12 in the league in scoring (16.8), rebounding (6.8) and assists (3.5) per game. The transfer from California (PA) ranks 6th in CUSA in scoring, 12th in rebounding and 8th in assists, while securing double-figure scoring efforts in 7-of-8 contests to date. He also ranks 3rd in CUSA in defensive rebounds per game (5.63).
For the first time in his collegiate career (66 games) Kobi Williams (Jr., St. Louis, Mo.) has posted back-to-back 20-point efforts. His 20 points at Tulsa last Saturday followed a 24-point effort at home against Northeastern State (Nov. 30). In that span, Williams is 8-of-13 (.615) from three and 14-for-23 (.609) from the field.
The Bears rank 4th in CUSA in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.34) and 3rd in fewest turnovers per game (11.1).
Cameron Boone (Jr., East St. Louis, Ill.) made his first start of the season in MSU's game at Tulsa on Dec. 6. He ranks 7th in Conference USA in total blocks (10), despite playing just 63 total minutes on the season.
Sophomore Zaxton King (G, Lawrence, Kan.) ranks 4th in CUSA in minutes per game (32:54), while KenPom ranks him 10th nationally in percentage of possible minutes played (91.5).
Bears head coach Cuonzo Martin is approaching his 75th win at Missouri State. In two stints with the Bears, Martin's teams are a combined 74-68 (.521) with MSU. He is 3-2 all-time against Xavier (2-1 with Tennessee and 1-1 as head coach at Missouri).
Michael Osei-Bonsu's( Sr., Bolingbrook, Ill.) streak of 39 straight starts was snapped in last Saturday's game at Tulsa. Sidelined with an injury, the MoState big man ranks 8th nationally in fouls drawn per 40 minutes (8.7), 9th (1st in CUSA) in FG percentage (.684) and 33rd in offensive rebounding (3.43).
In addition to his recent scoring surge, Kobi Williams ranks 4th in CUSA in free throw percentage (.833), 5th in minutes per game (32:21) and 6th in threes per game (2.00).
Missouri State last matched up against coach Richard Pitino at the Puerto Rico Tip-Off in San Juan on Nov. 20, 2015 when Pitino's Minnesota squad squeaked past the Bears, 74-69.

Coach Cuonzo Martin

After an extensive national search, Missouri State University announced Cuonzo Martin as its men's basketball head coach on March 27, 2024. The man who orchestrated Missouri State's only MVC regular-season championship run during his first tenure in Springfield originally coached at Missouri State from 2008 to 2011.
Martin has a 277-225 career record in his 16th seasons as a Division I head coach with experience at MSU, Tennessee, California and Missouri. His teams have made 9 postseason appearances in that span, including 4 trips to the NCAA Tournament, 4 appearances in the NIT, and a CIT title with the Bears in 2010.
Coach Martin is 74-68 in his fifth season (and second stint) at Missouri State, including 53-20 at home, 14-39 on the road and 5-6 at neutral sites.
Martin also boasts 59 college graduates during his career with stints at MoState, Tennessee (2011-14), California (2014-17) and Missouri (2017-22).
A native of East St. Louis, Ill., Martin was a star player at Purdue from 1991-95 for coach Gene Keady and then played four years professionally. He was on the coaching staff at Purdue for eight years under Keady and Matt Painter before accepting his first head coaching position at MSU on March 26, 2008.
In Martin's first stint in Springfield (2008-11), he was named Missouri State's 16th head coach in time for the program's 100th anniversary season and its inaugural campaign at Great Southern Bank Arena. In his second season (2009-10), Martin guided MoState to a 24-12 overall ledger, a 19-2 home record, and an impressive run to the CIT Postseason Tournament title.
His third season at MSU (2010-11) was one of the program's most memorable, as the Bears finished 26-9 overall on the way to its first-ever MVC regular-season title with a 15-3 league record. The Bears fell to Indiana State in the finals of the MVC Tournament in St. Louis and capped an unforgettable campaign by advancing to the second round of the NIT. Martin was named 2011 MVC Coach of the Year and recipient of the Ben Jobe Award as the nation's top minority head coach. Over Martin's last two years at MoState, the Bears were 35-3 at home and did not lose a non-conference home game.
Martin's return to MoState in 2024-25 featured a roster packed with 15 newcomers for the Bears' final season in the Missouri Valley. MSU's 9-23 overall record was not a fair representation of the club's season performance which included 14 single-digit losses -- which was tied for the fourth-most in the nation.
He coached his 500th career game on Nov. 24, 2025 at Great Southern Bank Arena vs. Long Island.

The Series

Xavier leads the all-time series, 1-0
Last Meeting: (21) XU 59, MSU 56 (11/15/19) | Box Score
The Bears are 14-7 at home, 6-14 at Tulsa and 2-0 at neutral sites against the former Valley foes

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