Bears v. Salukis

I braved the leftover snow and ice and made the trip Thursday night to Carbondale for the MSU-SIU game.  First, quick thoughts from the game.  Bears played good enough to win.  The missed free throws were absolutely killer.  Cooks played awful.  I was expecting a lot more from him.  It look like he had no passion.  Weems did not play very well either.  He was in foul trouble early and never got in a rhythm offensively.  To his credit, he played with four fouls for a good five or six minutes during the Bears comeback and stifling defense of SIU.

The Good: Wade Knapp and Wil Creekmore played fantastic down low.  SIU did not have an answer for them.  Creekmore hit outside shots and also battled in the post.  Once Knapp got the ball, he always put up a good shot even though it may not have gone down, or was fouled (needs to work on FTs).  Generally, the defense played very well.  SIU's final total of 68 was inflated at the end of the game and not reflective of the quality of defense.  Also, I very pleased to see that MSU actually has a post game.  They just did not throw up three after three and pray that the shots fall.  They ran an offense, stuck with it even when it wasn't working, and had success.  Overall, my first impression of Coach 'Zo and this year's team was a good one.

A final note on the game: the refs were awful.  They called 28 fouls in the first half and 22 in the second half.  My friends and I got there about six minutes into the game and counted at least seven clear travel calls and three close travels that were not called.

SIU Arena:  While it has an intimate feel to it (not a bad seat in the house), it is an old glorified high school gymnasium.  It looks like a sale barn from the outside.  On the inside, there is only three bathrooms that we could find and only two concession stands.  Every seat except the lower bowl seats going the length of the floor are benches.  Capacity is somehow 9400.  There is no way.  The place is a lot smaller than what it looks on TV.  It can't be much bigger than MacDonald Arena.  SIU is in the process of raising money to renovate it and construction cannot start soon enough. 

The only thing I have to complement SIU about is, at halftime, they print out the game stats and distribute them to everyone.  That was very convenient and nice to refer to during the second half.

ESPN Article on Mountain West - MVC Challenge

Apparently, ESPN just found out about the Mountain West - MVC challenge next year.  Bears drew Air Force on December 5, 2009.  Check out the short article here.  No word on TV coverage yet.

Bears Conference Season Begins Now...Finally

Ok, the Bears look like a last place team.  I am going to try to put rose colored glasses on for what has happened so far.  They have played what look like the better teams in the conference so far, and played them on the road.  Their young and have been injury plagued.  If they had more experience and knew how to close games, they would have beat Illinois State, Evansville on the road and Bradley.

Facts are stubborn things, though.  Bears are 0-5 in conference.  What they do have going for them is that Wichita State, the next worst team in the MVC, come into Springfield on Wednesday.  This is a must win.  Beat the Shockers on Wednesday, take the momentum into Normal next weekend and beat those frauds, Illinois State.  Come back to Springfield with confidence to win back-to-back against Drake and UNI.  All of the sudden the Bears are 4-5 with the most difficult part of their schedule done.

The path to respectability is there.  Sure, I am overly optimistic, but I believe that the Bears can do this.  Go Coach 'Zo!  Go Bears!

Big Win for the Bears, MVC

Way to go Bears!  A win over an SEC team is real nice, especially over the near by Razorbacks.  They are exceeding my expectations with at least two wins from the first four games.  Next up, Utah on Friday.   I believe that the Bears can and will take them.  

Just looking at the box score from last nights game, here are some items I noticed:

1.  Bears kept there turnovers way down.  Only 10 for the game, against 17 for Arkansas.

2.  Sixteen total assists.  That shows great teamwork.  A far cry from the Terrance McGee - Dano Novak arguments on the floor in front of 6,000 fans.

3. Cooks - Weems - Jehle seems like the lifeblood for the Bears this year.  Jehle was huge off the bench with 8 points, 9 boards and 5 assists.

4. Free throw percentage was alarmingly bad, 56.3% (9-16).  The starters were 4 for 10.  And, I do not know how many misses were on the front end of one and one.  They will lose a lot of games if this does not get corrected.  

5.  The three point percentage was not bad: 34.6%.  I would say that this is an average performance, even though 26 attempts seems like a lot.  If they are going to rely heavily on the three and compete for a conference championship, this stat probably needs to be near 40%.

All-in-all, great win.

I also would like to tack on to this post a commentary about MVC scheduling.  The Bears have the best non-conference win this year so far.  This caused me to take a look at other MVC teams schedules and I am disappointed with the number of games against quality and BCS programs.  I think it is key to schedule these games, whether home, away or neutral, in order to obtain multiple bids in the tournament.  Some of the fault lies with the BCS programs as they are afraid to play the MVC teams.  However, it hasn't prevent several MVC teams from scheduling tough teams.  Here is a breakdown of "quality" / BCS programs MVC teams will be playing this year:

Bradley - Florida, Michigan State, Butler

Creighton - New Mexico, Nebraska

Drake - Butler, Iowa, Iowa State, Vanderbilt

Evansville - Butler, North Carolina

Illinois State - No one

Indiana State - DePaul, Louisville, Purdue

Missouri State - Auburn, Arkansas, Utah, Tulsa

Southern Illinois - Duke, UCLA, St. Marys, Nevada

University of Northern Iowa - Marquette, Auburn, Iowa State, Iowa, Wyoming

Wichita State - Georgetown, Texas Tech, Texas Christian

What concerns me is that Creighton and Illinois State, the two teams that you would think are the best teams in the conference (preseason), have such a weak non-conference schedule.  It will be easy for the committee to dismiss either one of these teams because of schedule.  Hopefully, those teams that schedule decent clubs will (1) pull off an upset here and there; and (2) the other whoopings they take will toughen them up for conference and lead to conference success.  

MVC - Mountain West Challenge

If you haven't heard about it yet, click here. I think this is a brilliant move. It gives the Bears another quality non-conference game with potentially national exposure. A win over a nationally recognized program like Utah, BYU or UNLV could push the Bears off the bubble and into the Tournament. Fred Eck "Eck the Cat" and I have been advocating a conference v. conference match up for the MVC for years. We generally thought that the MAC would be more likely, but the Mountain West is a better conference.

I do have two concerns though, both media related: (1) no television contract yet; and (2) with the Mountain West, by definition, on the West Coast, will anyone east of Evansville care about the "Challenge."

Let me the first to ask: WHO WANTS TO WATCH THE BEARS IN VEGAS?

Ready for MVC Basketball

Earlier today, I purchased tickets to see the Bears go up against SIU in Carbondale on Wednesday, January 28. I will be traveling to the game with some guys who I work with who are SIU fans. It is going to be so sweet watching the Bears light up SIU on their dump of a home floor. My excitement level for this season has just gone up a couple of notches.

As an aside, word from SIU fans that I know is that the SIU arena is going to be renovated within the next couple of years. Something tells me that they are going to be ripping off a lot of the primo extras of JQH arena.

Congratulations Football Bears!

Missouri State won its first Valley Football road game in four years yesterday over Illinois State. What is more impressive is that they came back in the fourth quarter. It seems like this team is getting better each week and is playing to their full potential. I would love to have the Washburn Ichabod game back, but a win next week over the 16th ranked (who surely will be ranked higher this week in the polls), severely hated Salukis would make that loss go away in my eyes. The Bears would be near the top of the conference and in a position to get into the playoffs. Go Bears!

New AD

Please don't let it be Cheryl Burnett or any other former coach who has no experience as an A.D. Missouri State is on a level now where an experienced assistant or associate A.D. at a high level D-I school would entertain this as a great, first time A.D. job. Nietzel does seem like a guy who will go outside the Missouri State family/favorite to get the best qualified applicant (i.e. Terry Allen, Coach 'Zo; but not Nyla Mileson, local favorite). I hear Barry Hinson is available.

P.S. Bill Rowe's unwillingness to fire Barry is the reason why I think it is a positive that he is retiring. Nietzel had to pull the trigger himself, which isn't his job.

MVC Theme - 2009

I usually wait to reveal this later in the year; however, with the new website, Clint Baer moving, and a new coach, I couldn't wait any longer. So, I with great excitement and anticipation, the 2009 MVC Theme is:


"Old Friends, New Beginnings and the Disabled."


March can't come soon enough. Hard to believe it will be our 11th year.