Next up for Corliss & Co. are the Badly Drawn Bears of Missouri State.
The BDBs are 5-2 on the season with 43 points of win over Arkansas teams. Missouri State likes to score 80 against Natural State teams, beating stAte 80-71 and uAlr 80-46. One of their two losses was a four-point defeat at No. 23 Tennessee. They did not score 80. MSU is 9-2 all time against UCA.
The guy most likely to give the Better Logo Bears
problems is Kyle Weems, a 6-foot-6, 232-lb. junior forward.
Weems is averaging 14 points, 7.3 rebounds and 1 steal per game. He had led the other Bears in scoring in five of their seven games.
The guy second most likely to give UCA fits is 6-9, 248-lb. Will Creekmore.
Creekmore averages 12.4 points and 6.7 rebounds. He also leads the team with 16 turnovers. Led team with 16 points in win over UALR. Had 12 rebounds in win over Pacific.
When our Bears cheat down to try to force Creekmore into another turnover, the guy most likely to make them pay is 6-1 senior guard Adam Leonard, who has hit 17 3's this year and shoots 34 percent. UCA has three different guys with 8, in one less game.
Leonard hit 103 treys last season, the fifth player in the history of the Missouri Valley Conference to do so.
Missouri State has the coach on our schedule most likely to give Corliss a challenge in a game of one-on-one.
Cuonzo Martin played alongside Glenn Robinson on some damn tough Purdue teams in the mid-90s, basically the same years that Corliss was at Arkansas. From his bio on MSU's website...
Quote:
He went on to compile 1,666 points in his 127 career games at Purdue, including an 18.4 point-per-game scoring average as a senior. He made 43.9 percent of his field goals as a senior, including 46.9 percent from three-point range, and was an 80-percent free throw shooter.
During his last two seasons, Martin was 179-for-390 (.459) from three-point range to lead the Big Ten. He was fourth in the league in scoring as a senior and helped the Boilermakers to their second of three consecutive Big Ten titles. He also was named to Dick Vitale's All-Defensive team in 1995.
During Martin's four years, Purdue was 90-37, including 54-12 the last two seasons, with a pair of Big Ten titles.
Martin played professional basketball for four years, with brief NBA appearances with the Milwaukee Bucks (twice) and Vancouver Grizzlies. He spent most of his playing time in the Continental Basketball Association and Europe. He was team captain and leading scorer for three seasons with the Grand Rapids (Mich.) Hoops and was the leading scorer for the Felize Scandone team in Avellino, Italy, in 1997.
If the game were to go to overtime, I would be totally fine with letting Corliss and Cuonzo settle it mano y mano in a game to 11.
Missouri State plays in a $30-million dollar palace called the JQH Arena. The JQH stands for John Q. Hammons, who owns a bunch of hotels all over the nation.
They are averaging 6,140 attendance in four home games this year. Since the start of the 2006-07 season, the average of their average home attendance is 6,670. This is a place that takes its basketball seriously, and does it up right. MSU is 32-10 all-time in the building.
The Google maps tell us that Springfield is 187 miles away and a 3:34 drive. One could, theoretically, leave at 3 p.m. and arrive before tipoff. This is a trip Bear fans should try to make if they want a good look at what legit Division I college basketball looks like beyond the BCS conferences.
Notable alum:
Rand Chappell (semi-retired golfer)
Chappell is most known for owning a share of the Missouri State
record for runs allowed in a game (see pg. 9), having surrendered 13 to Southern on 3/20/84. He was also a successful head basketball coach at Division II Henderson State University in Arkadelphia before taking over at UCA, where he guided the Bears to a six-point defeat to something called Central Methodist in his 7th season.
Tip is set for 7:05. Fans can meet Santa Claus and receive free milk prior to the game.