The Missouri State Bears travel to Utah to face the BYU Cougars on Wednesday night. The Bears, of the Missouri Valley Conference, are 1-0 while the Cougars of the West Coast Conference, are 1-1. These two teams met last season with BYU winning 74-68 at Missouri State as a 1.5 point favorite. Can they make it two straight?
The Missouri State Bears are off to a 1-0 start on the young season. They won their opener against something called Missouri Science Tech, a Division II school. As you might expect, it was an epic beat down as the Bears won 82-47. There is not a whole lot to read into a win against a team like that, but the leading scorer was Chance Moore with 18 points and 6 rebounds. Alston Mason added 13 points while Jonathan Mogbo added 11 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocked shots.
Basketball Bears Prepare for Mid-Week Challenge at BYU https://t.co/iIWEmlcygn
— Missouri State Basketball (@MSUBearsHoops) November 14, 2022
The Bears are ranked 139th in the country by KenPom but I'll spare you the offensive and defensive stats because they really mean nothing as the only game was against a Div. II team. But the Bears were projected to finish 4th in the conference, coming off a second place finish last year at 23-11 overall and 13-5 in the conference. The only starter back from that team is Donovan Clay, who averaged 8.4 points, 6.1 rebounds and was named to the the league’s All-Defense Team. There are 13 new players including 7 transfers, so it should be interesting how they gel.