It’s a new basketball season and ahead of games being played the Missouri State Bears and Lady Bears are both dealing with a lot of new. On the men’s side, the Bears have over a dozen new players and on the women’s side, it’s the first season under new head coach Beth Cunningham.
The Missouri State men return just three players from last year’s team.
“It’s been a lot of teaching, it’s been a lot of team building, it’s been a lot of things you normally do when you take over a program so definitely been a different offseason than years past,” said MSU head coach Dana Ford.
However, Ford realizes they’re not alone.
“There’s a lot of people dealing with what we are, and it’s not always a bad thing,” he added.
Ford says his focus is on getting his guys prepared to play in the Missouri Valley Conference…a physical conference.
“Not a very physical team at the moment, not a very tough team. I would not say from a defensive rebounding standpoint we look like a Valley team yet,” said Ford.
That’s where his returners come in, like Donovan Clay.
“{I} Lead by example. {I} Try to show it in practice as much as I can, and go as hard as I can on defense. We got a lot of young guys coming in and they don’t know the physicality of our league,” said the senior Clay.
Although a newcomer, Ford is expecting a lot from Akron transfer and fifth-year senior Bryan Trimble Jr.
“I’ve been on a lot of good basketball teams and this team is giving me one of those vibes where we could play 9-10 guys if it came down to it. That’s rare in college basketball, that doesn’t happen,” Trimble Jr. said.
For the Lady Bears, this preseason has been all about evolving.
“I feel like we’ve had a lot of growth, I think we’ve gotten better individually I think we’ve gotten better as a team,” said first-year Lady Bears coach Beth Cunningham.
“Our chemistry is getting better each and every day and I think it’s something that is exciting,” added senior Ifunanya Nwachukwu.
“It’s going to be a challenge; the conference is going to be very good like it always is. It’s going to be exciting,” Coach added.
Cunningham is also excited about how her players fit into her new system but knows she has a young team.
“It’s hard because a lot of them haven’t played so I think with every game they’re going to hopefully have more confidence. Certainly, as you go through long seasons there’s going to be ups there’s going to be downs, so I don’t want their confidence to be shaken when things don’t go perfectly individually or as a team,” Cunningham said.
Although young, the Lady Bears are led by a handful of returners like Sydney Wilson, who’s dealing with a lower-body injury, but Cunningham expects her to be ready for the start of the season.
“There’s no pressure for us, just because we have a new team just because we have a new coach doesn’t mean we have to exceed expectations that we did last year. We’re just going to go in with the same mindset as we always do,” Wilson said.
“I think it’s been really fun. A lot of people are doubting us and ranked us 6th in the MVC {Missouri Valley Conference} and we should take that as a challenge going into this season to prove them wrong,” said Lady Bears sophomore Isabelle Delarue.
Both teams begin their season at home in early November. The Lady Bears home opener is against in-state rival Missouri on November 7th.
