Sixth-year Missouri State head men’s basketball coach Dana Ford wants what he calls the “three E’s” from his team each time it takes the court. — effort, energy and enthusiasm.
After the Bears’ effort in their most recent blowout loss, Ford has found a fourth “E” that’s becoming too common over the last several games.
“It’s very disappointing — embarrassed,” Ford said. “It’s a situation where we need to get it figured out.”
In front of what appeared to be one of the smallest home men’s basketball crowds in Great Southern Bank Arena’s history, the Bears turned in a humiliating 77-53 loss to Murray State.
There was no effort. There was no energy. There was no enthusiasm. There was just an embarrassment of a display for a program on its home floor after starting the year with much promise amid a 6-1 start to only lose six of its last nine games.
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“It’s a very hard time for our team,” Ford said. “I’ll stay away from trying to say low-point and things like that but it’s a hard time. I think that’s very hard for our group. They obviously don’t want to have back-to-back losses, especially in the manner in which we did on our home court and in a situation where we probably should have responded better from the last game.”
In a non-competitive game from the 17:11 mark in the first half on, the Bears turned in a performance that was unlike many (if any) that has taken place under Ford.
Murray State, a team that’s still below .500 this season, had four players go for double-digits as it shot 50.8% from the field. It won the rebounding battle and scored 20 more points in the paint than the Bears did.
Missouri State shot 34.5% as a team while going 7 for 30 in the first half. The Bears have thrown up 3’s at will with not many connecting. They had to resort to going deep in their bench for players who might give some resemblance of effort when you wouldn’t have blamed them if they stayed in the locker room after halftime.
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“I think it’s disappointing,” junior guard Alston Mason said. “I think we just haven’t been playing with a lot of passion or coming out here with a lot of energy and playing like we can win the game. I think we’ve been just taking punches to the chin and not responding to it. I think that’s big for our team. It’s just trying to be aggressive and being the ones to throw the first punch. We just got to get our juice back.”
The loss came four days after the Bears lost by 26 at Bradley in a game Ford used the word “unacceptable” to describe. Wednesday was somehow worse.
Missouri State has now lost three games in a row and has dropped to 1-4 in the Missouri Valley Conference standings when there are now four teams atop the league tied at 4-1.
Wednesday night’s 24-point defeat had even the most diehard of Bears fans heading racing toward the exits by halftime.
Keen eyes in the crowd observed MSU President Clif Smart and Athletics Director Kyle Moats sitting in a luxury box looking as miserable as ever with the latter spending most of the second half on the phone or nose-deep in it.
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The two appear to be the ones who will make the decisions about the future of the program even with Smart’s upcoming retirement. Smart’s final day as MSU’s president is due June 30 with his successor expected to be announced at some point in March. It’s unclear how much involvement Smart’s successor will have when deciding Ford’s future, as he has one year remaining on his contract. Whoever makes the decision will have to deal with a fanbase whose frustration is building toward what it was over the last two years of the Paul Lusk era.
Maybe those fans will be welcomed back when the Bears start winning.
“I think we know our team is very talented and we have a really good group of guys,” Mason said. “Sometimes, you get caught up in talent and hoping that can get you there. Once the talent runs out, you’re left dry. I think that’s where we’re at right now. I think we’re kind of recognizing that you can’t just be the team off of talent and expect things. For us, we have to get a switch in our system and really work these next couple of days and approach each game and practice with a different mentality.”
Ford and Mason say the locker room is still together. As broken as everything appears to be on the court, they’ll have the rest of the season to try and fix it but the clock is ticking.
“They’re together,” Ford said. “I don’t think they’re pointing fingers or anything like that. They’re just together in the hard times along with their coach and their coaching staff. We’re all in it together.”
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The Bears will now have a two-game road trip when they’re 1-5 in their opponent’s arenas. They start at Evansville (10-6, 1-4) for a Saturday 6 p.m. game. MSU beat the Purple Aces 90-78 on Nov. 29.
They will then travel to Indiana State (13-3, 4-1) which has looked like the best team in the league through five games although it lost 89-78 at Drake (13-3, 4-1) on Wednesday night.
A complete turnaround is needed. Although Ford wanted to avoid calling it a low point, it’s hard to come up with anything lower. The Bears appear to be at the lowest they’ve been since the program’s final year under Lusk.
“As a coach, you want to have your team energized and you want to have their effort at a high level and you want them to be enthused,” Ford said. “I’m very disappointed in myself and in my inability to get what we like to call the ‘three E’s.'”
Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or X at @WyattWheeler_NL.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri State basketball hits lowest point after loss to Murray State
