Missouri S&T Men's Basketball
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Missouri S&T Men’s Basketball www.minerathletics.com Facebook.com/MinerSports Twitter.com/MinerSports John Kean, Sports Information Director Office : (573) 341-4140 Cell: (573) 578-4582 E-mail: [email protected] Missouri S&T Miners vs. Maryville Saints Sun., Nov. 29, 2020 • Moloney Arena • St. Louis, Mo. • 3:15 p.m. Missouri S&T Maryville Ranking: Not ranked Ranking: Not ranked 2020-21 Records: 0-1, 0-1 GLVC 2019-20 Records: 5-22, 1-19 GLVC Head Coach: Bill Walker Head Coach: Jesse Shaw (6-21, 2nd year at S&T; 65-101 overall, 7th year) (0-0, 1st year at MU; overall record same) Game Coverage Radio: KTTR Radio (99.7 FM, Rolla) MISSOURI S&T PROBABLE STARTERS: Video & Live Stats: www.minerathletics.com (Go to Video & Live Stat links) No. Name Ht. Year PPG RPG AST STL Hometown 10 Julien Smith 6-2 Fr. 20.0 0.0 2 1 Fort Worth, Texas 15 Kaden Froebe 6-3 Fr. 10.0 9.0 6 2 Lincoln, Ill. 2020-21 Schedule/Results 24 Chima Oduocha 6-8 Sr. 3.0 4.0 1 1 Hoffman Estates, Ill. (0-1 overall and in GLVC) 30 Kevin Legardy 6-0 Jr. 3.0 8.0 2 0 Las Vegas, Nev. 32 Mitch Fairless 6-7 Jr. 11.0 3.0 1 0 St. Charles, Mo. Date Opponent Time/Score Nov. 27 at Lindenwood* L, 70-89 Nov. 29 at Maryville* 3:15 pm Officials: Chris Kespohl, Greg Rennegarbe, Kelly Hunt Dec. 3 McKENDREE* 7:30 pm Dec. 5 ROCKHURST* 3 pm Dec. 12 SOUTHWEST BAPTIST* 3 pm Today’s Starting Five: Dec. 18 at Drury* 3 pm Dec. 20 at William Jewell* 3 pm 1 MIssouri S&T will seek to break into the win column for the first time in the 2020-21 season Jan. 3 ILLINOIS SPRINGFIELD* 4 pm Sunday afternoon as it closes out a season-opening road swing with a game at Maryville Jan. 9 QUINCY* 6 pm University. The Miners dropped their season opener Friday 89-70 at Lindenwood, despite Jan. 14 at Truman State* 7:30 pm having five players score in double figures. Sunday’s contest is the season opener for Jan. 16 WILLIAM JEWELL* 6 pm Jan. 21 at Rockhurst* 7:30 pm Maryville, who was not scheduled to play on the opening day of the GLVC slate. Jan. 23 at Southwest Baptist* 3 pm 2 Missouri S&T’s Julien Smith scored 20 points in his Miner debut, making him the first Miner Jan. 28 DRURY* 7:30 pm to score at least 20 points in his first S&T game since Chris Harris had 24 in the 2017-18 Feb. 4 MARYVILLE* 7:30 pm opener against Blackburn. That game also marked the last time the Miners had as many Feb. 6 LINDENWOOD* 3 pm as five players reach the double figure mark in a season opener. Feb. 11 at Missouri-St. Louis* 7:30 pm Feb. 13 at McKendree* 3 pm 3 The Miners are seeking their fifth straight win over Maryville on Sunday and third straight Feb. 18 SOUTHERN INDIANA* 7:30 pm at Moloney Arena, where S&T has posted wins of 76-70 and 72-61 over the past two Feb. 20 INDIANAPOLIS* 3 pm seasons. Since joining the GLVC prior to the 2005-06 season, the Miners have posted Feb. 25 at Lewis* 7:30 pm three straight road wins over a conference foe just twice, winning three straight times at Feb. 27 at Illinois Springfield* 3 pm Maryville from 2010-12 and at Rockhurst from 2012-14. Mar. 4-7 GLVC Tournament (1) 4 Bill Walker, a former Miner player, is beginning his second season as the Miners’ head All times Central coach. Walker played for the Miners from 1984-87 and averaged 9.1 points per game over *Great Lakes Valley Conference game that span, including a team-leading mark of 11.6 points per contest in the 1985-86 season. (1) at Edwardsville, Ill. His career also includes having made the first three-point shot in school history as he went Rankings are from NABC coaches poll. on to shoot 46.6 percent from beyond the arc in that season. Prior to coming back to S&T, Walker’s other head coaching stop was also in the GLVC as he spent five seasons at the University of Illinois Springfield. 5 During the 2019-20 season, the Miners had a couple of trends that usually determined if the end result would be in the win column. All six of S&T’s wins came in games where it scored at least 70 points, but the Miners were 0-10 when scoring fewer than 70. S&T was also 3-3 when holding a lead at halftime and had at least a plus five in the assist-to- turnover ratio in four of its six wins, a ratio it reached only twice in games that it lost a year ago. In Friday’s loss, the Miners did reach the 70-point mark, but trailed at halftime and had more turnovers that assists in the contest. 2020-21 MISSOURI S&T MEN’S BASKETBALL 2 2020-21 MISSOURI S&T MEN’S BASKETBALL ROSTER NO. NAME POS. HT. WT. YR. HOMETOWN/PREVIOUS SCHOOL 2 DJ Pitia G 6-5 185 Fr. Kansas City, Mo. / Staley HS 10 Julien Smith G 6-2 180 Fr. Fort Worth, Texas / Northwest 13 Nathan Elmer G 6-1 175 Jr. Nixa, Mo. / Nixa HS 15 Kaden Froebe G 6-3 170 Fr. Lincoln, Ill. / Lincoln HS 22 Dawson Berry F-G 6-4 210 Jr. Centralia, Ill. / Lewis & Clark CC 23 Micah Johnson F 6-8 210 Fr. Ankeny, Iowa / Centennial HS 24 Chima Oduocha F-C 6-8 230 Sr. Hoffman Estates, Ill. / John Wood CC 25 Kelly Vaughn G 5-11 160 R-Fr. Mount Vernon, Mo. / Mount Vernon HS 30 Kevin Legardy G 6-0 185 Jr. Las Vegas, Nev. / Mineral Area College 32 Mitch Fairless F 6-7 190 Jr. St. Charles, Mo. / Duchesne HS 35 James Whitman G 6-0 150 Fr. St. Louis, Mo. / Oakville HS 42 Ryan Parker F 6-7 215 R-Fr. Bloomington, Ind. / Ridgeview HS 44 Kyle Bushman F 6-8 190 Jr. Mount Vernon, Mo. / Mount Vernon HS 55 Mahamadou Kaba-Camera C 7-0 270 Gr. Conakry, Guinea / Cal State Northridge HEAD COACH: Bill Walker ASSISTANT COACHES: Marques Baldwin, Tyrone Davidson PRONUNCIATIONS: #2 DJ Pitia -- Pit-E-uh #15 Kaden Froebe -- Fro-BEE #24 Chima Oduocha -- CHEE-muh O-DUKE-uh #30 Kevin Legardy -- Luh-GAR-dee #55 Mahamadou Kaba-Camera -- Moe-HAH-muh-do Kah-BUH Cuh-MARA HEAD COACH BILL WALKER: Missouri S&T is seeking to reverse its recent fortunes in men’s basketball and turned to a former member of the program to do just that, as Bill Walker begins his second season as the head coach for the Miners. Walker, who became the 15th head coach in the history of the Miner program on April 1, 2019, had spent the five previous seasons as the head coach at the University of Illinois Springfield – who competes in the Great Lakes Valley Conference along with Missouri S&T – and returned to the place where he played his collegiate basketball from 1984-87 under Billy Key. Since completing his playing career, Walker – who graduated from Missouri S&T in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in history – went into the coaching ranks as a graduate assistant under legendary coach Gene Bartow at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. In his last season at UAB, the Blazers finished third in the National Invitational Tournament. He moved on to become a full-time assistant at two institutions that the Miners were competing against at the time in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association, first for seven seasons at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and then for three years at the University of Central Missouri in his hometown of Warrensburg, Mo. After his time at UCM, Walker moved up to the NCAA Division I ranks as he spent eight years as an assistant coach at the University of Minnesota, where the Golden Gophers recorded five winning seasons and an NCAA Tournament berth in 2005, along with four appearances in the National Invitational Tournament. While at Minnesota, he helped recruit Big Ten “Freshmen of the Year” Rick Rickert in 2002 and Kris Humphries in 2005, as well as bringing in a recruiting class in 2001 rated as one of the top 10 in the nation that year. Walker left Minnesota following the 2006-07 season to join the staff at Texas A&M University, where he spent the next four seasons and helped the Aggies to four consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament; three of those teams advanced to the second round of the tournament. Texas A&M had a record of 97-40 during those four seasons when Walker was a member of its staff. Following the time at Texas A&M, Walker worked for two seasons as a professional scout for the New Orleans Hornets of the National Basketball Association before returning to the coaching ranks in 2013 as an assistant coach at Drake University. Following one season at Drake, Walker was named as the head coach at UIS, where he took the Prairie Stars to back-to-back 14-win seasons after they had finished below the .500 mark in seven of their first eight years as a member of the GLVC. Missouri S&T went 6-20 during Walker’s first season at the helm of the program.