How Missouri State basketball turned around its season after hope seemed lost
Dana Ford walked onto the court and clapped his hands in excitement as those who have stuck with the Missouri State Bears in recent weeks stood on their feet and cheered.
A break in the action amid the Bears' second-half run to take control saw the crowd roar in a way it hadn't been given much reason to in 2024 until recent games. The sixth-year head coach's team, one that has been to hell and back over the last month, was finishing off a balanced attack that was reminiscent of the promising team the Bears appeared to be early in the season.
At one point, the Bears looked to be at rock bottom with very little hope. A few weeks later and the Bears are currently playing some of their best basketball of the season and have fought their way back to being in contention for a top-four finish in the Missouri Valley Conference.
"We've had kids who have never stopped working hard," Ford said. "We had a lot of guys not playing their best basketball at the same time. In regards to what I've done, I've prayed a lot. I pray for this group a lot and I think that's probably helped them more than anything."
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Missouri State's 87-80 win over Belmont was the team's fourth-straight win. The Bears trailed by as many as 10 at one point in the first half to come back and win by seven. It's the third time over the Bears' winning streak in which they overcame a double-figure deficit.
The current streak followed one in which the Bears lost five of six, which included multiple double-digit blowout defeats. The streak also included a rare in-season statement about the state of the men's basketball program from the athletics director with Ford calling out his team's lack of effort and the coach later saying his team wasn't competitive.
Back then, the heat on the coach's seat appeared to be hotter than ever while some on the team weren't playing to their potential. It was a stretch that some teams might have folded.
But that didn't happen. Ford and those wearing the uniforms should be commended for righting the ship and providing entertaining basketball over the last two weeks.
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"Us going through it was in the back of our minds," sophomore guard Damien Mayo Jr. said. "We stayed persistent and rallied behind Coach and he kept us together. He made sure that he let us know that there were plenty of games left and that we could always change it around. There are always teams going through slumps that turn it around. Why not us? That's our mentality coming into the previous four games. Why not us?"
Ford declined to use the term "rock bottom" on Saturday but instead eluded to the phrase "base camp."
When losing five of six through the first few weeks of January, Ford said his team was in "base camp." Ford described it as the base of Mount Everest and how you "just don't go up on your first attempt."
"You got to go up and come back down, go up again and come back down," Ford said. "You got to kind of keep coming back to the bottom but the purpose of climbing is eventually getting to the top. That's no different in our season. We're trying to fight to the top of whatever the top is for us. We've just had to come down to base camp more times than maybe others this year."
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Among the Bears climbing appears to be junior guard Chance Moore who showed glimpses of a reemergence in the Bears' comeback win to beat Southern Illinois in overtime on Wednesday. He followed by leading the team in scoring with 23 points and 13 rebounds for MSU against the Bruins.
Alston Mason, who has been playing at an all-league level this year, added 22 points with Donovan Clay adding 15 points and seven rebounds. Cesare Edwards scored 10 points with eight rebounds while Mayo scored 10 points on 3 for 3 shooting.
It was the Bears' third-straight game with five players scoring 10 or more points. They've scored 81 or more in three of their last four.
"As a team, I feel like we will balance it out when we have our heads on straight and we're locked in," Mayo said. "I feel like we all can produce and score."
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There are spots the Bears know they will have to fix before heading into the remainder of February. They had 10 first-half turnovers and allowed Belmont to take way too many open looks from 3. There will also come a point where Missouri State is unable to rally from down double-figures every game.
With eight games left in the regular season, getting some of their problems taken care of can make the difference between finishing one of the great comeback stories Missouri State basketball's ever seen or being a first-round exit in St. Louis.
"Every so often you have some teams that don't have to go through some things that we've had to," Ford said. "Those years are sometimes few and far between. But that's the beauty of what we do because there's so much basketball left. It's really all about February and March.
"You look at our locker room right now and we've had some really good Novembers, Decembers, Januarys and early Februarys. But we've yet to have a really good late February and early March. That cures a lot of things. I think our group is pretty focused."
Missouri State now heads into a critical three-game stretch with those contending for league championships or a top-four finish in the conference, which would equate to a first-round bye to the quarterfinal at Arch Madness.
The Bears are currently tied for fifth place with Northern Iowa and Murray State; two teams they've already lost to. Each is a game behind Southern Illinois which sits alone in fourth.
A Wednesday date at Northern Iowa (12-11, 6-6) might be coming at the right time with the Panthers on a three-game losing streak and coming off a shocking 71-43 home loss to Murray State. The Bears will host first-place Indiana State on the Saturday after with a trip to Murray State on Valentine's Day.
"We just have to believe and keep our faith strong, work hard and we feel like good things will happen," Ford said. "Other than praying all the time, we've just gone about business as usual."
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 stayed together during MVC rough patch
