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Arkansas State plays Saint Louis in NIT matchup

Arkansas State plays Saint Louis in NIT matchup

Fox Sports17-03-2025
Associated Press
Saint Louis Billikens (19-14, 12-8 A-10) at Arkansas State Red Wolves (24-10, 15-6 Sun Belt)
Jonesboro, Arkansas; Tuesday, 9 p.m. EDT
BOTTOM LINE: Arkansas State and Saint Louis play in the National Invitation Tournament.
The Red Wolves have gone 15-6 against Sun Belt opponents, with a 9-4 record in non-conference play. Arkansas State ranks fifth in the Sun Belt with 14.1 assists per game led by Terrance Ford Jr. averaging 4.9.
The Billikens are 12-8 in A-10 play. Saint Louis is sixth in the A-10 scoring 74.2 points per game and is shooting 47.6%.
Arkansas State averages 9.3 made 3-pointers per game, 1.5 more made shots than the 7.8 per game Saint Louis allows. Saint Louis averages 74.2 points per game, 4.1 more than the 70.1 Arkansas State allows to opponents.
TOP PERFORMERS: Joseph Pinion is shooting 36.8% from beyond the arc with 2.5 made 3-pointers per game for the Red Wolves, while averaging 12.5 points. Izaiyah Nelson is averaging 13.8 points, 13 rebounds and two blocks over the past 10 games.
Isaiah Swope is averaging 17.1 points and 4.3 assists for the Billikens. Gibson Jimerson is averaging 18.6 points over the last 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Red Wolves: 6-4, averaging 80.6 points, 39.6 rebounds, 16.3 assists, 7.2 steals and 4.7 blocks per game while shooting 42.7% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 71.4 points per game.
Billikens: 5-5, averaging 74.6 points, 31.1 rebounds, 14.9 assists, 6.0 steals and 2.7 blocks per game while shooting 47.6% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 72.9 points.
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.
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GM Levon Aronian Wins 2025 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz

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From a 70-7 loss to FBS: Why Missouri State jumped to college football's highest level

Although the thought of moving up to the highest level of college football had long percolated at Missouri State, it didn't start to formalize until the run-up to a game at Arkansas State in 2015. The Sun Belt Conference had just invited Coastal Carolina from the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), and member Arkansas State liked the idea of adding a peer only 200 miles away in Missouri's third-largest city (Springfield) to the conference too. There was enough mutual interest between Missouri State and the conference for preliminary talks. The matchup wasn't supposed to be a trial run for the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), exactly, but it quickly became a four-quarter feasibility study into the Bears' immediate potential in the highest subdivision. Advertisement They lost 70-7. 'We just got the hell beat out of us,' said Clif Smart, then Missouri State's president. 'It was a humiliating, awful game. We went home from that going, 'We're not anywhere close to being ready.'' 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The Bears' glory days came in a 15-year stretch, mostly away from the gridiron and under a different name, Southwest Missouri State. From 1987-99, only four current mid-majors made the NCAA Tournament in men's basketball more than the Bears (six appearances): New Mexico, Murray State, Princeton and UMass. They hung with Kansas and UNLV, knocked off Clemson and upset Wisconsin and Tennessee to make the Sweet 16 as a No. 12 seed in 1999. 'Everybody was going to basketball games,' said Ned Reynolds, a Springfield sports broadcaster for the last 58 years. 'Everybody.' Though the program has fallen to 221-226 over the past 14 seasons, basketball still resonates. The Bears opened a new arena in 2008, and a budget working group ranked hoops ahead of football in a 2017 document obtained by the Springfield News-Leader. Advertisement The women's program is even better. 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Since 2014, every FCS regular that moved up to FBS won at least 59 percent of its games in the five full seasons before the jump. Even with Petrino's bump, Missouri State is at .456 (excluding the 2020-21 COVID campaign). *Since 2014, excluding 2020-21 season and Charlotte, which played only two FCS seasons before moving up. But the numbers don't tell the full story. The Bears played in what Ransdell called the SEC of the FCS. North Dakota State and South Dakota State have won the past four national titles, South Dakota was a top-four seed last year and Illinois State and Youngstown State have both reached the FCS finals since 2014. The Bears' only defeats last season were to three playoff teams (Montana, South Dakota State and North Dakota State) and an eight-point road loss to an FBS school (Ball State). 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Their average crowds (9,663 last year) are typically closer to McNeese and North Carolina Central than Delaware or the Dakota schools. 'My theory is, it wasn't that people didn't want football,' said Smart, the university's president emeritus after retiring last year. 'They didn't like losing football. They didn't like bad football.' There are early indications Smart's theory is correct. Season ticket revenue is up $200,000. Students voted to approve a $140 increase in their athletic fees to help fund the move. The fact that the Bears were able to keep Clark — one of FCS' top passers after setting school records in passing yards (3,604) and touchdowns (26) last year — in the transfer portal era wasn't lost on school president Richard 'Biff' Williams. 'There's a culture that did that, but of course I'm sure there's some donors and some NIL and some things that helped him stay,' Williams said. 'I think that tells you kind of where our community and coaches and others are.' Advertisement Where they are now is a long way from where they were a decade ago against Arkansas State. What started with a devastating 70-7 defeat led to a proof-of-concept flash from Petrino and, finally, a trip to the Coliseum to face USC and a visit from a reigning College Football Playoff team, SMU, as a fellow member of the sport's top division. Will the school, the team and the community finally be ready? 'The sense that I get is, this is the Show-Me State,' said Reynolds, the longtime local broadcaster. 'Show us.' Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle

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