Not Going Anywhere

Missouri State’s star Kyle Weems stuck it out with the Bears, and he’s had a stellar season to show for it. Lucky for you, there’s still time to see him on the court this season.

By Harrison Keegan

Photo by Kevin O’Riley

When former Missouri State basketball coach Cuonzo Martin took a job at Tennessee last March, star forward Kyle Weems had a decision to make. He could do his internship over the summer, graduate in August, transfer to another school and play right away while the Bears labored through another coaching change, or he could stick around.

Although NCAA rules prevented teams from contacting Weems directly, through his high school coach, the Topeka native learned that, among other schools, the University of Kansas was interested.

It would have been hard to blame him for sneaking out of Springfield for his senior season to play for the perennial championship contenders half an hour from home, but Weems never considered it.

“I wanted to live my legacy out here and always be remembered as a winner and not somebody who ran from adversity with the new coach and the seven new players,” Weems says.

Last season Weems was the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year after leading the Bears to their first MVC championship, averaging 16 points and almost seven rebounds a game.

Weems says he knew the Bears would have another special season as soon as he met new head coach Paul Lusk.
For the rest of us, the first indication came when the Bears traveled to Nevada for their season opener and won by 22. Weems still has unfinished business in Springfield, he wants to take the Bears back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1999. For Weems, leaving just wasn’t an option.

Q and A

417: When are you going to graduate?
KW: I’ll walk in December. I’m doing my internship right now.

417: Ok, but in theory you could have finished in August and then transferred, right?
KW: Yeah, I could have been done in August and then transferred somewhere and played right away.

417: How does that work, are other schools allowed to call you?
KW: They weren’t allowed to contact me directly but they got in contact with my high school coach and some of my family members. Kansas, Cal, Oregon and K-State were some of the upper-echelon schools if you will.

417: You were the player of the year last year, you guys won the conference, coach Martin left, you lost four starters, what brought you back this year?
KW: Just the community, this university and my teammates from last year. I wanted to live my legacy out here and always be remembered as a winner and not somebody who ran from adversity with the new coach and the seven new players. I wanted to still be a part of this university.

417: The team looks great through three games, but I’m sure that was clear to you much sooner. When did you know that you made the right decision?
KW: When coach Lusk introduced himself. It was a Friday night I think, I had just come from the multi-cultural banquet and met with him in the Prime Overtime and ever since then he just instilled that confidence that everything is going to be ok. That’s why it was just a perfect move for me to stay put.

417: This team has no shortage of talent, but maybe not so many vocal guys, how big is your role as a vocal leader?
KW: I think everybody kind of takes a little turn. I’ve taken it upon myself to be that go-to leader I guess you could say and make sure people are where they need to be at that point in time. Caleb [Patterson] and Isaiah [Rhine] have done a really good job and so has Mike [Bizoukas], who’s our quarterback.

417: How does pumping up the crowd play into that?
KW: Sometimes it gets me in trouble showing my emotions and wearing my emotions on my sleeve but that’s just who I am, that’s always what I’ve done. It’s to get the crowd hyped up because we really feed off of that, especially our great fans here at home.

417: How do you want to be remembered at Missouri State?
KW: Just as a winner and obviously as someone who was a part of that first conference championship and also who got them back to the tournament for the first time in 12, 13 years, just overall as a winner.

417: Now your dad played at Drury back in the day, but you also had an uncle who played at Stanford?
KW: Yeah, my uncle Kris Weems played at Stanford. I got to see him play the USC, UCLA swing trip every year around February or so. It just instilled that dream in me that no dream is impossible. If you put the work in, your wish will be granted.