MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY "BEARS"
Morgan State University enters Monday night’s crucial matchup with a 4-12 mark overall, 2-3 in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference coming off a one-point loss (62-61) to North Carolina A&T over the weekend. Despite the 12 defeats at this point of the season, the Bears have played a rigorous out-of-conference schedule that includes contests against the likes of Xavier, No. 10 Murray State, No. 20 UNLV, USC, Cal Poly, Tennessee State, Ohio University, Saint Joseph’s, and San Francisco. Morgan State is led by sixth year head coach Todd Bozeman who has taken the program to new heights during his tenure. Bozeman is currently 106-77 during his time in the Charm City with three MEAC regular season championships, two conference tournament championships, two NCAA tournament appearances, and one NIT (National Invitation Tournament) appearance. In the preseason the league voted Morgan State to return to the top of the league, voting them almost unanimously first place. In the loss to NC A&T on Saturday, the Aggies’ Adrien Powell hit the game-winning layup with 15 seconds remaining. MSU had its opportunities to win the contest missing two shots in the waning moments. This contest was Bozeman’s first since being suspended for an on-court incident that occured on Jan. 7 at South Carolina State. A&T also forced 19 turnovers in the win, and even trailed 48-40 with 10:09 remaining. One word to characterize Morgan State is size. The Bears sport the tallest player in the MEAC, Ian Chiles, who stands 7-2, and weighs 260 pounds. The Bears boast two members on the preseason All-MEAC team led by junior DeWayne Jackson who is seventh in the league averaging 13.3 points per game and 6-8 power forward Kevin Thompson who is 11th in the conference dropping in 12.4 points a contest. Thompson is third in the MEAC in rebounding pulling down 8.4 rebounds per game. Chiles (54.3 percent) and Thompson (52.0 percent) both reside in the top 10 of the conference in field goal percentage with Chiles fifth and Thompson sixth. Standing at 6-8, small forward Jackson recently joined the 1,000-point club at Morgan State and with his 20 points against North Carolina A&T on Saturday has 1,034 career points at MSU. With his eight rebounds against NC A&T, Thompson has 1,106 career boards and is No. 11 all-time in scoring with 1,373 points, becoming just the third player in school history to record 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds during his stellar MSU career.

UP NEXT
NCCU returns to the homestead for a short two-game home swing, as the Eagles host former head coach Greg Jackson and the Delaware State University Hornets at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 28. After a day off, the Eagles host the University of Maryland Eastern Shore on Monday night, Jan. 30 at 7:30 p.m. from McDougald-McLendon Gym.