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ST. JOSEPH, Mo. - The Missouri Western men's basketball team will hit the road this weekend to take part in the Rockhurst University Harvesters Classic in Kansas City, Mo. The Griffons will open up the classic on Friday, November 23 against NAIA opponent Park University at 2:00 pm. On Saturday, November 24 the Griffons will take on host school Rockhurst University at 4:00 pm. Both games will be played at Mason-Halpin Field House on the campus of Rockhurst University.

Griffon Notes
• This marks the 43rd season of Griffons men's basketball
• Head Coach Tom Smith enters his 25th season overall at Missouri Western and 38th season overall as a coach at MWSU...Smith has won 610 career games with 440 coming at Missouri Western.
• Record in Season Openers: Since basketball started in 1969-1970 the Missouri Western men's basketball team has been outstanding in season openers going 34-10. The Griffons have won 18 of the last 19 season openers which included a 69-55 victory last season against Fontbonne University on November 12 in the fieldhouse. The victory was Tom Smith's 600 career victory. MWSU won 75-44 against Sterling College to open the 2012-2013 season.
• The Griffons are 2-2 in the last two Harvester's classics the played in. On November 27 the Griffons defeated the Park Pirates 82-72 and on November 28 the Griffons beat Haskell Indian Nations 81-57.
• The last time the Griffons played Rockhurst in Kansas City, Mo. was on November 29, 2008. The Griffons fell 100-89.
• Under Tom Smith the Griffons have compiled a remarkable 21-4 record in season openers. Coach Smith is 14-2 in home season openers, 3-2 on the road and 4-0 at a neutral site.
• MWSU has a 36-6 record in the Hillyard Classic and are 26-4 while playing in the MWSU Fieldhouse...MWSU lost this season against William Jewell 76-60 and beat Rockhurst 60-46.
• The Griffons were picked to finish 11th in the MIAA coaches preseason poll and 12th in the MIAA media preseason poll.

The last two times in the RU Harvesters Classic
The Griffons have played in the RockU Harvesters Classic twice in the last four years. The Griffons took on the Park Pirates in both of those classics. On November 28, 2008 the Park Pirates won their only game in the series against the Griffons by a score of 97-86 in Kansas City, Mo. The Griffons then defeated the Pirates November 27, 2009 by a score of 82-72. The Griffons also lost to the Rockhurst Hawks on November 29, 2008 by a score of 100-89 and then defeated Haskell Indian Nations by a score of 81-57 on November 28, 2009.

Series vs. Each Team:
vs. Park: The Griffons are 9-1 overall against the Park Pirates.The Griffons are 6-0 at home against the Pirates, 2-0 on the road and 2-1 on a neutral floor. Head Coach Tom Smith is 5-1 against the Pirates.

vs. Rockhurst: The Griffons lead the series with Rockhurst 29-26. The Griffons are 18-10 at home and trail the series 10-16 on the road. The Griffons are 0-1 on a neutral floor. The Griffons have won the last two but feel the last time they were in Kansas City. . Last season MWSU won 68-58 on November 20 in the Hillyard Classic. In 2008 MWSU lost 73-72 in the Hillyard Classic and 100-89 at Rockhurst a week later.

Griffons on the boards:
The Griffons have been very solid on the boards this season outrebounding their opponents by an average of four per game. They outrebounded Sterling 45-29 and tied Rockhurst at 34.  

GRIFFONS ON THE RADIO
Missouri Western basketball cam be heard live on KFEQ 680 AM in St. Joseph. The game can also be heard on KMRN 1360 AM Cameron. You can also heard the game on the internet at www.gogriffons.com by going up to Fan Zone at the top of the page and going to Live Webcasts (680 AM KFEQ). Dave Riggert will have the call on the radio with Bob Orf providing the color at home games and Brett Esely doing the road contests.

THE COACHES
Missouri Western Head Basketball Coach Tom Smith
• Tom Smith begins his 25th season at Missouri Western and his 38th season overall
• Smith has compiled a 610-447 record, a .579 winning percentage that ranks him among the 20 top active coaches at the Division II level.
• Smith was inducted into the Missouri Western State University Athletics Hall of Fame in September of 2006 and is also a member of the Missouri Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame
• Smith has coached 49 All-MIAA selections in his 24 seasons at Missouri Western, six All-Region/District picks and three NCAA All-Americas.
• He became the 11th coach in NCAA Division II to win 600 games
• Smith is 440-262 at Missouri Western.

Park Head Coach Jason Kline
• Begin his eighth season at the helm of one of Park's most successful programs, having guided the Pirates to three Buffalo Funds-NAIA Division I Men's Basketball Championships in his seven previous seasons in Parkville.
• Kline owns a 124-90 record at Park and is 264-174 over 14 seasons as a head coach, spending his first seven seasons as a head coach at his alma mater, Indiana Tech.
• In 2011-12, Kline took the Pirates to the AMC semifinals for the third-straight season, coaching his most-recent NAIA All-American, Reco Anderson, who landed on the honorable mention team. He also coached three Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athletes, bringing his total number of scholar-athletes to 24. Kline has coached 16 All-Americans, 68 academic all-conference honorees and 34 all-conference performers.
• His most recent trip to the NAIA national tournament at Park came in 2010-11 when the Pirates ended the season in the first round, falling to Mountain State, but the run to the tournament was noteworthy, overcoming a second-half deficit in the AMC semifinals to beat nationally ranked Columbia College before leading wire-to-wire against the tournament's top seed, McKendree University, to punch a second-straight ticket to Municipal Auditorium, led by honorable mention All-American Kyle Rausch.
• Kline received his bachelor's degree from Indiana Tech in 1994 and his master's from Kansas Wesleyan in 1998. He and his wife, Jolina, also a Kansas Wesleyan graduate and former KWU student-athlete, reside in Kansas City, Mo., with their sons, Jacob and Jackson.

Rockhurst Head Coach Bill O'Connor
• Bill O'Connor is in his 18th season as the head coach of the Rockhurst Hawks. He has been coaching basketball on the high school, junior college and college level for the past 38 years.
• O'Connor is the winningest coach in the history of Rockhurst basketball with 249 victories. Eight of his teams have qualified for postseason play, while 11 of his teams at Rockhurst have won 15 or more games in a season.
• A graduate of Rockhurst High School, O'Connor received a B.S. in history from St. Benedict's
College (now Benedictine College) in 1972. He earned his master's in education from Emporia State University.
• Before being named the head coach at Rockhurst in 1994, O'Connor was the head coach at
Colby (Kan.) Community College. He was an assistant coach at Rockhurst from 1982-86 and coached at Texas-Pan American.

Up Next
The Griffons return to action next weekend on Saturday, December 1st when they play the University of Illinois-Springfield in the Fieldhouse. Tip-time is set for 7:30 pm. This will mark the first ever meeting between the two teams.