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OPINION|<\/p>\n
Senior Day for Michael Osei-Bonsu was a spot-on depiction of his two seasons at Missouri State. Throughout the 75-63 loss to Middle Tennessee State on Saturday at Great Southern Bank Arena, no one exhausted every ounce of effort and desire more than \u201cBig Mike.\u201d<\/p>\n
But after getting 20 points and 11 rebounds \u2014 the 11th double-double of his career \u2014 it wasn\u2019t enough as an opponent that simply had more overall depth beat the Bears and sent them to a final record of 14-17 overall and 8-12 in their first Conference USA season.<\/p>\n
Missouri State will go into this week\u2019s C-USA Tournament as the No. 9 seed and face Florida International at 5:30 p.m. March 10 in Huntsville, Alabama. The teams split their two meetings this season, both winning at home.<\/p>\n
Osei-Bonsu will be ready. As always.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Due to the team\u2019s losing records in his two seasons, Osei-Bonsu will be overlooked among really good and popular players in program history. At 6-foot-4 and 280 pounds, he was one of the shortest post players in Division I, after two seasons at Vincennes Junior College. And he was far from perfect, with some ill-timed turnovers and missed free throws that stood out in several close losses.<\/p>\n
But if Missouri State had a dozen players with the motor of Osei-Bonsu, the won-loss record would have been flipped on its head this season. On and off the court, this is a guy loved by his teammates and coaches.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust a super unselfish guy,\u201d teammate Keith Palek III said of Osei-Bonsu. \u201cHe never is looking for something for himself. He\u2019s always looking out for others. A great leader. You couldn\u2019t ask for a better leader for this team. He shows up every day and puts the work in. He\u2019s fought through injuries all year, but battles hard.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s obviously a big guy, he has a big heart, too. You can always talk to him about whatever you need. He\u2019s a great locker room guy and has kept the team together through ups and downs this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/MSU-v-FIU-8185.jpg\")
Missouri State\u2019s Michael Osei-Bonsu looks to score against Florida International at Great Southern Bank Arena in Springfield on January 10, 2026. (Photo by Bruce Stidham)<\/p>\n
Many observers doubted coach Cuonzo Martin\u2019s faith in a 6-4 center when he made Osei-Bonus one of his first recruits upon returning to Missouri State in the spring of 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s special,\u201d Martin said. \u201cI would say, he\u2019s a son to me now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martin said that trust is why Osei-Bonsu stayed at Missouri State after last season\u2019s 9-23 record when other schools \u2014 who saw how effective Osei-Bonsu could be \u2014 courted him.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce he trusts you, he trusts you. Mike had an opportunity to do a lot of other things last year with money and resources from other programs, but it wasn\u2019t his desire,\u201d Martin added. \u201cHe wanted to be here because he trusts us as a staff. He appreciates being here and the people and the community. The level of comfort.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martin said an example of that trust is Osei-Bonsu\u2019s recent search for an affordable vehicle. He came to the coach asking for advice about what cars that fit his budget and how to go about making the right decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the life stuff you don\u2019t see,\u201d Martin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the court, Osei-Bonsu saved one of his best individual games for the last one at home. He took no pleasure in it being a defeat, but said he took joy in getting to share Senior Day emotions with his teammates and family members who were on hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cEmotionally it felt normal,\u201d he said of pre-game ceremonies. \u201cBut emotions were also a great feeling. I got to play with my teammates once again. They\u2019re my brothers, so those emotions were good.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve gotten\u00a0 better as a player by my teammates pushing me every day, especially Keith. My teammates, my coaches, all of them have pushed me.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for his two years in Springfield, Osei-Bonus said \u201cit\u2019s been great. I\u2019ve learned a lot of lessons. I made some relationships with a lot of people \u2014 coaches, teammates \u2014 and just had a great ride.\u201d<\/p>\n
Palek, the Bears\u2019 leading scorer in his lone season as a Division II transfer, did achieve a notable milestone with the fifth of his six rebounds. With 543 points, 201 rebounds and 108 assists, he became the first player in the 500-200-100 club in program history.<\/p>\n
Now those two \u2014 along with seniors Antwan Burnett and Logan Epes \u2014 will set their sights on at least one more game in a Bears\u2019 uniform. Martin said he believes Missouri State has the best inside-outside combo of all C-USA teams. How that plays out in a tournament setting \u2014 for a team that lost eight league games by a total of 30 points \u2014 remains to be seen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re definitely well aware that you only get one chance, so if you don\u2019t show up one night, the season\u2019s over,\u201d Palek said. \u201cWe\u2019re gonna show up, and I know I\u2019m gonna give it my all, and I know this guy (Osei-Bonsu) is\u00a0gonna give his all. I think the rest of the guys in that locker room will be ready to fight once we get there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t Lyndal Scranton is a Springfield native who has covered sports in the Ozarks for more than 35 years, witnessing nearly every big sports moment in the region during the last 50 years. The Missouri Sports Hall of Famer, Springfield Area Sports Hall of Famer and live-fire cooking enthusiast also serves as PR Director for Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, Missouri and is co-host of the Tailgate Guys BBQ Podcast. Contact him at Lscranton755@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @LyndalScranton. More by Lyndal Scranton<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OPINION| Senior Day for Michael Osei-Bonsu was a spot-on depiction of his two seasons at Missouri State. Throughout…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[61444,12010,61445,61446,61447,61448,61449,61450,61451,12011,61452,178,180,179],"class_list":["post-132760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-antwan-burnett","tag-conference-usa","tag-cuonzo-martin","tag-florida-international","tag-keith-palek-iii","tag-logan-epes","tag-michael-osei-bonsu","tag-michael-oseu-bonsu","tag-middle-tennessee-state","tag-missouri-state","tag-missouri-state-mens-basketball","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLyndal Scranton\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n