Missouri State's Clif Smart, Kyle Moats on men's basketball and its game environment

When Kyle Moats goes to any sporting event, he's there to watch the game.

The Missouri State Athletics Director can usually be seen at Great Southern Bank Arena perched up in the president's luxury box sitting alone, with his wife or a few others. But everyone around him knows that he doesn't want to be bothered.

Moats feels that it's his responsibility to take the whole game in so he can talk to Dana Ford, Beth Cunningham or any coach after the game and be able to respond with answers. If there's something he missed, Moats admits that he's one who will go home and watch the entire game over again.

But Moats is not oblivious to what's going on around him at the games and the lack of energy that Great Southern Bank Arena has provided over the last several years.

Attendance at Missouri State men's basketball games continued its decline in the 2022-23 season. It was the marquee program's lowest attendance season on a per-game average since 1975-76 without counting the pandemic season of 2020-21.

The lack of a game atmosphere has been a major point of conversation since the News-Leader published a pair of columns in February calling for a major overhaul in its basketball experience. The articles went into different ways fans have been turned off by attending games.

"This is probably going to sound arrogant and I don't mean it to because it's not, but it's not like it's something we don't know," Moats said in a recent sit-down with the News-Leader. "We've talked about a lot of those things so it wasn't anything necessarily new. The difficulty is trying to figure it out — what will move it and what changes can we make? How can we make things easier for others?"

Moats is aware that there are different answers for different people when it comes to trying to get them to attend games. Among them include the gameday atmosphere, the lack of postseason success, the lack of roster continuity in the transfer portal era and others.

Moats questions whether ticket prices are the problem when he's made changes in different sports before and it didn't create much of a difference while also noting there are ways fans can take advantage of different deals around town that can lead to cheaper tickets.

In 2022, Missouri State introduced a new "all-inclusive" season ticket strategy for basketball and football to make it simpler, more affordable and fan-friendly. Moats said it brought in some new season ticket holders but not as many as he hoped.

Moats goes back to the one thing that he's asked about the most when it comes to the basketball atmosphere and that's in regard to student attendance.

"It makes a difference when they're there and it changes the environment," Moats said. "We continue to try to keep figuring out what's going to get them there on a consistent basis — not for just one or two games. I wish I could tell you the answer but we're trying. It's not like we're twiddling our thumbs. With the things we do, we've just got to figure out how we can do it better. It's easy to say and hard to do.

"We've already met once or twice and we'll meet more in the offseason and you'll see some different things — probably a lot of different things as we move forward and hope people come out and see what those changes are."

Dana Ford will return for his sixth season as head coach

One change that fans won't see when the Bears take the court in 2023-24 is the coach on the team's sideline.

Missouri State's administration decided to bring head coach Dana Ford back for his sixth season following an up-and-down year that placed the Bears sixth in the Missouri Valley Conference. Ford is 89-66 through five years with a 56-36 record in the Valley.

"I think Dana's done a lot of good things," Moats said. "If you look at the boxes you check, is he good with public relations? He's great with the public. He goes out and he's not someone that just sits in his office and doesn't get out and about. He enjoys and is one who likes to get out and about. That's important to our folks. He's done that well.

"I think he's recruited well. I think the thing we all want is to win the Valley Tournament. That's what our people want. It's been extraordinarily frustrating to me and to him and to our fans that we've gone this long and not been able to win for three days.

"But with that being said, you look at that, do you think if you were to bring in someone new that they would be ahead or behind where Dana is going where he is right now? That's the evaluation because there's no guarantee if you do that, that's going to happen."

Moats noted that Ford has been extremely active and has been well-adjusted to the new Name, Image and Likeness landscape that has changed college athletics. Moats said it's extremely difficult for a school at Missouri State's level to maintain a roster from one year to the next but Ford's been able to consistently attract young talent each year he needs to rebuild the roster.

As of now, it doesn't appear Ford will have to rebuild the 2023-24 roster as much as he had to a year ago with most players set to return. With the roster the Bears are set to bring back, Moats believes they should be picked as one of the top three entering the year.

"I think Dana and his staff have shown they can get talent," Moats said. "He's done everything we've asked him to except win a championship and he knows that. I think we've got a great chance this year."

Ford is entering his second-to-last year on his contract, which Moats confirmed won't be extended this offseason and will be re-evaluated after the 2023-24 season comes to an end. Missouri State returns a young group of promising players including Alston Mason, N.J. Benson, Chance Moore and Damien Mayo Jr. along with veterans Donovan Clay and Matthew Lee.

Having the core of the team coming back is what excites MSU President Clif Smart the most, who was in favor of bringing Ford back.

"I think we've been in the top half of the league every year he's been here," Smart said. "We've been to the Valley semifinals three times and he's got essentially the core of this team coming back. You don't bring your coach back if you're starting all over. It seems like we have the talent. With a second year of working with essentially the same people, adding a piece or two or three, you really have a good chance to be good, particularly as other teams disintegrate and as people have an opportunity to go somewhere else.

"I think Dana's a solid coach and I think he's a great recruiter. I think we have the potential to have a really good team next year. It's not like his predecessor where five times out of seven we were in a playoff game within the bottom four. That's not been our experience with Dana and I'm optimistic that he's going to have his best team yet."

Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or Twitter at @WyattWheeler_NL.