While the Utes traveled and prepared to spend Thanksgiving in Springfield awaiting their game at Missouri State on Friday, fans of the MSU Bears were extolling the virtues of their new $67 million JQH Arena.

And the Bears themselves were celebrating a big victory.

Under first-year coach Cuonzo Martin, the 2-1 Bears are coming off a 62-57 victory over Arkansas in the inaugural game at the new arena last weekend. A former assistant at Purdue -- a Big Ten Conference rival to coach Jim Boylen, when Boylen was an assistant at Michigan State -- Martin took over after MSU fired Barry Hinson, the coach who brought the Bears to the Huntsman Center last season and left with a 66-54 loss that contributed to a 17-16 finish.

The Bears were picked to finish last in the Missouri Valley Conference this season, but a writer who covers them isn’t having it. “The league is not strong and the Bears are simply better,” he wrote, “especially after they get more healthy, than those around the league could have envisioned.”

The Bears lost their season-opener at Auburn, but beat Central Michigan on the road before beating the Razorbacks.