Missouri State and Western Kentucky will face each other Friday in an opener between talented mid-major teams with high hopes for the 2017-18 season.

It’s not totally clear who the Bears and Hilltoppers will have available at 7 p.m. in E.A. Diddle Arena, however.

Missouri State forward and NBA prospect Alize Johnson is questionable after dealing with a knee injury throughout the last month. Bears coach Paul Lusk told media Wednesday in Springfield, Mo., that he was unsure whether Johnson would be able to play against WKU.

Around a dozen NBA scouts requested credentials for the game, presumably to watch Johnson, the Missouri Valley Conference Preseason Player of the Year.

Johnson averaged 14.8 points and 10.6 rebounds per game last season for an MSU team that finished the year 17-16. The senior is expected to be the driving force for a Bears squad picked to win the MVC now that perennial power Wichita State has left the conference.

“He wants to be out there, but ‘Ze is also very smart,” Lusk said. “He’s not going to go out there if he’s not 100 percent ready.

“That’s how Alize Johnson has to play. If Alize Johnson doesn’t play like Alize Johnson, then he’s not Alize Johnson. That’s not very profound, but I think he understands that. That motor, that tenacity, that’s what we’re working on. He’s improving.”

WKU, meanwhile, faces roster questions of its own. The first surrounds guard Lamonte Bearden, who missed all three of the Toppers’ exhibition games the last two weeks while nursing a sprained ankle suffered early last month.

Coach Rick Stansbury hopes to have the redshirt junior, a transfer from Buffalo, available Friday night. The 6-foot-3 guard drew rave reviews for his practice efforts during the 2016-17 season, a year in which he couldn’t play in games because of NCAA-mandated transfer rules.

Bearden averaged 10.9 points and 4.3 assists per game in his two seasons at Buffalo. His presence is a key reason WKU players and coaches think the team can improve dramatically from a 15-17 record last season.

“It’s very obvious he’s a young man that changes our speed out there,” Stansbury said of Bearden. “… He’s another guy that can really pass the basketball, the best guy at getting into the paint.”

Lingering uncertainty still surrounds freshman guard Josh Anderson and redshirt sophomore forward Moustapha Diagne, both of whom await NCAA clearance. College athletics’ governing body has spent recent months examining Anderson’s high school academics and Diagne’s status as an amateur.

The school hasn’t received a timetable on a final decision from the NCAA on either player. The clearance of either player would bolster a team that played with just six scholarship players during its three exhibition wins.

Stansbury said “no one’s going to feel sorry” for the Hilltoppers as they await word on the two talented players.

“We’ve got to play with what we’ve got,” Stansbury said. “I like the effort from guys we have, and that’s who we have right now. That’s where our focus has got to be. Our focus can’t be on those other two guys.

“We get them back, all that’s going to do is going to make us better when that time comes. In the meantime, when that time is, don’t even ask me. I’ve got no clue.

“All I know is we’ve got a lot of good opponents on our schedule that are going to keep coming. They’re not going to cancel any games.”

WKU carries nice momentum into the season opener after impressive showings in each of its three preseason tune-ups. The Tops posted a 78-64 win Oct. 29 in a charity exhibition at Division I foe Samford, then blasted NAIA programs Campbellsville on Nov. 1 and Cumberland on Wednesday by scores of 92-51 and 109-66.

WKU freshmen Taveion Hollingsworth and Jake Ohmer and senior Justin Johnson each scored 21 points in the Cumberland win, while graduate senior guard Darius Thompson (16 points, 11 rebounds, nine assists) nearly posted a triple-double.

“We’re all ready to go Friday,” the guard Ohmer said. “We’re ready to come out and play someone that people think maybe we can’t beat. …

“We’re going to come out and give you our all.”

Missouri State (0-0) at Western Kentucky (0-0)

7 p.m., Friday, E.A. Diddle Arena

Probable starters

Missouri State

Jarrid Rhodes, f, 6-6, sr. (7 ppg, 3.5 rpg#); Jarred Dixon, g, 6-4, jr. (8.6 ppg, 2.5 rpg#); Reggie Scurry, f, 6-5, jr. (15.7 ppg, 10.2 rpg%); Ryan Kreklow, g, 6-4, jr. (6.3 ppg, 1.8 rpg#); Obediah Church, f, 6-7, jr. (6.6 ppg, 5.8 rpg#)

Western Kentucky

• Marek Nelson, f, 6-7, fr. (8 ppg, 6 rpg); Dwight Coleby, f, 6-9, g-sr. (1.7 ppg, 1.8 rpg#); Justin Johnson, f, 6-7, sr. (11.5 ppg, 7.2 rpg#); Taveion Hollingsworth, g, 6-2, fr. (28.3 ppg, 6.8 rpg); Darius Thompson, g, 6-4, g-sr. (6.2 ppg, 2.2 apg#)
• Denotes 2016-17 high school stats

# Denotes 2016-17 college stats

% Denotes 2016-17 junior college stats

Television

HSSN – WKU PBS

Radio

WKLX 100.7-FM

Coaches

Rick Stansbury (15-17 second year; 308-183 overall), WKU; Paul Lusk (88-106 eighth year; 90-129 overall), Missouri State

Series record

Never met

Last time out

Season opener for both teams{&end}