The Mizzou men’s basketball team remains on the road for its second-straight game away from CoMo – squaring off with South Carolina on Saturday afternoon. Game time is set for noon CT on SEC Network.
ABOUT THE TIGERS
• Missouri is 8-11 during the 2023-24 season with a 0-6 record in SEC action.
• The Tigers lost a tight battle at Texas A&M on Tuesday, falling to the Aggies, 63-57.
• Graduate Sean East II leads the Tigers with 15.9 points and 3.8 assists per game.
• Junior Tamar Bates has scored in double-figures in nine-straight contests and is now second on the team with 12.8 points per game.
• Noah Carter (12.2) and Nick Honor (10.6) also score in double figures, while Carter leads active Mizzou players with 5.4 rebounds.
• Mizzou is averaging 74.1 points per game, while allowing 73.6 defensively.
ABOUT THE GAMECOCKS
• South Carolina enters the weekend with a 16-3 record, including a 4-2 mark in SEC play.
• The Gamecocks are coming off a 79-62 victory over No. 6 Kentucky on Tuesday.
• Meechie Johnson leads South Carolina with 16.6 points per game.
• B.J. Mack also scores in double figures with 13.5 points and a team-best 5.4 boards, while Ta’lon Cooper leads South Carolina with 4.3 assists.
• The Gamecocks average 73.3 points per game, while allowing 64.5 points defensively.
SERIES HISTORY
• In 17 all-time meetings between the two schools, Missouri holds a slight 9-8 edge in the series.
• The Gamecocks lead the series in Columbia, South Carolina, 5-3 – winning three of the last four meetings at home.
• The schools met earlier in the season with the Gamecocks emerging with a 71-69 win at Mizzou Arena. The visitors connected on a late three in regulation to tie the game before a go-ahead basket with under 10 seconds remaining to win.
• Noah Carter led the Tigers with a season-best 23 points in the defeat.
STRONG DEFENSIVE SHOWING
• On Tuesday at Texas A&M, MU put together one of its top defensive games since joining the SEC.
• For just the sixth time in SEC regular-season play, the Tigers held a team to under 30 percent shooting as the 28.8 percent clip is the fifth-best mark in its SEC history.
• The 63 points allowed by Mizzou are its fewest in an SEC game this season and tied for the fewest in 1.5 conference campaigns under Coach Gates.
CHARITY STRIPE DIFFERENTIAL
• While the Tigers held the Aggies to a low rate from the field, a constant struggle this season is keeping opponents off the free-throw line.
• Texas A&M earned the win Tuesday thanks to a 37-10 advantage in free-throw attempts.
• Mizzou ranks last in the SEC in both free throws per game (16.37) and free throws allowed (22.37).
• In fact, the Tigers place 306th nationally (of 362 teams) in free throw and 313th in free throws allowed. No other SEC schools ranks outside the top 200 in free-throw attempts per game.
• Overall, MU is 351st nationally and last among Power 6 schools with 6.0 fewer free throws per game than its opponent.
• Eight times this year, Mizzou has allowed 10 more shots from the charity stripe than it took.
BATES CATCHES FIRE
• Junior Tamar Bates increased his output the second half of the season.
• Bates has scored in double digits in each of the last nine games – he had never gone more than two-straight with 10-plus points prior to the run.
• Over the nine-game stretch, Bates is tallying 19.2 points per game – an increase of more than 12 points from the season’s first 10 contests.
• Bates has raised his season scoring average to 12.8 points this season, ranking second on MU.
50/40/90
• Shooting efficiency is the key to success for junior Tamar Bates in 2023-24.
• Bates owns career-best marks with a 55.1 field goal percentage, 45.8 3-point percentage and 94.1 free-throw percentage.
• In fact, Bates is the only player in the nation shooting 50 percent from the field, 40 percent from three and 90 percent from the line.
• He is also on target to become the first Tiger in school history to join the 50-40-90 club.
EAST DOES IT ALL
• The team’s leading scorer this season, Sean East II is capable of doing it all for Mizzou.
• With 15.9 points per game, East has led the Tigers in scoring in 10 of the team’s 19 games.
• The graduate guard, however, has also posted team-best totals in assists in 12 of the last 14 games and in rebounds in five of the last six.
• Overall, East ranks eighth in the SEC with 3.8 assists per game, while adding 3.4 rebounds from the guard position.
