Mizzou Continues Road Swing at Auburn Tuesday

• Mizzou is coming off a statement victory on Saturday after upending No. 6 Tennessee, 73-64, on the road. It was the Tigers’ first win in Knoxville since 1972 and the first road win over a No. 6 team since beating No. 3 Baylor in 2011-12. Mizzou now has four true road wins, three wins over Top 25 teams and five Quad 1 victories this season.
• The last time Mizzou had a pair of wins over Top 6 teams in the same campaign was 2011-12 (Baylor twice).
• Mizzou is one of three teams nationally with both four true road wins and three ranked wins, joining Baylor and Ohio State. Mizzou and Gonzaga are the only teams in the country with five Quad 1 victories.
• Mizzou has won three straight league games for the first time since 2017-18. That season was also the last time Mizzou had four true road wins. Three of those wins came by double-digits. The last time Mizzou had three true road victories by a double-digit margin in an entire season was 2006-07.
• Mizzou has now won five games away from home, including a neutral site victory over ranked Oregon. Before Cuonzo Martin‘s arrival, Mizzou hadn’t won a true road game since 2014. The Tigers have 13 such wins in the Martin era & at least four in a season for the second time under his guidance.
• Mizzou and Auburn are deadlocked at 6-6 in the all-time head-to-head series. Mizzou is looking for its second all-time win on the road against Auburn and first since 2014. A win would give Mizzou back-to-back wins in the series for the first time since 2013-14.
• The Tigers check in at No. 23 in the latest NET rankings. Eleven of Mizzou’s 12 opponents are in the NET’s Top 135. Thanks to the tough schedule and Mizzou taking advantage of those opportunities, ESPN’s Basketball Power Index ranks Mizzou’s strength of record fifth nationally and the Tigers clock in at No. 3 nationally in the RPI.
• Mizzou checked in at No. 12 in the Jan. 25 AP Top 25 poll. That marks seven consecutive weeks for the Tigers in the poll, their longest streak since 2012-13. All seven weeks have included Mizzou in the Top 20. No. 12 matches the Tigers’ highest ranking this season and the highest since Jan. 7, 2014.
• Mizzou’s defense continues to be stifling. The Tigers held Texas A&M to 52 points, its lowest output of the season. Five of Mizzou’s 12 opponents have scored their season-low against the Tigers. Tennessee was Mizzou’s 19th consecutive opponent to score fewer than 80 points. Cuonzo Martin‘s squad leads the SEC in both 3-point field goal percentage defense and overall field goal percentage defense.
• Redshirt senior Dru Smith racked up his second SEC Player of the Week honor on Monday. He is the only player in the SEC with two outright Player of the Week honors this season. Dru enters Tuesday needing just five points to reach 1,000 for his career. He’s scored in double figures in four consecutive games.
• Mizzou forward Jeremiah Tilmon, Jr., has been dominant of late, riding perhaps the best stretch of his career to open SEC play. He’s shooting 71 percent from the floor while averaging 16.6 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.7 blocks per game during the last five games. Tilmon has four double-doubles in the last seven games.

DRU & X IN THE BACKOURT

• Dru Smith, a Preseason second-team All-SEC selection by both the league’s coaches and the media, is one of the nation’s best defenders. He’s swiping 1.9 steals per game this season and his 2.1 steals per game over his time as a Tiger ranks second all-time at Mizzou. He is a two-time SEC Player of the Week, the only player in the league with two outright POTW awards this season. He enters Tuesday night’s game at Auburn needing just five points to reach the 1,000-career point plateau.
• Dru has scored in double digits in nine of 12 games this season. He tallied 16 points, six boards, six assists and four steals in one of the best all-around performances of his Tiger career at Texas A&M. He is the only Tiger in the last decade to hit all those marks in the same game. Dru followed with 16 on just six shots vs. South Carolina on Tuesday. Only Dru, Jordan Geist, Keith Shamburger, Alex Oriakhi and Kim English have done that in a Mizzou uniform in the last decade. He chipped in 18 points and had zero turnovers at No. 6 Tennessee.
• He opened the campaign by stuffing the stat sheet vs. ORU with 16 points, six assists, five rebounds and four steals, shooting 5-of-9 from the field, then followed with three steals, 11 points, four boards and four assists in a team-high 31 minutes vs. No. 21 Oregon. Dru posted 14 points, four assists and two dimes at Wichita State and a team-high 18 points vs. Illinois.
• The redshirt senior point guard finished his first season as a Tiger in 2019-20 with 393 points, 131 boards, 121 assists and 64 steals. The last two SEC players to reach those marks in each category in the same campaign: Ben Simmons and John Wall. He became just the second SEC player since 1992 to average 12.7 points, 3.9 assists, 2.1 steals and 4.2 rebounds alongside Georgia’s Katu Davis in 1995-96.
• In his 93-game career, Dru has only gone two games without recording an assist (Dec. 3, 2016), giving him a dime in 84 of the last 85 games. He’s posted 83 multi-assist outings in his last 87 games. Dru has started 64-straight games including all 42 of his Mizzou career. Dru’s 87.7 percent clip from the free throw line ranks 10th nationally among all active players.
• An electric playmaker, Xavier Pinson has averaged 16.1 points over his last 17 games while producing 15 double-figure scoring games in that span, six of which have been 20-point or better efforts, after a 22-point outburst vs. No. 21 Oregon, 23 points at Arkansas and season-high 27 points at No. 6 Tennessee. The 27 points on Saturday marked the most by a Tiger this season and the most scored by an individual player against Tennessee all season. Pinson erupted for 19 second-half points against Oregon and finished with four rebounds and three dimes. He scored his 23 points at Arkansas on just 11 field goal attempts, just the 10th different Tiger to do so in a game since 2010.
• At Tennessee, Pinson scored 27 points on 10-of-14 shooting, hitting all three of his 3-point attempts and all four of his free throw attempts. The Chicago native has reached double figures 15 times in Mizzou’s last 19 games, including nine of 12 this season. Mizzou is 14-5 in those 19 contests.
• Pinson’s ability to attack the rim, get fouled and convert at the foul line has been a weapon for Mizzou. Pinson has made a team-best 62 trips to the foul line, 20 more than any other Tiger guard. He’s made 80.6 percent of his attempts this season. Pinson made 12-of-15 free throws at Arkansas, the most in a game by a Tiger this season. When Pinson has earned 10+ trips to the free throw line in a game in his career, Mizzou is 6-0. Pinson’s 196 career assists ranks sixth among all active SEC players.