Mizzou Men’s Hoops Returns to Action Saturday at Texas A&M

Mizzou Basketball Game Notes

• Game Notes

STORYLINES

• Mizzou returns to action after a two-game pause due to COVID-19 protocols and game management requirements. The Tigers will take the floor Saturday for the first time in 11 days.
• Mizzou is one of five teams nationally with four Quad 1 NET wins thus far, joining No. 1 Gonzaga, No. 6 Houston, No. 20 Kansas and No. 31 Oklahoma State. The Tigers check in at No. 26 in the latest NET rankings. Eight of Mizzou’s nine opponents are in the NET’s Top 125. Mizzou boasts three Top 30 NET wins and five Top 75 wins.
• Mizzou is one of nine teams nationally with a pair of ranked wins and a pair of true victories thus far. Only 18 total teams have multiple wins over ranked teams.
• Mizzou checked in at No. 17 in the AP Top 25 poll on Jan. 11. That marks five consecutive weeks for the Tigers in the poll, their longest streak since 2013-14.
• Mizzou and Texas A&M square off for the 40th time in their series history that dates to a Big 12 rivalry. A win Saturday would give Mizzou just its fourth win in College Station since 2001, and its second win on the road over the Aggies in the Cuonzo Martin era. Texas A&M has won the last three meetings in the series.
• Texas A&M or Mizzou have a knack for producing defensive battles when the two schools clash as neither has scored more than 70 points in a matchup in the series since Feb. 8, 2017. That 2017 contest was the only matchup  in the series that saw a team score 70+ points in regulation since 2012.
• Mizzou senior forward Jeremiah Tilmon, Jr., hopes to continue arguably the best stretch of his career to open SEC play. He’s shooting a league-best 71.4 percent from the floor while averaging 16.7 and 7.0 boards per game. In the last four outings, Tilmon has two double-doubles, three double-figure scoring games and a game-winning bucket.
• In its first road SEC win of the campaign, Martin’s squad held Arkansas to its worst shooting game ever at Bud Walton Arena (26.8 percent). The Razorbacks entered the game ranked 10th nationally in rebound margin, but Mizzou won the battle on the glass by a +15 margin with a season-best 51 boards.
• In that game, junior Xavier Pinson continued his knack for dominating Arkansas. With 23 points in Fayetteville, he has 81 combined points in five career games against the Razorbacks, including 20.7 points per game in the last three meetings. Pinson has reached double figures eight times in nine games, and in 15 of his last 17 games. In that span, he’s averaging 16.9 points while shooting 42 percent from the field and 82.4 percent from the foul line.
• Mizzou has won eight of its past 10 games dating to the 2019-20 season finale and is off to its best start since the 2013-14 squad launched the campaign 10-0.
• The Tigers have won three of their four games played away from home, including a neutral court win over ranked Oregon and true road victories over Wichita State and Arkansas. The Tigers are seeking their third true road win on Saturday by Jan. 14 since the 1994-95 team racked up three road wins by Jan. 7 (at Washington, at SMU and at No. 19 Nebraska).

STRONG STRETCH FOR TILMON

• Senior Jeremiah Tilmon returns for a fourth season in Columbia after testing the NBA Draft waters over the summer. The seasoned big man has made 81 starts, played in 90 games and netted 822 points as a Tiger.
• He’s been on a torrid stretch to begin league play, shooting an SEC-high 71.4 from the field (20-of-28) while averaging 16.7 points per game and 7.0 boards per outing.
• Tilmon had arguably the best performance of his career at Arkansas, scoring a career-high 25 points – the most by any Tiger in a game this season. He added 11 rebounds, securing his eighth career double-double and his second in Mizzou’s last three games. Tilmon limited the opposing center to 0-for-11 shooting in a total all-around dominating effort.
• He followed with 16 points on 8-of-10 shooting at Mississippi State and snagged six rebounds.
• Tilmon is just the second Tiger in the last decade to post a 25-point, 11-rebound game, joining Jordan Geist.
• Tilmon’s team-best 7.6 rebounds per game clip ranks fifth in the SEC and his 2.7 offensive boards per game ranks fourth. In his 16 career games with at least eight rebounds, Mizzou is 14-2. He has at least five rebounds in eight of nine games this season.
• Tilmon secured his seventh career double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds vs. Bradley. He made the game-winning 3-point play with 1.0 second left, converting a tough bucket and draining a free throw to push the Tigers to a 1-point win. It was the first game-winning bucket of his career, including high school and childhood.
• Through nine games, Tilmon leads Mizzou in rebounding (7.6) and field goal percentage (.633). That ranks 20th nationally this season. He is one of the nation’s most efficient scorers, shooting 56.8 percent for his career, which ranks fourth all-time at Mizzou and 29th nationally among all active players. He shot 58.9 percent a season ago from the floor.
• He is on pace to become the first Mizzou player in more than 30 years to shoot at least 54 percent in all four seasons of his career.
• He launched the 2020-21 campaign with a career-high 12 boards and eight points on 4-of-5 shooting vs. Oral Roberts. Tilmon then dominated the paint vs. No. 21 Oregon, scoring 11 points and snagging nine boards. He tallied eight points and nine boards vs. Liberty. He’s grabbed 6+ boards in eight of the last nine games, averaging 8.2 in that span.
• He chipped in nine points on 3-of-5 shooting vs. No. 7 Tennessee and recorded his 81st career block. With 81 career swats, he moved into sole possession of 10th all-time in program history, surpassing Ricardo Ratliffe on the blocks list. He’s recorded at least one in 16 of his last 23 games.