No. 10 Mizzou Hits the Road to Face Ole Miss Tonight

Mizzou Basketball Game Notes

• Game Notes

STORYLINES

• With wins over Kentucky and No. 10 Alabama last week, Mizzou improved to 8-1 at home this season and 6-1 over its past seven games since coming off a COVID-19 activity pause in early January.
• Mizzou handed Alabama its first SEC loss of the season and is now responsibile for the Crimson Tide’s last two league losses, including the 2019-20 season finale. In those two games, Alabama shot 30.4 percent and 33.3 percent, respectively – the two worst shooting performances of the Nate Oats era.
• Mizzou now has three wins over Top 10 teams (No. 10 Alabama, No. 6 Tennessee, No. 6 Illinois) in the same season for the first time since 2011-12. The Tigers boast four ranked wins and four true road victories, and all three of their losses have come against Quad 1 opponents.
• From December of 2013 until Cuonzo Martin‘s first year at the helm, Mizzou hadn’t beaten a ranked opponent in more than 1,500 days. Mizzou has four alone this season and the Tigers are 8-6 against ranked teams under Martin.
• Mizzou is now 5-0 in games decided by five or fewer points this season.
• After an undefeated week and another Top 10 victory, Mizzou checked in at No. 10 in the AP Top 25 poll. That’s the highest since Dec. 24, 2012, the higest ranking for any SEC team currently and gives Mizzou nine consecutive weeks in the Top 25 (the 14th-longest streak nationally).
• After scoring 26 points vs. Kentucky and 16 against Alabama, redshirt senior Dru Smith is on a tear, having reached double figures in eight consecutive games – the longest streak by a Tiger since Jordan Geist in 2018-19. He’s averaging 16.6 points per game in that span and earned his third SEC Player of the Week honor this season, the most by a Tiger in a campaign since Utah Jazz star Jordan Clarkson in 2013.
• In its 13 wins, Mizzou has averaged 76.8 points, while shooting 46.7 percent from the field, 31.4 percent from 3-point range and 71.3 percent from the free throw line while outrebounding its opponents by +4.6 boards per game and yielding just 67.6 ppg. Five Tigers are averaging between 7.2 ppg and 15.7 ppg, led by four double-figure scorers in Xavier Pinson (15.7 ppg), Dru Smith (14.3 ppg), Jeremiah Tilmon, Jr. (12.8 ppg) and Mark Smith (11.5 ppg).
• Mizzou and Ole Miss square off for the 17th time in program history. The two squads split the season series last year. The Tigers have beaten Ole Miss just once in Oxford in series history, a 75-69 win in Martin’s first year on campus. In the two meetings last year, then-sophomore Xavier Pinson averaged 24 points on 14-of-24 shooting.
• Heading into Wednesday’s matchup with the Rebels, Mizzou has won five games away from home including a neutral site victory over then-No. 21 Oregon. Before Martin’s arrival, Mizzou had not won a true road game since 2014. The Tigers have 13 such wins under Martin and at least four in a season for the second time.
• Martin enters Wednesday night one win shy of 250 career wins.
• Mizzou has held opponents to fewer than 80 points in 21 of the last 23 games. Opponents have made just 6.3 threes per game vs. the Tigers this season. Meanwhile, the offense has exploded with Mizzou scoring 102 points against TCU and at least 73 points in five of its last six games.

DEEP ROTATION

• A key to Mizzou’s success has been experience. Martin’s squad features one of the most experienced rosters in all of college basketball, returning 88.13 percent of its scoring from a season ago, which ranks third among all Power 5 conference teams, trailing only Texas and UCLA. The returners are responsible for 98.0 percent of Mizzou’s points through 16 games. Seven Tigers are averaging 19.2 minutes or more thru 16 games, with six contributing at least 6.6 points and four posting at least 10.6 points on the season. Four different Tigers have led Mizzou in scoring in a game this season.
• The roster features five players with 700+ career points (Dru, Jeremiah, Drew, Mark and Xavier) and six with 500+ career points (Smith, Tilmon, Buggs, Xavier Pinson, Mark Smith and Javon Pickett). Mizzou’s 12-man roster features 10 players with at least junior (or redshirt sophomore) eligibility standing, making Mizzou the SEC’s oldest team.
• Mizzou also has three players in Drew Buggs, Dru Smith and Xavier Pinson who have 200+ career assists.
• The Tigers also boast three players in the league’s Top 9 in free throw percentage (Pinson, Dru Smith and Mark Smith).
• Sophomore Kobe Brown – the youngest rotation player Mizzou has – turned 21 on New Year’s Day. Brown has been outstanding of late, grabbing a career-high 13 rebounds vs. TCU. That’s the most rebounds by a Tiger this season and the most since Jontay Porter grabbed 13 at Ole Miss on Feb. 6, 2018. Brown ranks 13th in the SEC in rebounding with 6.0 boards per game in just 19.2 minutes per game. Kobe has 6+ rebounds in a game 15 times thus far during his career, and Mizzou is 11-4 in those games. Brown added 13 points and nine boards in 23 minutes vs. No. 10 Alabama. Mizzou is 3-0 this season when Brown scores in double figures and 9-1 when he grabs 6+ boards. Mizzou had four players with 8+ rebounds vs. Alabama, led by Brown. The last time the Tigers had four players with 8+ boards in the same game was 2004 vs. No. 21 UNLV.
• Coach Martin bolstered his backcourt in the offseason with the addition of Hawaii transfer Drew Buggs, who set the Rainbow Warriors’ all-time career assists record with 437 dimes. Buggs dished a season-high five assists with just one turnover vs. Liberty and had four assists at Arkansas, becoming just the 16th active Division I player with 450+ assists. His 469 career assists rank 21st among all active players. Buggs scored a season-high six points in the Tigers’ outing vs. South Carolina. His assist-to-turnover ratio is 3.7 (33 assists, nine turnovers). Buggs has at least one assist in 14 of 16 games and 2+ dimes in 11 outings. Mizzou is 9-2 in those games.
• After starting 62 games through his first two campaigns, junior Javon Pickett made his first start of the season on Jan. 30 vs. TCU, scoring 11 points. Pickett, well-known for his relentless work ethic, has plays whatever role asked of him, becoming Mizzou’s fifth-leading scorer with 7.3 points per game. Pickett trails only Tilmon on the team in field goal percentage, making 51.0 percent of his attempts, including a 44-for-79 (.557) effort from 2-point range. He had a 13-point outing at Auburn and Mizzou is 12-2 when he reaches double figures over the last two seasons. He finished with 14 points, on 6-of-8 shooting, vs. No. 6 Illinois. In three career games vs. the Illini, he’s 3-0 while averaging 15.7 points and 5.0 rebounds and shooting 68.9 percent (20-of-29 FGs). Thru 16 games, Pickett has produced six double-figure scoring efforts. Pickett had 11 points in 20 minutes vs. ORU in the season-opener, then netted 13 in 21 minutes against No. 21 Oregon before the season-high 14 points vs. Illinois.
• Fifth-year senior Mitchell Smith has also embraced coming off the bench, playing the fifth-most minutes on the team. He’s chipping in 4.3 points and 5.3 rebounds (the third-most on the squad). Smith is the energy guy, who brings the emotion and has the ability to guard all five positions at 6-foot-10. He is coming off a career-high 12 rebound performance vs. Kentucky. He is the third different Tiger to snag 12+ boards in game alongside Tilmon and Brown. Then he followed with a game-winning block vs. No. 10 Alabama and finished with six points, eight boards and two blocks. Mizzou is 8-1 when he grabs 5+ rebounds this season and 7-1 when he contributes 5+ points.

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