No 18 Mizzou and No. Alabama Set for Top-20 Showdown Saturday

Mizzou Basketball Game Notes

• Game Notes

STORYLINES

• With a 75-70 win over Kentucky, Mizzou improved to 7-1 at home this season and 5-1 over the past six games since coming off a COVID-19 pause in activities in early January.
• Mizzou claimed just its second win over Kentucky in program history on Wednesday – with both victories coming during the Cuonzo Martin era.
• Mizzou and Alabama meet for the 16th time in program history. A win on Saturday would give Mizzou back-to-back wins over the Crimson Tide for the first time since Jan. 8, 2013 and Jan. 18, 2014. Mizzou ended the 2019-20 season with a 69-50 victory over Alabama on Senior Day. In that victory, Mizzou’s trio of Smiths (Dru, Mark and Mitchell) combined for 40 of Mizzou’s 69 points.
• Entering Saturday’s tilt with No. 10 Alabama, Mizzou already boasts three wins over ranked opponents this season – No. 21 Oregon, No. 6 Illinois and No. 6 Tennessee – its most since Martin’s first campaign on campus in 2017-18. A fourth ranked win on Saturday would be Mizzou’s most in a single campaign since the 2011-12 squad that won 30 games and earned a No. 2 seed in the Big Dance. That 2011-12 season would also mark the last time the Tigers beat three AP Top 10 teams in the same campaign (No. 6 Baylor, No. 3 Kansas, No. 3 Baylor).
• After scoring 26 points vs. Kentucky, redshirt senior Dru Smith is on a tear, having reached double figures in seven consecutive games – the longest streak by a Tiger this season. He’s averaging 16.7 points per game in that span.
• Mizzou is now 4-0 in games decided by five or fewer points this season after the wins over Kentucky and TCU. Against the Horned Frogs, the Tigers trailed TCU by 12 with 4:40 remaining, but forced overtime with a relentless comeback and prevailed in the extra period. In the frenetic win, junior Xavier Pinson and senior Jeremiah Tilmon put on a show, pouring in 36 points and 33 points, respectively. No SEC player had scored more than 32 in a game until two Tigers did so on Saturday. The 69 points are the second-most ever scored by a Tiger duo in a game and the most since Clarence Gilbert and Kareem Rush accounted for 75 combined points vs. Iowa State on Jan. 13, 2001. It marked the first time in program history that two Tigers scored 33+ points in the same game.
• Despite starting the season late, Mizzou now has 12 wins by Feb. 3 for the first time since 2013-14.
• Mizzou checked in at No. 18 in the Feb. 1 AP Top 25 poll. That marks eight consecutive weeks for the Tigers in the poll, their longest streak since 2012-13. It’s the 15th-longest streak among all Division I teams and the second-longest streak among all SEC teams. All eight weeks have included Mizzou in the Top 20.
• Mizzou has held opponents to fewer than 80 points in 20 of the last 22 games. Opponents have made just 6.2 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 consecutive games.
• Mizzou hadn’t made nine 3-pointers in a game since the first two contests of the season vs. Oral Roberts and Oregon. The Tigers hit a season-high 11 triples vs. TCU and followed with an SEC-high nine treys vs. Kentucky.
• Entering Saturday, Coach Martin needs just two victories to reach the 250-win mark in his career.

DRU & X: POINT GUARD DUO

• After Xavier Pinson and Dru Smith scored 36 points and 10 points, respectively, vs. TCU, and followed with 14 points and 26 points vs. Kentucky, Mizzou improved to 7-1 this season when both players score in double figures.
• Dru, 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 leading the SEC during league play for the second consecutive campaign with 2.0 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 after earning the award last week.
• Dru exploded for a season-high 26 points on 12-of-14 free throws vs. Kentucky. He finished with 26 points, seven rebounds, and five assists vs. the Wildcats, the first Tiger to reach all those numbers in the same game since DeMarre Carroll posted 31 points, nine boards and five dimes vs. Iowa State in 2009.
• Dru surpassed the 1,000-career point plateau with a season-best 21 points at Auburn. He’s reached double figures in seven consecutive games, averaging 16.7 points in that span.  That’s the longest streak by a Tiger this season. Dru leads Mizzou during 2020-21 with 12 double-figure scoring games.
• Since Feb. 8, 2020, Dru has scored in double figures in 19 of the last 24 games. Mizzou is 17-7 in that stretch which includes just four games against non-Power Conference teams.
• Dru  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 Jan. 18. 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.
• In SEC play, Dru ranks third in free throw percentage (.875), first in steals (2.0) and 12th in scoring (14.9).
• 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.
• In his 96-game career, Dru has only gone two games without recording an assist (Dec. 3, 2016), giving him a dime in 87 of the last 88 games. He’s posted 86 multi-assist outings in his last 90 games. Dru has started 68-straight games including all 46 of his Mizzou career. Dru’s 87.7 percent clip from the free throw line ranks 19th nationally among all active players.
• An electric playmaker, Xavier Pinson has averaged 16.4 points over his last 21 games while producing 17 double-figure scoring games in that span, seven of which have been 20-point or better efforts, after a career-high 36 points vs. TCU, a 22-point outburst vs. No. 21 Oregon, 23 points at Arkansas and 27 points at No. 6 Tennessee. The 27 points marked 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.
• Pinson became just the 26th player nationally to score 36+ in a game this season. It’s the most by any SEC player in 2020-21 and the most by any Tiger since Thomas Gardner dropped 40 on Kansas on Jan. 16, 2006. Pinson hit a Mizzou Arena record-tying eight 3-pointers en route to the 36 points, including the game-tying three at the end of regulation. Pinson and Tilmon became the third SEC duo over the last 25 seasons with 30 points in the same game, joining Maxwell Evans and Saben Lee (Vanderbilt) in 2020 vs. LSU and Jodie Meeks and Patrick Patterson (Kentucky) in 2008 vs. Tennessee State.
• 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. He has reached double figures 17 times in the last 21 games. Mizzou is 15-6 in those 21 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 78 trips to the foul line, 18 more than any other Tiger guard. He’s made 80.8 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 208 career assists ranks sixth among all active SEC players.

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