No. 18 Mizzou Hosts Kentucky Tonight at Mizzou Arena on Q94

Mizzou Basketball Game Notes

• Game Notes

STORYLINES

• Mizzou improved to 5-2 in January, its best record in the month since the 2011-12 squad went 7-2, with a wild 102-98 comeback win over TCU on Saturday. Mizzou is now 6-1 at home this season.
• The Tigers trailed TCU by 12 with 4:40 remaining, but forced overtime with a relentless comeback and improved to 3-0 in games decided by five or fewer points this season. Mizzou is now 2-2 all-time in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.
• 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.
• Mizzou is now 7-1 in its last eight “bounce-back” games coming off a loss. The Tigers haven’t suffered back-to-back losses since Feb. 29 and March 4, 2020.
• Despite starting the season late, Mizzou now has 11 wins by the end of the January for the first time since 2013-14.
• Mizzou is one of six teams nationally with five Quad 1 victories, alongside Illinois, Ohio State, Gonzaga, Baylor and Alabama. Mizzou has beaten three ranked teams and captured four true road victories already through 14 games.
• 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 and Kentucky meet for the 15th time in their program histories. The Tigers have beaten the Wildcats just once in program history – during Cuonzo Martin‘s first year on campus. Mizzou downed then-No. 21 Kentucky, 69-60, on Feb. 3, 2018 at Mizzou Arena. As a freshman, Jeremiah Tilmon chipped in nine points on 4-of-4 shooting with five rebounds and two blocks. He and redshirt senior Mitchell Smith are the only current Tigers who were a part of that win. Kentucky has won three consecutive games in the head-to-head series.
• Prior to the last two outings at Auburn and vs. TCU, Mizzou had held opponents to fewer than 80 points in 19-straight games. Mizzou still leads the SEC in 3-point field goal percentage defense and 3-pointers allowed per game (6.0). Since Dec. 6, just two opponents have made more than six threes.
• Meanwhile, the offense has exploded with Mizzou scoring 102 points against TCU – its most since doing so against South Carolina State on Feb. 17, 2012. Saturday marked just the second time Mizzou has hit the century mark during the Martin era. The Tigers hit a season-high 11 triples and dished a season-best 19 assists vs. TCU. Mizzou is 55-3 all-time when scoring 100 or more points. The 190 combined points over the last two games is the most since Mizzou scored 198 vs. Kennesaw State (104) and William & Mary (94) in 2011-12.
• Mizzou scored 51 points in the second half vs. TCU, marking the 12th time the Tigers have scored 40+ in a half this season. That already matches the Tigers’ season total for the entire 2019-20 campaign.

TILLY CONTINUES DOMINANT RUN

• Senior Jeremiah Tilmon, Jr., has solidifed himself as arguably the SEC’s best center and one of nation’s toughest matchups in the paint. During league play, he leads all SEC players in field goal percentage with a scalding .672 clip, leads all SEC centers in points per game at 16.1, ranks second in rebounds (8.0) and fifth in blocked shots (2.1).
• Defensively, Tilmon is a menace. Over the last five games he has 17 blocks, racking up multiple swats in every contest. The last Tiger to post multiple blocks in five consecutive games was Laurence Bowers, who did so in seven games during the 2010-11 campaign. Tilmon had a career-high six blocks at Auburn, the most by a Tiger since Ricardo Ratliffe on Jan. 22, 2011 vs.  Iowa State. Tilmon is just the third Tiger since 2010 with six blocks in a single game.
• Offensively, Tilmon’s career 57.8 percent clip is on pace for fourth all-time at Mizzou and his 66.1 percent clip this season ranks third in a single campaign in program history. The record is held by Ratliffe, who shot 69.3 percent in 2011-12.
• Tilmon returned for a fourth season in Columbia after testing the NBA Draft waters over the summer. The seasoned big man has made 88 starts, played in 95 games and netted 916 points as a Tiger. Tilmon had scored 16+ just eight times in three seasons before this year. He did so five times in January.
• Tilmon is coming off a ridiculous performance vs. TCU in which he racked up a career-high 33 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks on 13-of-16 shooting. The 13 field goal makes marked the most by a Tiger since Michael Dixon’s 13 field goals vs. William & Mary on Dec. 18, 2011. Tilmon is one of two players nationally this season with at least 33 points, 11 boards and three blocks in a single game alongside Kent State’s Danny Pippen.
• Tilmon entered his senior campaign with six career double-doubles. He has six in the past nine games after a 14-point, 10-rebound, three-block performance at Texas A&M, a 19-point, 10-rebound, three-block outing vs. South Carolina and a 21-point, 10-rebound, six-block output at Auburn. He is one of four players nationally with at least 21 points, 10 boards and six blocks in a game this season, and the only one in that group who also had multiple steals.
• Tilmon ranks eighth all-time in program history with 98 blocks.
• Tilmon went 8-for-11 vs. South Carolina. He added a career-best three steals during the dominant outing, becoming just the fourth Tiger with 18 points, three steals and three blocks in a game (Steve Stipanovich, Doug Smith twice & Ricky Frazier).
•  In the past seven games, Tilmon is averaging 19.0 points and 9.0 rebounds, while shooting 70.5 percent from the field.
• Tilmon’s six double-doubles is a career-high for him in a season, matching the most by a Tiger in a campaign since Jonathan Williams III had six double-doubles in 2014-15.
• Tilmon’s team-best 8.1 rebounds per game clip ranks third in the SEC for all games and is the highest by a Tiger since Alex Oriakhi in 2012-13 (8.4). In his 21 career games with at least eight rebounds, Mizzou is 18-3. Tilmon would be just the sixth player at Mizzou in the last 30 seasons to average at least 8.1 rebounds per game.
• He’s on pace to become the first Mizzou player in more than 30 years to shoot at least 54 percent in all four seasons.
• When Jeremiah scores at least 13 points, Mizzou is 19-6 in his career. When he reaches 16 points, Mizzou is 12-1.