Jan. 12, 2003
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No. 13 Tigers Take on the Orangemen in Big Monday Matchup
The University of Missouri travels to snowy Syracuse, N.Y., on Monday night to take on the Syracuse Orangemen. Tip is set for 6 p.m. CST on ESPN with Dan Schulman and Bill Raftery live on your TV.
Mizzou enters the contest with a 10-1 overall record and a 1-0 mark in the Big 12 after opening its conference season with a 77-69 win over Baylor on Saturday night. Since their Dec. 21 loss to Illinois in St. Louis, Mo., the Tigers have racked up four straight wins by an average margin of 15.5 points per contest.
Junior Arthur Johnson had a huge night against the Bears of Baylor as he ripped BU for a career-best 30 points while pulling down 15 boards, his seventh double-double of the season.
He and fellow juniors Rickey Paudling , Ricky Clemons, Travon Bryant and Josh Kroenke have led the Tigers to their best start since the 1994-95 season when that team started 10-1.
About the Syracuse Orangemen
Head coach Jim Boeheim has the Orangemen out to a great 10-1 start to begin the 2002-03 season. After dropping their first contest of the year to Memphis, 70-63, the Orangeman have been rolling winning 10 straight contests over the last two months.
Their latest win came over of Boston College on Saturday night at the Carrier Dome. Talented freshman Carmello Anthony and sophomore Hakim Warrick paced the Orange with 24 points apiece. Anthony has been Syracuse's main offensive contributor averaging 24.2 points and 9.5 boards per contest. Warrick, Gerry McNamara and Kueth Duany all average 13.2 points or better for the Orange, giving them an extremely balanced scoring attack. All told, those four make up 80% of Syracuse's total offense.
The Orangemen own a 3-1 lead in the all-time series between the two schools including the last contest, the championship game of the Great Alaska Shootout in Anchorage, Alaska on Nov. 25, 2000, 84-62. Neither team has won a home or road game in the series as they have played only neutral court games and two of the four games have gone into overtime.
Boeheim is in his 27th year at Syracuse and has a 633-222 record, including a 3-1 mark against Mizzou.
AJ Gives an A+ Effort
Sporting a new hair due (or lack there of, he and teammates Rickey Paulding, Ricky Clemons and Jeffrey Ferguson shaved their heads on Thursday), junior Arthur Johnson came out against the Baylor Bears and provided a hair-raising performance.
The fascinating 5-man recorded his seventh double-double of the season, pouring in a game and career-high 30 points on 12-of-17 shooting from the field. He was also a beast on the boards pulling down 15 boards.
A microcosm of AJ's night came with just 1:04 left in the game and Mizzou was clinging to just a 3-pt lead. Johnson took a bounce pass from freshman Jimmy McKinney into the lane and brought the Tiger faithful to their feet when he dunked on Baylor's Steve Othoro, drawing the foul and nailing the free throw for an old fashion 3-point play to clinch the win.
More in the Middle
With his 30-pt. effort Saturday night, junior Arthur Johnson became the first Mizzou player to score 30 or more points in a game since former Tiger and now Los Angeles Laker Kareem Rush scored 33 points against Texas in the Big 12 Tournament last season.
While that is impressive, the search for the last time a Tiger big man (a power forward or center) went for 30 or more in a regular season contest* becomes a little more hairy. You have to look back to the days of Doug Smith when he went for 30 or more points 14 times, which is still a school record, the last time coming on Jan. 5, 1991 when he poured in 40 points.
To look even deeper into this issue, the last time a true Tiger center (Smith is considered by many to be more of a face-up-and-shoot power forward) scored 30 or more means we must venture back to Jan. 19, 1983 when former Tiger great Steve Stipanovich put in 32 against Oklahoma State. The bottom line is that Arthur Johnson played really well against Baylor.
In a related note, this also marked the third time AJ has went for a double-double in his three career games against Baylor.
* Sammy Haley (7'0'') scored 31 points against Murray State in 1996 in the NIT.
A Quick Turnaround
When the Tigers take the floor at Syracuse on Monday night, approximately 46 hours will have passed since the Tigers took out Baylor, 77-69 in Columbia. This is the second of three two-day turnarounds the Tigers make this season.
In the first of such instances, the Tigers grabbed a 78-72 win over USC at the John R. Wooden Classic on Sat., Dec. 7. After arriving back in Columbia at around 4:30 a.m. that Sunday morning, Mizzou faced a quick turnaround as they went out and dominated Wisconsin-Green Bay on that Monday, 88-67.
The other time this phenomena occurs is on Feb. 1 when Mizzou welcomes Colorado to the Hearnes Center and will then travel to Kansas for a Big Monday matchup on the 3rd of February.
Noting Baylor
* In the first ten minutes of the game...Junior Arthur Johnson had 6 points and 5 rebounds.
*Junior Rickey Paulding's first two field goals came off dunks
* Missouri forced Baylor to hit only 7 of their first 30 shots (.233) - half of the shots came from 3-point land where they made 2-of-15 (.133)
* At halftime...Arthur Johnson was one rebound away from a 1st half double-double with 9 rebounds and 13 points...Missouri was outrebounding Baylor 23-19...Baylor had not attempted a free throw, while Missouri was 6-of-10 from the line
* Johnson also had a career-high with 30 points, his previous was 24 against USC and Sacramento State earlier this season...he also had a season-high with 15 rebounds
* The last time a Tiger scored 30 points was in last year's Big 12 Tournament against Texas when Kareem Rush scored 33
*Missouri goes to 10-1 on the season...72-39 in the Quin Snyder era...805-267 at home...272-102 in the Hearnes Center Missouri extended streaks: home wins (8)...wins when MU is ranked #13 (7, overall 27-7)...and the totally worthless fact, MU snapped a 6-game losing streak when playing on the 11th day of any month (last win 2/11/95 when #13 Missouri defeated Oklahoma State at home 81-79)
In the Zone Junior Rickey Paulding has been outstanding all season for Mizzou (18.3 ppg., 5.5 rpg and so on...). But the sensationally talented junior has taken his game to a whole other level the since just before New Years. He has averaged 18.8 point per contest and has shot a phenomenal 59% (29-of-49) in the last four games. He has led the Tigers in scoring in two of those four games including 22 points against Valpo to round out 2002 and 21 points against Centenary.