Feb. 11, 2003
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Tigers and Aggies Collide in College Station on Wednesday
The University of Missouri basketball team takes its final regular season trip to the state of Texas on Wednesday when its takes on the Texas A&M Aggies in College Station. The game will be broadcast on the Mizzou Sports Network (KOMU in Columbia) with Chris Gervino and Mizzou coaching legend Norm Stewart calling the action with tip set for 7 p.m. CST.
The Tigers, who are ranked No. 21 in both the ESPN/USA Today Coaches poll and the Associated Press poll, enter the contest having won two of their last three contests and sport a 14-5 mark and a 5-3 record in the Big 12. Mizzou is coming off of a big win in Columbia last Sunday over Texas Tech, 82-73. With the victory, Mizzou extended its home court winning streak to 11 straight.
Junior Arthur Johnson continued to impress over the weekend, posting his 13th double-double (23 points, 13 boards) against TTU while Rickey Paulding pitched in with 20 points.
About the Texas A&M Aggies
After being picked to finish 12th in the Big 12 by both the media and coaches around the conference, the Aggies have come out and had a very solid season so far. Sporting an 11-8 mark, TAMU has already equaled its conference win total from a year ago, with a 3-5 record through the first half of its conference schedule.
The Aggies have been tough, taking down LSU and Texas Tech at home earlier this year and gave both Texas and Okahoma all they could handle. They are lead offensively by senior Bernard King and freshman Antoine Wright. King, became the Big 12's all-time leading scorer earlier this season, and freshman standout Antoine Wright, has been named Newcomer of the Week four times this season by the Big 12.
King is averaging 16.9 points and 4.5 rebounds per contest. He has led the Aggies in scoring in 10 of their 19 contests this season while Wright has earned top scoring numbers in eight games. Combined, they make up just under 45% (621-of-1414 points) of the Aggies scoring so far this season.
Some of the Aggies have ties with the Tigers. Senior Bradley Jackson was a teammate of Ricky Clemons at Southern Idaho in 2000-01 while junior Jesse King was teammates with Arthur Johnson at Pershing High in Detroit.
Posting Some Big Numbers
After its guards had one of their best outings of the year against Kansas last Monday, Mizzou's big-man rotation of Arthur Johnson, Travon Bryant and Kevin Young were dominant on the offensive end on Sunday against Texas Tech.
AJ had a his normal ho-hum 13th double-double (which leads the league) pouring in a team-high 23 points and pulling down 13 boards. Tra was 6-of-9 (1-of-2 from 3-point land) from the field going for 13 points while pulling down three boards on the night. The Jamaican sensation Kevin Young was solid pulling down four boards and provided excellent defense in 14 minutes of action.
Noting Texas Tech
* Mizzou shot 57.4% from the field, its best percentage in a Big 12 game and its best shooting performance overall since it shot 59.0% against Valparaiso.
* With the win, Mizzou won its 500th game over a non-ranked opponent at home in school history.
* Josh Kroenke handed out a career-best seven assists in the contest.
* TTU's Andre Emmitt had 34 points; that is the most points a player has scored against Mizzou since Iowa's Luke Recker poured in 31 points on Dec. 15 of 2001.
* Arthur Johnson recorded his league-leading 13th double-double with 23 points and 13 boards.
* The Tigers are 2-1 this season in games broadcast by the team of Ron Franklin and Jon Sundvold and are also 2-0 when former Tiger Kareem Rush is in attendance.
On the Rebound
Its a true and simple fact that if the Tigers hope to be successful this season, they need to dominate the rebounding charts, (once again the obvious rears its ugly head). Mizzou has been out-rebounded in four of its five losses this season and has only been out-rebounded six times all year.
After being out-boarded in the Oklahoma State, Texas and Colorado games (two of which were losses), the Tigers have outrebounded their last two opponents by a combined 26 boards and are out-rebounding opponents by just over five rebounds per contest on the year.
Kroenke's Distribution Contribution is Part of MU's Offensive Solution
While junior Josh Kroenke isn't going to force the Hearnes Center crew to change the light bulbs in the scoring column of the board high above the Tigers' home court, he has provided an amazing spark and steadying influence on the Tigers' offense this season.
Kroenke played a huge role in the Tigers' win over Texas Tech handing out a career-best seven assists. He also hit a big three-point shot and pulled down four boards in 19 minutes of action. The elder statesman of the Tiger lineup, Kroenke is averaging 3.5 points, 2.2 assists and 3.0 boards per game for Mizzou.
Right on Schedule
Rickey Paulding is off to a great start for Mizzou averaging 16.9 point per contest while being a defensive rock.
However, after averaging 18.6 points per contest through the Tigers' first 10 games, Paulding cooled a little, logging a little under 12 points per contest over the Tigers' next six outings. The Rick of old appears to be back though as he has reached the 20 point plateau in two of the Tigers' last three contests.
If last season is any indication of what is to come from Paulding, Tiger fans are in for a treat as we head down the home stretch of the Big 12 season. Last season, in the Tigers' 20th game, Paulding had 15 points against Kansas State. That game began a string of contests in which he reach double figures in scoring in 12 of the Tigers' final 16 games and in which he upped his average from 9.1 points per game in the first 20 contests to 14.8 in his last 16 games. Stay tuned ...
Gigging 'Em
Mizzou has only faced the Aggies 10 times in school history, which is the least amount of any Big 12 opponent. The elder (junior) class of Tigers has faced Texas A&M only three times and has a 3-0 record against them.
Here's how all active Tigers have fared against the Aggies during their careers:
Arthur Johnson Gms. Ppg. Rpg. 3 10.7 8.0 Rickey Paulding Gms. Ppg. Rpg. 3 5.0 1.7 Travon Bryant Gms. Ppg. Rpg. 3 4.0 4.0Josh Kroenke Gms. Ppg. Rpg. 2 6.0 1.0 Jeffrey Ferguson Gms. Ppg. Rpg. 1 1.0 0.0
Guarded Enthusiasm
While the Tigers dropped their fifth game of the season last Monday to the #12 Kansas Jayhawks, Mizzou did get solid offensive production from all three of their starting guards. Juniors Ricky Clemons and Rickey Paulding and fabulous freshman Jimmy McKinney combined for 50 of the Tigers' 70 points on a combined 17-of-38 shooting night (45%)
Clemons endured his baptism into the MU-KU series with mixed results, leading the squad with 19 points (5-of-15 from three), but had eight of the Tigers' 20 turnovers on the night. Paulding was solid for the third straight contest going for 17 points on 5-of-12 shooting while also pulling down four boards.
However, McKinney had probably the best night of the lot. He was 5-of-7 from the field (14 points) including 3-of-4 from 3-point land while also pulling down seven boards. He dazzled the Mizzou faithful with 7:58 left in the contest when he went baseline on the right side and put down a thunderous dunk to pull Mizzou within one point at 56-55.
"See the Three ... Be the Three"
It appears as if the Tigers have taken up that mantra made popular by ESPN's SportsCenter personality Rece Davis this season as Mizzou continues to be active from beyond the arc.
Mizzou has hit the second most three-point shots in the Big 12 (149) and is also second in three-point field goal attempts (396). Junior Ricky Clemons is first in the Big 12 in 3-point field goals per game (3.33) while Rickey Paulding is eighth in the category with just under two tri-fectas per game.
Clemons is on pace to jump in to the Tiger record books for most 3-point field goals made in a season very soon. He needs just eight more threes to move into the top 10. If he can maintain his 3.33 three-point FG's per contest pace, he will finish the regular season with 88 threes, the fourth most in a single season in school history. Here is a look at the top five single season three-point producers in MU history.
# Name 3-pt. FGs 1 Clarence Gilbert (01-02) 118 2 Kareem Rush (01-02) 111 3 Clarence Gilbert (00-01) 102 4 Clarence Gilbert (99-00) 88 5 Mark Atkins (92-93) 81 10 Kareem Rush (00-01) 69 Jason Sutherland (96-96) 69 Ricky Clemons (02-03) 61
News and Random Thoughts
Mizzou is the only team in the Big 12 to have three players ranked in the Top 10 in points per game (7th, Ricky Clemons, 16.9, 9th, Arthur Johnson, 16.7, 10th Rickey Paulding, 16.7) ... the Tigers are also the only team to have two players ranked in the top 10 in 3's per contest (1st, Clemons, 3.33, 8th, Paulding, 1.95) ... junior Arthur Johnson now ranks 30th on the MU all-time scoring list with 1,054 career points ... he needs just 37 rebounds to jump into the all-time top 10 in boards ... fellow junior Rickey Paulding needs just 35 more points to become the 35th Tiger to reach 1,000 career points ...yada-yada-yada.
Feeling Right At Home
While Detroit is home for juniors Arthur Johnson and Rickey Paulding, the dynamic duo has claimed the Hearnes Center as their home away from Motown. Both have been electrifying at home this year.
Paulding is averaging 19.2 points and 6.0 rebounds per contest at home this year. AJ has been equally as impressive, just missing a double-double average with 17.4 points and 9.5 boards per contest. He had the best game of his career against Baylor to kick off the Tigers' Big 12 schedule at Hearnes with a career-best 30 points while pulling down 15 boards.
The M?tley Cr?e Factor
1980's glam-rock icon's M?tley Cr?e had a hit single from their '85 album "Theater of Pain" called "Home Sweet Home." While the writer of these notes was only eight years old at that time, he can still recall dancing at junior high dances to this classic, heartfelt ballad.
Anyway, the Tigers have really embraced the idea of home sweet home this season, claiming an 11-0 mark at the Hearnes Center so far in 02-03.
This marks the first time Mizzou has been undefeated at home through 11 games since 2000-01 when that team opened the year with a 11-0 mark before losing to Oklahoma on a last second shot.
Mizzou has been amazing at the Hearnes shooting 48% from the field and 41% from 3-point land. The Tigers are outscoring their opponents by an average of almost 18 points per game and are out-rebounding opponents by nine boards per game.