Feb. 17, 2003
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Tigers Face Huskers on Tuesday
The University of Missouri basketball team plays its second home game in 72 hours on Tuesday when they welcome the Huskers of Nebraska to the Hearnes Center for a 7 p.m. tip. The game will be shown on the Mizzou Sports Network (KOMU in Columbia) with Dan McLaughlin and Jon Sundvold calling all of the action.
The Tigers are coming off of a big 71-63 win over Kansas State and currently sport a 15-6 overall mark and a 6-4 record in the Big 12. Nebraska dropped its latest contest at home to Texas and are 9-14 overall and 1-9 in the Big 12. The two squads have already faced each other once this season in Lincoln, a 63-56 win that snapped a two-game Tiger road losing streak. Mizzou looks to improve to 12-0 at home for the first time since 1995-96 when that squad opened the season with a 13-0 mark at the Hearnes. Juniors Rickey Paulding, Arthur Johnson and Travon Bryant are coming off of great games against Kansas State as they combined for 48 of the Tigers' 71 points and 31 of Mizzou's 41 rebounds.
About the Nebraska Cornhuskers
Nebraska is in the midst of a seven-game losing streak, with its last win coming against Colorado in overtime in Lincoln on the 18th of January. The Tigers contributed to that streak on Jan. 29 at the Bob Devaney Sports Center, when the Tigers used 41 points and 55% shooting from the field in the second half to come from behind to beat the Huskers, 63-56. Seven of Nebraska's wins have come at home, but they are 2-8 away from Lincoln in road and neutral court tilts.
Juniors Nate Johnson and Andrew Drevo have been two bright spots for the Huskers. Johnson is averaging a team-best 13.2 points and 2.5 assists per game while Drevo weighs in with 12.7 points and 7.4 rebounds per game so far this season. Drevo led NU against MU earlier in the season with 24 points. He and Johnson were the only players to reach double figures in the contest.
Nebraska is without its leading scorer from a year ago as junior Jake Muhleisen continues to rehab from a broken hip he suffered in Nebraska's game with Kansas on Jan. 11 in Lawrence.
Barry Collier is in his third year at NU and sports a 36-45 mark there and a 232-177 record overall. Collier is 1-4 against Missouri with Nebraska's last win coming on Jan. 24, 2001 in Lincoln, Neb., 85-79.
Noting Kansas State
* Freshman Kevin Young made his first career start ... in fourteen minutes of play, he scored two points and pulled down two rebounds.
* Junior Arthur Johnson made his first three field goals on three consecutive attempts ... in the first eight minutes of the game, AJ recorded six points and five rebounds.
* The Tigers went on a 13-0 run, starting with a three-pointer by Ricky Clemons to make the score 11-10 with 13:24 remaining in the first half and ending with a jumper by K-State's Gilson DeJesus at the 10:06 mark ... Total Run: 13-0 lasting 3:16, Junior Travon Bryant scored seven points during the run.
* Junior Rickey Paulding got to the double-digit mark in points with 6:12 left in the first half off a three-pointer, that made him 3-of-4 from behind the arc at that point.
* Recording his league-leading 14th double-double of the season, junior Arthur Johnson scored 14 points and grabbed 17 rebounds (3 offensive and 14 defensive) ... AJ also had a career-high in assists with five, his previous high was three.
* The Tigers held the Wildcats without scoring a field goal for nearly nine minutes (from 13:12 to 4:20 - 2nd Half) forcing K-State to miss 12 straight field goal attempts.
* Junior Travon Bryant had four blocks on the night, that ties a career-high ... his previous four-block effort came against Iowa last season at home.
* The Tigers now lead in the overall series against Kansas State by two (109-107) ... in the month of Feburary against K-State, Mizzou now leads 54-53 ... in conference games only, Mizzou leads 98-89.
Bench Marks
Junior Travon Bryant made a big impression in Saturday's win over Kansas State. The junior was relegated to sixth-man duties giving Kevin Young his first start of the season, and its probably fair to say that big man responded fairly well.
He scored a career best 15 points, pulled down eight boards and rejected a career-best four shots. This is not the first time Tra had a breakout game after beginning the contest on the bench. He came out and had a huge game against Memphis after sophomore Jeffrey Ferguson got the starting nod, scoring 14 points in the Tigers' rout of the Tigers.
In three games coming off of the pine, Bryant is averaging 12.0 points and 6.7 rebounds per game as opposed to 7.8 points and 5.7 boards per game when he is in the starting lineup.
Join the Club
One point. That is all junior Rickey Paulding needs to become the 35th Missouri player to reach the 1,000 career-point mark. After his 19-point outing against KSU, Rickey has 999 points in 89 career games played. He leads the Tigers in scoring averaging 16.8 points per contest.
Earlier this season, Paulding's fellow Detroit native and roommate Arthur Johnson reached that landmark at ...well ... Nebraska. He now has 1,086 career points and ranks 30th on the all-time scoring charts. He needs just 10 points to move past Byron Irvin into the #29 spot and 26 points to move past former Tiger All-American and coaching legend Norm Stewart at the #26 spot.
Agile, Mobile and Versatile
Jimmy McKinney has proved to be one of the most multifaceted players on the Tigers squad and has effectively taken up the point guard duties as of late.
Since being shut out from the scoring column against Nebraska on Jan. 29, he has warmed in the month of February averaging 9.3 points, 6.0 rebounds and 3.3 assists over the past four games. McKinney had a great line against Texas A&M scoring 10 points on 4-of-8 shooting while handing out seven assists and pulling down seven rebounds. He is averaging 9.1 points and 4.1 boards and 3.0 assists per contest.
A Little Post-Valentines Day Love at the Line
The Tigers have had their struggles at the free throw line so far this season. Mizzou is shooting 65.0% from the charity stripe, which ranks above only Kansas State in the league, who is shooting only 62%.
That being said, Mizzou was strong at the charity stripe when it counted against Kansas State on Saturday. After shooing just two free throws in the opening half of the contest, Mizzou went to the free throw line 20 times in the second stanza, hitting 14 of them. While that isn't a world-shaking percentage, the Tigers were money in the last 3:25 of the game going 6-for-8 from the line to seal the eight-point win.
Along with the Tigers' low percentage has been a very low number of free-throw opportunities. Mizzou has attempted the second least free-throws and has made the second least free throws in the Big 12 this season.
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 six losses this season and has only been out-rebounded seven times all year.
After being out-boarded in the Oklahoma State, Texas and Colorado games (two of which were losses), the Tigers have out-rebounded their last four opponents by 10.5 boards per game and are out-rebounding opponents by 5.4 rebounds per contest on the year.
The M?tley Cr?e Factor Revisited
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 12-0 mark at the Hearnes Center so far in 02-03.
This marks the first time Mizzou has been undefeated at home through 12 games since the 1995-96 when that team went 13-0 to start the season. The last team to finish a season undefeated at home was in 1993-94
Mizzou has been amazing at the Hearnes shooting 48% from the field and 40% from 3-point land. The Tigers are outscoring their opponents by an average 17.1 points per game and are out-rebounding opponents by nine boards per game.
The Tigers are playing their first back-to-back games in the friendly confines of the Hearnes Center since early January when they faced Centenary on Jan. 7 and Baylor on Jan. 11.
Taking on the Big Red Machine
Take it easy WWE fans. Kane (aka the Big Red Machine from the World Wrestling Entertainment Inc.) and the rest of the WWE superstars won't be here until next month (March. 16, tickets are on sale now at www.hearnescenter.com). The Big Red machine we are referring to is the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
Here's how all active Tigers that have played at least two games against NU have fared against the Huskers during their careers:
Arthur Johnson Gms. Ppg. Rpg. 5 10.0 6.6 Rickey Paulding Gms. Ppg. Rpg. 5 8.8 3.6 Travon Bryant Gms. Ppg. Rpg. 5 5.6 4.6 Josh Kroenke Gms. Ppg. Rpg. 4 1.8 1.2 Jeffrey Ferguson Gms. Ppg. Rpg. 2 2.0 1.0
Guarded Enthusiasm
While the Tigers dropped their fifth game of the season 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 (165) and is also second in three-point field goal attempts (437). Junior Ricky Clemons is second in the Big 12 in 3-point field goals per game (3.20) while Rickey Paulding is ninth in the category with exactly 2.0 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 five more threes to move into the top 10. If he can maintain his 3.20 three-point FG's per contest pace, he will finish the regular season with 83 threes, the fifth 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) 64
News and Random Thoughts
Mizzou is the only team in the Big 12 to have three players ranked in the Top 11 in points per game (8th-Rickey Paulding, 16.8, 9th-Arthur Johnson, 16.7 and 11th-Ricky Clemons, 16.3) ... the Tigers are also the only team to have two players ranked in the top 10 in 3's per contest (2nd, Clemons, 3.20, 9th, Paulding, 2.00) ... junior Arthur Johnson now ranks 30th on the MU all-time scoring list with 1,086 career points ... he needs just 16 rebounds to jump into the all-time top 10 in boards ... fellow junior Rickey Paulding needs just one 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 with a double-double average of 17.1 points and 10.2 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.