March 11, 2003
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Tigers Look for Big 12 Wins in Big D
The University of Missouri basketball team opens postseason play on Thursday in the seventh annual Big 12 Tournament in Dallas, Texas. Mizzou finished the regular season with an 18-9 overall mark and a 9-7 record in the Big 12 Conference. They are the No. 5 seed in the tournament and will face the No. 12 seed, Nebraska (11-18, 3-13 Big 12) in the game, which is set to tip at 2:20 p.m. at the American Airlines Center. The winner of the contest will take on the Oklahoma State Cowboys, who are the No. 4 seed in the tourney, on Friday at 2:20 p.m.
This years' tournament marks the first time the event will be played in Dallas. It had been played for the first six years of its existence at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo.
Mizzou is coming off of a tough 79-74 loss to Big 12 regular season champion Kansas in Columbia on Sunday. The Jayhawks ended Mizzou's 14-game home court winning streak as the Tigers wrapped up the regular season with a 14-1 mark at the Hearnes.
About the Nebraska Cornhuskers
Nebraska enters the Big 12 Tournament as the No. 12 seed with a 11-18 overall mark and a 3-13 record in the league.
NU had been on a bit of a late-February-early-March run winning two straight contests over Kansas State and Iowa State at home. However, they dropped their final two contests on the road at Oklahoma and Colorado. One of the major bright spots on the Huskers this season has been the play of transfers Andrew Drevo and Nate Johnson. Both are averaging right at 13.5 points per contest to lead the Huskers' scoring attack.
Drevo had quite a day on Monday as he earned the Phillips 66 Big 12 Newcomer of the Week Award, was named to the Big 12 All-Newcomers team and received Big 12 Honorable Mention honors from the Associated Press.
The Tigers and Huskers have faced off twice this season with MU taking both contests. Mizzou won the first game in Lincoln, 63-56 after trailing by as many as 13 to the Huskers in the first half. Four Tiger starters reached double figures in scoring and were led by Arthur Johnson, who recorded 18 points and 11 rebounds.
The Tigers used the long ball to drop the Huskers in Columbia, 67-50. With the Huskers absolutely stuffing the lane, the Tigers hoisted 36 three-point shots, connecting on a season high 13 of them.
Big 12 Tournament Provides Big Time Challenge For Tigers
The Tigers enter postseason play with a chip on their shoulder and a great opportunity to make some noise in the upcoming weeks. Mizzou finished the regular season with an 18-9 overall mark and a 9-7 mark in the Big 12 Conference, good for fifth place in the league. The fifth place finish was Mizzou's best finish under coach Quin Snyder in his four years at Missouri. This also marks the third straight season the Tigers have won nine games in the conference.
Boasting an RPI of 23 and a schedule ranking of eight in the country according to CollegeRPI.com, Mizzou has a great shot at getting back to the NCAA Tournament for the fifth straight season. If they do get back to the dance, it would mark the most successive years the Tigers have reached the NCAA Tournament in school history.
Really Pretty Impressive (R.P.I.)
While it may be putting the horse in front of the proverbial cart or ... maybe it's hatching chickens before you count them or ... something like that, it's time to once again take a look at the Tigers' chances of making the NCAA Tournament. If they can make it, it would be the fifth consecutive year to make the extremely large dance and the fourth straight year under Quin Snyder.
Following thier loss at home to Kansas, the Tigers currently boast the 23rd best RPI (Rankings Percentage Index, which is a major factor in the at-large selection process for the tourney) in the country and rank 8th in the land in strength of schedule. Take into consideration that Mizzou had the No. 49 RPI in the country and the 73rd toughest schedule in the country last season heading into selection Sunday, and things look good for a return to the tourney.
Below is a look at MU's RPI standings since 1993-94. In a related note, the Tigers are the only one of three teams that is ranked in the RPI Top 25 that is not ranked in the Associated Press or ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll (Cincinnati and BYU are the two other schools).
MISSOURI's RPI STANDING AS OF MARCH 10th
Season RPI Record SOS Eventual NCAA Seed 2002-03 23 18-9 8 ??? 2001-02 49 20-10 73 #12 West 2000-01 42 17-10 38 #9 East 1999-00 32 17-10 16 #9 South 1998-99 28 20-7 74 #8 West 1997-98 49 16-13 17 NIT 1996-97 100 12-16 28 None 1995-96 88 16-13 77 NIT 1994-95 17 18-7 22 #8 West 1993-94 2 22-2 23 #1 West
Several Tigers Honored by the Associated Press
As the Tigers prepare for their trip to Dallas for the Big 12 Tournament, several Mizzou players were recognized for their solid play this season on Monday by the Associated Press.
Junior Arthur Johnson was named to the All-Big 12 Second team and also to the Big 12 All-Improved team.
Johnson has had a great season averaging 15.4 points and 9.2 rebounds (6th-Big 12) per contest. He has recorded a league leading 15 double-doubles this season and became Mizzou's all-time leading shot blocker earlier this year. He now has 181 career blocks after a four-block performance against Kansas on Sunday.
Fellow junior and Detroit native Rickey Paulding earned All-Big 12 third team honors for his efforts this year. He leads Mizzou in scoring averaging 17.1 points and 5.4 boards per contest.
Ricky Clemons was tabbed with All-Big 12 Honorable mention honors and was also named to the All-Newcomers team. A transfer from the College of Southern Idaho, he has posted 15.7 points and a team-leading 4.1 assists per contest. Clemons was twice named the Phillips 66 Big 12 Newcomer of the Week during the regular season and is currently tied for fifth on the MU three-point field goals made in a season chart with 81 threes. He also ranks first in the Big 12 in three-point field goals made per game averaging 3.12 threes per contest
Finally, freshman phenom Jimmy McKinney was named to the All-Big 12 Freshman team. He has started 20 of the 26 games he has played in for Mizzou as a true freshman and has reached double figures in scoring in 10 games. McKinney is averaging 8.5 points, 3.4 assists and 4.0 rebounds per contest through the Kansas game.
News and Random Thoughts
The Tigers are the only team in the conference to have two players ranked in the top 10 in 3's per contest (1st, Clemons, 3.12, 9th, Paulding, 2.00) ... junior Arthur Johnson now ranks 26th on the MU all-time scoring list with 1,152 career points ... he had seven boards against Kansas and now ranks 9th on the MU rebound charts with 791 career caroms ... fellow junior Rickey Paulding became only the 35th player in school history to reach the 1,000-career points mark at MU against Nebraska; he now has 1,108 career points putting him in 28th place on the all-time scoring list, just four points shy of passing former Missouri coaching great and All-American Norm Stewart (1,112 career points) and teammate and roommate Arthur Johnson (1,152 career points) ... yada-yada-yada.
If History is Any Indicator...
The Tigers will face #12 Nebraska, marking the first time in the history of the Big 12 Tournament (six years, but sounds a little more dramatic that way) that Mizzou has taken on the 12-seed. Mizzou has faced Nebraska seven combined times in either the Big 12 or Big 8 tournament and have been awesome against NU sporting a 6-1 record.
If Mizzou picks up a win over Nebraska, the Tigers will then face the #4-seed Oklahoma State Cowboys. How has Mizzou fared all-time in conference tourney play against OSU you ask? See yonder chart to glean such info.
Opponent MU Mark vs.Opp. Texas A&M 1-0 Texas Tech 1-0 Nebraska 6-1 Oklahoma State 5-1 Colorado 4-1 Kansas State 5-2 Iowa State 7-3 Texas 1-1 Oklahoma 5-7 Kansas 1-4
Tigers are Money When It Counts
While free-throw shooting has been a slight Achilles' heel for the Tigers this season (66.0 percent on the year, second-worst in the Big 12), Mizzou has really turned it on as of late and especially in the late stages of games.
In the last four minutes of the Tigers' conference games during the regular season, Mizzou connected on 61-of-77 free throws (79 percent). In the final two minutes of conference contests, Mizzou was even more impressive, hitting free throws at an impressive 81 percent (46-of-57) clip.
Rick and Roll
As the Tigers get deeper and deeper into the season, junior Rickey Paulding has gotten deeper and deeper into the zone.
Rickey is coming off of a gritty 21-point performance against Kansas on Sunday. Despite hitting only 5-of-20 shots, he was 11-of-11 from the free throw line and pulled down nine boards, just missing the first double-double of his career.
Over the Tigers' past four contests, Rick has averaged 19.0 points and 5.0 rebounds per contest and is shooting 40.0 percent from the field. Paulding has been on fire from the free throw lane of late as well. He has hit his last 25 attempts and has not missed a charity attempt since the second half of the Colorado contest.
He has been Mizzou's most consistent scorer all season scoring in double figures in 26 of the Tigers' 27 games and has reached the 20-point plateau in nine games this season.
Travon's Turning it Around
After a roller-coaster ride through the months of November, December, January and February, junior Travon Bryant is playing some of the best basketball of his career right now.
March has come in like a lion for Travon, as he has averaged 13.7 points and 6.3 boards per game over the past three games, all of which have been played in March. He was a huge catalyst off of the bench for Mizzou in the four games prior to the Kansas game and found himself back in the starting lineup against KU. He had a monstrous follow dunk in the second half and scored 13 points on 6-of-10 shooting from the field as well.
Kroenke and Kiernan Earn Academic All-Big 12 Honors
Date: Mar. 6, 2003
Columbia, Mo. - Junior guard Josh Kroenke and senior guard Ryan Kiernan of the University of Missouri basketball team were named to the Academic All-Big 12 First-team, the conference office announced last Wednesday.
Kroenke, a consumer family economics major from Columbia, has had a fine season for Mizzou, averaging 3.1 points per game and is shooting a blistering 45 percent from beyond the three-point arc, which leads the team.
Kiernan was honored on Sunday prior to the Kansas game, as one of three seniors on the Tiger squad. He has seen action in 12 games for Mizzou so far this season and is a native of St. Charles, Mo.
Nominated by each institution's director of student-athlete support services and the media relations offices, the men's basketball academic all-league squad consisted of 10 first-team members combined with five others on the second team. First-team members consist of those who have maintained a 3.20 or better grade-point average, while the second team are those who have a 3.00 to 3.19 GPA.
To qualify student-athletes must maintain a 3.00 grade point average or higher either cumulative or in the two previous semesters, and must have participated in 60 percent of his team's scheduled contests. Freshmen and transfers are not eligible in their first year of academic residence. Senior student-athletes who have participated for a minimum of two years and meet all the criteria except percent of participation are eligible.