Dec. 29, 2005

Columbia, Mo. -

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For Openers
Mizzou looks for its sixth consecutive home victory on Friday (Dec. 30) when it welcomes the Oakland University Grizzlies to Mizzou Arena for a rare 8:05 p.m. tip following the Tiger football team's Independence Bowl contest in Shreveport, La. ... The five consecutive home court wins are the most in the brief two-year history of Mizzou Arena and is the best home-court run since the club won six consecutive at the Hearnes Center from Jan. 24 - Feb. 24, 2004 ... Mizzou is 2-0 all-time vs. Oakland, including a 70-61 win over the Grizzlies on Dec. 4, 2004 ... Thomas Gardner and Jason Conley each scored 18 points to pace Mizzou ... The initial meeting was a 90-85 Tiger win on Nov. 29, 2003, in Detroit ... Both Missouri and Oakland will be playing on just one day's rest ... Missouri claimed a 68-56 victory over Eastern Illinois on Wednesday, while the Grizzlies fell at Toledo 64-61 despite holding the Rockets to 0-of-22 shooting from three-point range ... Mizzou got a terrific inside-outside performance from Marshall Brown and Thomas Gardner in Wednesday's victory ... Brown recorded his first career double-double with 19 points and 11 boards, while Gardner topped the 20-point plateau for the sixth time this season ... Mizzou got great balance in the win over Eastern Illinois, as all-10 players who saw action scored at least two points, including Marcus Watkins, who made his first career start and played 18 minutes ... As its 5-1 record at home would indicate, Missouri has been a much improved team within its friendly confines, especially on the glass ... Missouri is outrebounding its foes by 5.5 boards per game at home with 4.3 of those 5.5 boards coming on the offensive end ... When the Tigers play away from Mizzou Arena, however, they are being outrebounded by 7.3 rebounds per game (40-to-32.7).

Tiger Trends (Team Quick-Hitters)
l Friday's game vs. Oakland will be the 206th of Quin Snyder's career ... Only three coaches, George Edwards (353), Wilbur Stalcup (374) and Norm Stewart (967) have coached more games on the Mizzou sideline than Snyder.

l Mizzou has made at least one three-point field goal in every game under Quin Snyder (205 games) ... The Tigers have made multiple treys in 203 of those 205 games, including double-figure triples (10+) 56 times.

l Mizzou continues to be an improved second-half club, outscoring its opposition by an average of 41.6-to-37.2 (374-to-335) over the final 20 minutes ... The Tigers have shot better than 50 percent from the floor in the second half of four of those games, including 56.0 percent (14-of-25) in the 72-63 home win over Furman.

l The Tigers are one of the Big 12's top offensive rebounding clubs ... Mizzou ranks fourth in the Big 12 with 14.7 offensive caroms and have out-rebounded its foes on the offensive glass in four consecutive games.

l The Tigers continue to excel at getting to the free throw line ... Mizzou has shot 207 free throws compared to the 156 by its opponents, but have scored just 14 more points at the charity stripe due to its 61.8 percent shooting as a club.

l Gotta give credit to Mizzou's free-throwing in the 68-56 win over Eastern Illinois however ... Mizzou shot a season-best 71.9 percent from the line (23-of-32), thanks to a career-best 10-of-10 shooting effort from the foul line by junior Thomas Gardner ... Marshall Brown also had an improved night, hitting 9-of-13 "freebees".

l Mizzou continues to show improvement with its ball security ... The Tigers turned the ball over just 12 times vs. Eastern Illinois and have 14 or fewer miscues in four of the last five games.

l Mizzou's defensive effort against UMKC had numerous record book implications ... The 42 points scored by the Kangaroos were the fewest by an MU opponent since a 45-42 win over DePaul on Nov. 24, 1997, in the opening round of the Maui Invitational ... UMKC's 15 first-half points were the fewest in the two-year history of Mizzou Arena ... The 15 total field goals by the Kangaroos were also the fewest in the history of the building and was the lowest total by Tiger opposition since Arkansas-Pine Bluff netted just 11 buckets on Dec. 9, 1998.

Tigers Tidbits (Player Quick-Hitters)
l Kevin Young continues to be one of the Big 12's top rebounders ... Young is producing career numbers with 8.0 points and 7.9 boards and ranks third in the league with his 7.9 caroms per game ... The Kingston, Jamaica, native also leads the Big 12 with 4.3 offensive rebounds per game.

l Young has provided a consistent scoring presence as well and has topped double figures in points twice in nine games... Entering the year, Young had just one career double figure scoring effort and narrowly missed his third with nine points vs. Furman.

l Marshall Brown has reached double figures in scoring four times this season, including a career high 20 points in the season-opener against Sam Houston State ... The Austin, Texas, native nearly duplicated that feat against Eastern Illinois when he scored 19 points thanks to 9-of-13 shooting from the foul line, while adding a career high 11 rebounds.

l The 19-point, 11-rebound double-double was the first of Brown's career and made him the third Tiger to record a double-double this season, joining Kevin Young and Thomas Gardner.

l Over the last two games Brown has averaged 10.0 rebounds thanks to the nine boards he collected against No. 6 Illinois on Dec. 21.

l Thomas Gardner has reached double figures in points in 12 of his last 13 games ... Gardner has led the Tigers in scoring seven times (out of nine games) this season and 14 times over his career.

l Gardner currently leads the Big 12 with a pair of 30-point contests, including a 30-point night at Davidson on Dec. 7 ... Gardner hit eight treys vs. the Wildcats, the fourth-highest single-game total in the NCAA's this year and the third highest single-game total in school history ... He has now made at least one three-pointer in 16 consecutive games, the longest three-point streak of his tenure.

l Gardner leads the Big 12 with 3.44 three-point field goals per game and ranks 13th nationally in that category, while his three-point percentage of 44.9 ranks third in the Conference.

l If there had been one area of emphasis for Gardner it was his free throw shooting, but the 6-foot-5 junior hit a career-best 10-of-10 vs. Eastern Illinois and now has a run of 11 consecutive makes dating back to the Dec. 18 contest with Furman.

l Gardner's 12 rebounds vs. UMKC tied a career high ... His 17-point, 12-rebound double-double was also the second of his career ... His first was a 19-point, 12-board effort against Brown in the 2004-05 season-opener.

l Jason Horton continues to be one of the Big 12's top assist-men ... Horton is averaging 4.6 dimes a game and has a 1.54-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.

l The Dallas native is among the League's top thieves as well, ranking fourth with 2.3 steals per game including a career high five vs. Furman.

l Horton has also provided a much-needed scoring boost over his last two outings, averaging 11.0 points on 50.0 percent (4-of-8) shooting from beyond the arc.

l Also, has there been a more improved perimeter defender in the Big 12 than Horton thus far? The sophomore held UMKC's Quinton Day (Southern Cal transfer) 20.5 points below his season average of 27.5 points in Mizzou's 60-42 win on Nov. 29 and held Arkansas point guards Eric Ferguson (1-of-5), Dontell Jefferson (1-of-1) and Sean McCurdy (0-of-0) to a combined 2-of-6 shooting and six total points ... In addition to his five steals vs. Furman, Horton held point guard Tony Carter to two points on 0-of-4 shooting.

l Freshman Matt Lawrence has been impressive from three-point range this season ... The St. Louis native is 4-of-10 from bonus distance, including a 2-of-2 effort in front of 17,427 screaming fans at Arkansas en route of a career high six points ... Lawrence made his first career trey vs. UMKC and added a fourth at Davidson.

l It's not just shooting where the 6-foot-7 freshman has been near flawless ... Lawrence has added 10 boards (five offensive) and ranks fourth on the squad with five steals in 8.9 minutes per game.

l Senior Jimmy McKinney is finding his consistency offensively over the past five games and is averaging 12.8 points per game during that stretch ... McKinney opened the run with 16 points at Davidson, before scoring a season high 19 vs. Texas A&M-CC on a career best 12-of-14 foul shooting ... The St. Louis native has added 11 points in back-to-back games vs. No. 6 Illinois and Eastern Illinois.

l While the Tigers have struggled from the line as a team, McKinney sure hasn't ... The senior ranks third in the Big 12 in free throw shooting at 80.6 percent (29-of-36).

l Nicknamed "Rock" by his teammates, the former Vashon High School standout missed his first game as a Tiger because of a fractured frontal sinus, but has been a "Rock" for Mizzou ever since, failing to miss a game.

l McKinney's hit his 100th career three-pointer vs. Texas A&M-CC ... Only 15 Tigers have more than 100 career triples, including teammate Gardner (116).

l Junior forward Marcus Watkins made the first start of his career vs. Eastern Illinois.

l Freshman Leo Lyons narrowly missed his first career double-double after recording career highs of eight points and eight boards vs. Furman on Sunday ... Lyons also added a career high two blocked shots and now leads the team with seven swats.

l Sophomore center Kalen Grimes enjoyed his best game of the year vs. Illinois in his hometown return to St. Louis ... The 6-foot-9 center grabbed a career high seven boards vs. the Illini and scored a season-high five points on 2-of-3 shooting.

l Grimes also recorded the first assist of his career vs. Eastern Illinois on a pitch-back to Thomas Gardner at the 17:00 mark of the second half ... Prior to the assist, Grimes had played 386 career minutes without a "dime".

Getting To Know Today's Foe
Oakland enters this evening's contest 5-6 overall following a 64-61 loss at Toledo on Dec. 28 ... The Grizzlies led the entire way vs. the Rockets, but a pair of late turnovers sealed their fate in the three-point decision ... The Grizzlies do boast one of the nation's top scorers ... Calvin Wooten, a transfer from Rutgers, averages 22.8 points on 44.0 percent three-point shooting and supplements his scoring with a team-leading 28 steals ... Another Division I transfer, Vova Severovas (transferred from Wright State), is averaging 12.5 points and 5.5 rebounds, while Derrick Nelson rounds out the double-figure scorers with 10.0 points and 6.4 rebounds ... A solid rebounding club overall (+5.6), Patrick McCloskey paces the team with 7.5 boards per night, while Shawn Hopes adds 7.4 ... In addition to rebounding, Oakland has done a nice job defending the three-point arc ... The Grizzlies are holding opponents to 33.5 percent from bonus distance, which includes an 0-of-22 night by Toledo on Wednesday.

Mizzou vs. The Mid-Continent Conference
Missouri enters tonight's game a perfect 15-0 vs. members of the Mid-Continent Conference thanks to a 60-42 victory over UMKC on Nov. 29 ... The Tigers are also 2-0 all-time vs. Oakland and will be playing the Grizzlies for the third consecutive season ... Below is a breakdown of Mizzou vs. the MCC:

Opponent Mizzou's Record
Centenary 3-0
Chicago State 4-0
Oakland 2-0
Oral Roberts 4-0
UMKC 1-0
Western Illinois 1-0

l Brown initiated his recent rebounding surge with a career high nine caroms against Illinois in St. Louis, before notching a career-best 11 boards in the win over Eastern Illinois ... Brown chipped in 19 points vs. the Panthers, resulting in the first double-double of his career.

l Coaches and teammates call Brown "The Warrior" for his hard-nosed style of play on the court and the Austin, Texas, native lived up to the monicker even before this rebounding frenzy.

l Brown scored a career high 20-points in the season-opener vs. Sam Houston State and currently ranks second on the club with 21 offensive rebounds, which he has turned into 11 put-back buckets.

l Third on the team in scoring (10.2), Brown hit a career high 7-of-10 shots vs. Sam Houston State en route to that career high 20-point night ... The Austin, Texas, native also grabbed four boards and ripped away a then-career-high tying three steals in a career best 36 minutes.

l Brown returned to double figures in the win over UMKC, scoring 12 points, eight of which came via offensive put-backs thanks to a career high six offensive rebounds.

l Gardner ranks third in the Big 12 and among the top 35 nationally in three-point accuracy (44.9 percent), a number that has risen over the past four games due to his 20-of-44 (.454) three-point shooting vs. Davidson (8-of-14), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (5-of-9) and Furman (3-of-5).

l The Portland, Ore., native has hit multiple treys in all-nine contests this year, including that career-best 8-of-14 effort on Dec. 7 at Davidson, which is the fourth highest three-point field goal total in college hoops this season and the third highest three-point total in school history.

l Gardner followed that up with a 5-of-9 effort from bonus distance in the win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi helping him to his second consecutive 30-point outing.

l One final note about Gardner's three-point shooting is his drastic improvement ... Last year he shot just 27.0 percent from three on 53-of-196 shooting and shot below 33.3 percent 19 times ... This year, Gardner has shot below 33 percent from three just twice and has connected on better than 50 percent from three four times.