Jan. 9, 2006
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at Nebraska (10-3, 2-0)
Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2006 - Lincoln, Neb.
TIPOFF: 7:05 p.m. CST.
ARENA: Devaney Center (13,500). Opened in 1976. MU is 168-191 (.468) all-time on an opponent's home floor.
RADIO: KFRU-AM 1400/KLIK-AM 1240 (David Lile, play-by-play/Gary Link, color) and available to affiliates of the Tiger Network (check p. 4 for affiliates). Also available online at mutigers.com.
TV: None over-the-air; online via HuskersN'Side subscription at huskers.com.
SERIES: Nebraska leads, 32-27, yet the teams have split the last five meetings, and Mizzou has won the last five games in Lincoln.
RANKINGS: Mizzou is No. 24 in Monday's Associated Press poll and receiving votes in Tuesday's coaches poll. Nebraska is receiving votes in both polls.
COACHES:
Missouri: Cindy Stein (Illinois '84), 124-99 at MU (eighth season) and 189-124 overall (11th season).
Nebraska: Connie Yori (Creighton '86), 54-49 at NU (fourth season) and 249-189 overall (16th season).
RANKED TIGERS HIT THE ROAD FOR SHOWDOWN VS. HUSKERS
The Mizzou women's basketball team (12-2, 2-0 Big 12), ranked 24th in the country and riding an 11-game winning streak, hits the road for the first time in seven weeks on Wednesday when the Tigers travel to Lincoln, Neb., and a matchup against Nebraska (10-3, 2-0).
First place in the Big 12 is on the line, as both teams registered a pair of solid wins in the opening week of league play. In addition to its overall winning streak, Mizzou is looking to keep a second streak alive on Wednesday: The Tigers have won the last five meetings in Lincoln. Included in those are a pair of nailbiters in the last two matchups: a 78-76 win in 2004 in which then-freshman EeTisha Riddle sank a back-door layup with 10 seconds left, and a 70-65 overtime win last year.
FROM RANK TO RANKED: THE 2005-06 MISSOURI TIGERS
OK, so it isn't very catchy, and since last year's team that went 11-18 is essentially the same squad that is now in the Associated Press Top 25, "rank" might not be appropriate, either, but one thing is certain: Mizzou is in the AP Top 25 for the first time since the 1984-85 season.
Close followers of the Tigers vividly recall the 2001 NCAA Sweet Sixteen squad and might wonder why that team wasn't ranked. It had more to do with the relative strength of the Big 12 - Mizzou was fifth in the league that year - and the fact that the final AP poll is released at the conclusion of the regular season, before the Tigers' deep run in the NCAA Tournament occurred.
Mizzou was ranked 19th in the final coaches' poll of 2001; the Tigers received the 28th-highest total of votes on Tuesday.
BOND NAMED BIG 12 PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Senior guard LaToya Bond was named Big 12 Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Week by a media voting panel for games played from Jan. 3-8. It is the first conference weekly award for Bond, who became the first Mizzou player to win the award since current Mizzou Coordinator of Basketball Operations Tracy Franklin in 2001.
Bond went over the 20-point mark in each of Mizzou's wins last week while directing the Tigers to a 2-0 conference start for the first time since 1992-93. She started the week with a team-high 21 points as MU upset Baylor and ended the Lady Bears' 30-game winning streak. She played all 40 minutes, shooting 7-of-15 from the field while adding three assists, two blocks, two steals and four rebounds. The Urbana, Ill., native added a game-high 20 points, going 7-of-8 from the field, making her only 3-point attempt, and also hitting all five of her free throws, in just 27 minutes on Saturday. The victory snapped a nine-game losing streak against Kansas State and improved Mizzou's winning streak to 11 games (fifth-best in the nation). Last Saturday's game was her sixth 20-point scoring effort of the year.
TIGERS STREAKING (IN A GOOD WAY!)
As mentioned earlier, Mizzou is on an 11-game wining streak, which is the longest since Mizzou's school-record 13-game winning streak in 1984-85 (see box at right). Mizzou's 12-2 start is the best in school history through 14 games; it matches the starts by five previous teams (1976-77, 1977-78, 1982-83, 1983-84 and 1992-93).
Mizzou's 11-game winning streak is currently the fifth-longest in the country, behind only Tennessee, Duke, North Carolina and LSU.
TIGERS EXCEED LAST YEAR'S WIN TOTAL
Of all the measures of the success of this year's team, the most compelling might be this: With the win over Kansas State on Saturday, Mizzou bumped its win total to 12 this season; the Tigers had 11 wins all of last year (11-18, 4-12 Big 12).
LAST TIME OUT: MIZZOU 68, KANSAS STATE 42
EeTisha Riddle hit a clutch 3-pointer down the stretch, and then a clinching free throw with three seconds left, as the University of Missouri women's basketball team ended defending NCAA National Champion Baylor's 30-game winning streak with a 64-61 win Wednesday night at Mizzou Arena.
SCOUTING NEBRASKA
The Huskers (10-3, 2-0) have an eight-game winning streak of their own, second only to Mizzou's 11 games among Big 12 schools. Nebraska started off Big 12 play with an 18-point win over Colorado for NU's first win in Boulder since 1985, and followed up by handing previously unbeaten Kansas its first loss of the season on Saturday (73-61).
Nebraska has won six straight at home since a season-opening 68-49 loss to South Dakota State. The Huskers' only other losses this season have been to top-10 opponents: No. 3 LSU on Nov. 25 in Miami, and then-No. 10 Minnesota on Dec. 3 in Minneapolis.
Junior guard Kiera Hardy once again paces the NU offense, averaging a team-best 18.2 points per game. Freshman Kelsey Griffin is second on the squad in scoring 14.7 ppg) and leads the Huskers with 7.2 rebounds a game. She is the reigning Big 12 Rookie of the Week.
Nebraska has been playing all season without senior Jelena Spiric, the 2005 Big 12 Newcomer of the Year, after she suffered a knee injury in practice on Oct. 18. Spiric averaged 9.3 points and 4.6 rebounds per game, and posted a double-double in NU's upset win over Baylor last season. She will be eligible to apply for a medical hardship and return for her senior season in 2006-07.
SERIES VS. THE HUSKERS
Nebraska leads the overall series, 32-27, yet the Tigers have won eight of the last 10 games in the series, including the last five in Lincoln.
The most useless stat of the series is that Mizzou is a perfect 5-0 against Nebraska when the Tigers are ranked; Missouri has not entered a game vs. the Huskers as a ranked opponent since Feb. 11,1984, when Mizzou came away with a 106-78 win in Columbia.
BOND... LaToya Bond!
With apologies to Ian Fleming, senior guard LaToya Bond has left opponents shaken this season and fans stirring in their seats.
She has led the Tiger offense to have five scorers in double figures six times over Mizzou's 11-game winning streak (after Mizzou did so just once last year). Bond has been a primary part of that success, scoring in double figures in each of Mizzou's 14 games this season, including seven times over 20 points.
The most recent example of that came in Saturday's win over Kansas State, when Bond had a team-high 20 points. She had a team-high 21 in Wednesday's upset win over the defending national champs, and poured in a Mizzou Arena-record 34 points the previous Thursday vs. Western Michigan. Bond had 27 of those points in a comeback second half in which she went 11-of-12 from the field, and made all four of her 3-point shots.
On Dec. 11 against Nicholls State, Bond countered a season-low 11 points to go with a season-high seven rebounds, and a near-career-high eight assists, to come thisclose to a triple-double.
Bond has two tournament MVP awards under her belt this season, and is Mizzou's leading scorer at 18.4 points per game (fifth in the Big 12). She has a Big 12 Conference-leading 3.0 steals per game, and is among the Big 12 leaders in nine different categories, including - at 5-foot-7 - blocks!
"RIDDLE" ME THIS: WHO CAN BEAT THE SHOT CLOCK?
It would be an understatement to say that junior forward EeTisha Riddle is not Mizzou's first option when it comes to 3-point shooting; she has made just seven (out of 37 attempts) in her three-year career, but none was more important than the one she swished home with 2:08 left in Wednesday's win over Baylor.
With the Tigers down 59-58, Carlynn Savant rebounded an errant Tiffany Brooks jumper, then fired the ball outside to Riddle, who let the ball go with two seconds left on the shot clock. Mizzou didn't relinquish the lead after the trey.
Riddle has been Mizzou's heart and soul on the defensive end. When she wasn't providing help coverage on All-American Sophia Young, Riddle was working on holding Baylor's Abiola Wabara under her season averages of 11.3 points and 6.5 rebounds per game (Wabara finished with nine points and five rebounds).
She earned all-tournament honors at the Pittsburgh Thanksgiving Tournament, averaging 7.0 points and 8.5 rebounds in Mizzou's two wins out east. For the season, Riddle is just shy of a double-figure scoring average, scoring 9.8 points per game (fourth on the team), and is second in rebounding (7.6 rpg).
CHRISTELLE HAS A GOOD REASON TO MISS PRACTICE...
Senior center Christelle N'Garsanet did not start Mizzou's exhibition game vs. Missouri Southern on Nov. 5 because she missed a pair of practices in the week leading up to the game. Often, that is cause for concern, yet N'Garsanet's absences were certainly excused, and even welcomed: The accounting major from Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, was in St. Louis for a job interview with a Big Four accounting firm. She has already secured an internship for next summer.
Mizzou's most-improved player a year ago, N'Garsanet has been the Tigers' presence in the paint for the last two seasons. She is second on the team in scoring (12.1 ppg) and is MU's top rebounder (7.7 rpg). Like Riddle, N'Garsanet also has four double-doubles on the season.
SAVANT LEADS THE BIG 12 SHARPSHOOTERS
Junior forward Carlynn Savant is one of the key reasons that the Tigers are hitting on all cylinders offensively. On Dec. 18, she was 7-of-8 from the field, including a perfect 3-of-3 from 3-point range, in scoring 18 points vs. Southern Illinois.
Just two weeks earlier, Savant had a career-high 19 points vs. Murray State in the State Farm Tiger Classic title match. She was 6-of-9 from the field, 2-of-4 on 3-pointers, and made all five of her free throws to top her previous best of 16 points set the previous Tuesday vs. Northwestern. For her efforts, she was named to the all-tournament team.
For the season, Savant is third on the squad in both scoring (10.6 ppg) and rebounding (5.4 rpg). Savant leads the Big 12 Conference in 3-point field-goal percentage, as she is shooting 49.1 percent (28-of-57) from beyond the arc.