Feb. 20, 2006
Columbia, Mo. -
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Missouri (11-12, 4-8 Big 12) will look to rebound from its lowest offensive output of the season when it hosts Texas A&M on Tuesday at Mizzou Arena ... The Tigers shot 22.2 percent in the second half at Kansas and scored just 46 points ... Mizzou's previous low offensive output came against Illinois when it scored 50 ... The last time Missouri scored fewer than 50 points was March 2, 2005, at Iowa State, a 67-49 defeat ... Those offensive struggles actually began Jan. 21 in a 79-64 loss at Kansas State ... Over Missouri's previous seven games, the team is averaging just 57.4 points on 38.9 percent shooting from the floor and just 30.3 percent shooting from three-point range ... The Tigers are 10-4 at home this year and will look for their 11th home victory of the season ... The Tigers have reached double figures in home wins in 27 consecutive seasons dating back to the 1977-78 campaign when the club went 9-4 ... Head Coach Melvin Watkins will face his old club this evening ... Watkins was the head coach at Texas A&M from 1998-2004, before coming to Missouri as Associate Head Coach at the start of the 2004-05 campaign ... His son, Marcus Watkins, began his collegiate career at Texas A&M and current Tiger Assistant Coach, Lance Irvin, spent the 2003-04 campaign as an assistant under Watkins in College Station ... Jimmy McKinney and Thomas Gardner led Missouri with 15 points apeice in the loss at Kansas ... McKinney has reached double figures in points in a career-best six consecutive games and is averaging 14.2 points per game during that stretch ... The senior is also the hottest Tiger from beyond the arc during that stretch, hitting 10-of-24 three-pointers (41.7) ... Gardner needs just 33 points to reach 1,000 for his career ... The last juniors to top 1,000 tallies were Rickey Paulding and Arthur Johnson in 2002-03 ... With his three treys at Kansas, Gardner now ranks eighth at Mizzou in single-season treys (78) and needs just three more to move into sixth with Mark Atkins, who made 81 treys during the 1992-93 season.
Getting To Know Today's Foe
Texas A&M (16-7, 6-6 Big 12) enters tonight's game following a 64-60 road win at Baylor on Saturday ... As they have done all season, Acie Law and Joseph Jones paced A&M with a combined 32 points, eight boards and eight assists to lift the Aggies to their second Big 12 road win of the season ... A&M also won at Iowa State ... Law leads Texas A&M with 16.4 points and 3.7 assists, while Jones has been posting norms of 16.3 points and 6.9 rebounds per night ... Texas A&M is a deep club and routinely plays 10 players, paced by Law, who averages 34.8 minutes per game ... A&M is one of the Big 12's top defensive clubs and makes up for its (minus) 0.7 rebounding margin by holding foes to just 61.7 points per game ... Overall, Texas A&M has won three consecutive to even its Big 12 record at 6-6, including back-to-back home wins over then-No. 25 Colorado and Oklahoma State, before Saturday's win at improving Baylor.
Mizzou Series With The Aggies
Tuesday's game marks the 15th all-time meeting between Missouri and Texas A&M with the Tigers holding a 11-3 series advantage ... Texas A&M won the last meeting between the two clubs, a 91-63 win on Feb. 5, 2005, in College Station, but Mizzou has won all-five meeings with the Aggies in Columbia ... Prior to last season's win by Texas A&M, Mizzou had won 8-of-9 in the series and Missouri is 8-3 since the two institutions joined the Big 12 Conference.
Fancy Seeing You Here
Former associates, teammates and players will meet this evening when Tiger Head Coach Melvin Watkins, Assistant Coach Lance Irvin and Tiger junior Marcus Watkins face Texas A&M ... Watkins directed the Aggies' program from 1998-2004 and is credited with recruiting current A&M standouts Acie Law and Jospeh Jones to College Station ... Lance Irvin spent one season at A&M (2003-04) on Watkins' staff, while Marcus Watkins wore the Maroon and White for two seasons.
Horton Sharing The Wealth
With three more assists, sophomore Jason Horton will become just the sixth player in school history to dish out 100 assists in back-to-back campaigns ... With those three dimes, Horton will also join Anthony Peeler and Melvin Booker as the only Tigers to hand out 100+ helpers during his freshman and sophomore seasons ... Horton is currently on pace to dish out 119 assists, which would rank 12th in school history and just three outside of the Mizzou single-season Top 10.
The Accolades Keep Coming For Gardner
Thomas Gardner added another award to his ever-growing portforlio, as the junior was named a Second Team All-District pick by the National Association of Basketball Coaches ... With the honor, Gardner will now be eligible to earn NABC All-America recognition at the conclussion of the 2005-06 season.