Jan. 1, 2007

Columbia, Mo. -

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For Openers
> Happy New Year! Mizzou Head Coach Mike Anderson hopes to ring in the New Year with career victory No. 100 as his Tigers host SEC foe Mississippi State at Mizzou Arena ... Anderson enters today's game 99-43 in five seasons as the sideline boss at both UAB and Missouri and looks for his 11th career win in Columbia ... How impressive would win No. 11 be through 13 games for Anderson? Consider this, the Tigers won just 12 games all of last season and returned just 37.6 percent of its scoring and 66.5 percent of its rebounding from that club.

> With his six steals on Saturday vs. Southern, junior guard Stefhon Hannah leads the nation with 3.9 steals per game ... Hannah has topped five or more steals in a game five times this season ... Hannah now has 47 steals on the year and needs just three more thefts to join the Mizzou single-season top 10 ... FYI, the single-season record is 76 held by Lynn Hardy in 1986-87 ... The Big 12 record for steals in a season is 102 by Mexico, Mo., native Cookie Belcher (Nebraska) in 1998-99 ... Hannah's pace of 3.9 steals per game would rank No. 16 in NCAA history.

> Despite returning just 37.6 percent of its scoring from last season, Missouri is No. 4 in the Big 12 with 80.4 points per game ... The Tigers also rank No. 2 in three-point field goals (8.6) and No. 2 in three-point percentage (41.9).

> Mizzou will be looking for its 18th consecutive win at Mizzou Arena against non-conference opposition ... That's the longest non-conference winning streak in the history of Mizzou Arena and would equal the run of 18 straight non-conference wins at home from 2000-2003 ... Mizzou has also won 11 consecutive games at home overall, which is the nation's 19th longest homecourt winning streak.

> Overall, the Tigers have topped 80 points in seven of 12 games and have won six of 12 games by 20-plus points ... Over the previous two seasons combined (2004-05 and 2005-06), Missouri topped 80 points in scoring just six times ... Over the previous three seasons (2003-04, 2004-05 and 2005-06) Mizzou won just four (total) games by 20-plus point margins.

Mizzou Quick-Hitters
> Mizzou will look for its second consecutive win over a Southeastern Conference foe when it hosts Mississippi State ... The Tigers defeated Arkansas by an 86-64 margin on Nov. 30.
> Mizzou will go in search of its first 11-2 start since the 1998-99 season ... That was Norm Stewart's final campaign in Columbia. > It bears repeating that a win vs. Mississippi State would be the 100th win of Head Coach Mike Anderson's career. > Head Coach Mike Anderson was named the No. 1 Immediate Impact Coach in America by Sports Illustrated's Seth Davis > Sports Illustrated's Grant Wahl named Anderson one of his six most innovative coaches in America. > Anderson was also listed as the leading candidate for National Coach of the Year by Mike DeCourcy and the Sporting News. > Missouri is 71-29 all-time in the first game following New Year's Day, including seven consecutive wins. > Today's contest will be just the second all-time meeting between Missouri and Mississippi State ... The Tigers and Bulldogs' lone meeting was Dec. 7, 1974, in Columbia in the Show-Me Classic. > A win vs. Mississippi State would give Missouri its 1,399th as a program ... Missouri is 38th all-time in NCAA Division I Basketball wins and is currently one win shy of 1,400 ... Kansas, Texas Oklahoma and Oklahoma State are the only other Big 12 schools to have reached the 1,400 win plateau. > Ole Mizzou ranks No. 3 nationally with 12.2 steals per game ... So far this season the Tigers have 146 total steals, which is just 21 steals shy of the 167 steals Missouri recorded during the entire 2005-06 season. > Those 12.2 steals per game would shatter the Big 12 record of 10.8 steals set by Iowa State in 2004-05. > At their current pace of 12.2 steals per game, the 2006-07 Tigers would shatter the school record of 295 set in 1985-86 ... Missouri is on pace for 378 steals. > Missouri is averaging 17.5 assists per game through 12 games this season, which is No. 2 in the Big 12 and No. 25 nationally ... The school record for assists per game throughout a season is 19.0, which came in 1988-89. > Despite being labeled as undersized, Missouri is averaging 34.0 points per game in the paint, including a season best 50 tallies in the opener against North Carolina A&T. > Another improved area for the Tigers has come in bench production ... Missouri is averaging 29.6 points per game from its bench through 12 games, including a season high 49 points vs. Lipscomb ... Last season, Missouri's reserves averaged just 11.9 points per game. > Missouri is scoring nearly 30-percent of its points (22.8-of-80.4) off of opponent turnovers ... The Tigers are forcing an average of 22.0 turnovers per game and scoring 22.8 points off of those opponent miscues. > As a team, Missouri is No. 19 nationally at 41.9 percent shooting from three-point range (103-of-246) ... The Tigers have topped double figures in three-point makes five times this season ... The Tigers topped double figures in three-pointers just twice all of last year (at Davidson and at home vs. Kansas).

Tiger Tidbits (Individual Notes)
> Stefhon Hannah continues to be one of the nation's top newcomers and leads the country in steals per game at 3.9 ... He also ranks No. 4 in the Big 12 with 5.1 assists, No. 11 in scoring (15.1) and No. 8 in three-point makes (1.9).
> Hannah has topped five or more steals in a game five times this season and needs just three more thefts to join the Mizzou single-season top 10. > Hannah and fellow newcomer Keon Lawrence rank No. 5 nationally and No. 1 in the Big 12 with 5.3 steals per game and are the top steal tandem nationally among a pair of newcomers.
> Jason Horton and Hannah are one of the Big 12's top assist tandems and rank No. 13 nationally with 9.2 assists per game.
> Matt Lawrence continues to be one of the nation's top three-point shooters and ranks No. 2 in the Big 12 and No. 28 nationally at 52.1 percent.
> Lawrence has been especially deadly at home and is shooting 54.7 percent (35-of-64) from beyond the arc at Mizzou Arena.
> As the numbers show, Lawrence is among the Big 12's most improved players this season and has upped his scoring average 885-percent from the 1.5 points per game he averaged as a freshman ... Lawrence is second on the club with 13.0 points per game and ranks No. 2 in the Big 12 and No. 34 nationally with 3.1 treys per game.
> Lawrence leads the team with 37 three-point makes this year and has shot better than 50 percent from three-point range in 6-of-12 games this season.
> It's been nearly a month since Jason Horton committed a turnover ... Horton's last turnover came early in the second half of Mizzou's Dec. 3 win over Evansville ... Horton hasn't committed a turnover in 74:47 of playing time (span of three consecutive games).
> Thanks to his near flawless play, Horton now ranks No. 2 in the Big 12 with a 2.58-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio and ranks No. 9 nationally in a/t ratio among players averaging at least 3.0 assists per game.
> Like Matt Lawrence, Kalen Grimes is among the Big 12's most improved players and has upped his season averages from 2.6 points and 2.6 boards as a sophomore to 9.8 points and a team-leading 6.6 rebounds, which also ranks No. 12 in the Big 12.
> Leo Lyons earned the first start of his career Dec. 19 vs. Illinois and responded with nine points, seven boards and a block in 27 minutes vs. the Illini ... As a result, Lyons has been in Mizzou's starting five each of the past two games and is averaging and improved 21.0 minutes per game during that stretch.
> Freshman J.T. Tiller led Mizzou with four assists in the win over Southern ... The four dimes tied a career high for the Marietta, Ga., native.
> Junior forward Vaidotas Volkus grabbed a career high seven offensive rebounds vs. Southern ... The seven offensive caroms was the most by a Tiger this season.