March 5, 2007
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The Missouri Tigers embark on postseason play this week when they travel to Oklahoma City for the 2007 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship ... the Tigers opened the season with a 12-1 non-conference mark, which was also the best start in school history ... after splitting their opening two Big 12 games, MU lost eight of its next nine before winning three-straight, including road wins over Kansas and then No. 19/20 Nebraska before avenging an earlier loss to Kansas State ... the Tigers closed out the regular season with losses at Oklahoma and to Kansas on Thursday.
Big 12 Tournament History
Missouri is 5-10 all-time in the Big 12 Championship with its deepest run coming a year ago when the Tigers advanced to the semifinals for the first time ... Mizzou is 4-5 in first round games and has won its opening game in the tournament three-consecutive years ... with Texas as a first round opponent, the Tigers will be facing a Big 12 South Division school for the seventh-straight year ... MU is 4-5 all-time against the six south schools and 1-5 against its north counterparts ... MU's first round game with Texas will be the first meeting between the teams in the Big 12 Championship ... the Tigers have defeated each of the other three Texas schools at least once in tourney play.
MU vs. The Other 11 Schools In The Championship
Opponent 1st Rd 2nd Rd Semis Final Total Baylor 1-0 0-1 -- -- 1-1 Colorado 0-1 0-1 -- -- 0-2 Iowa State -- 0-1 -- -- 0-1 Kansas 1-0 -- -- -- 1-0 Kansas State -- 0-1 -- -- 0-1 Nebraska 0-1 -- -- -- 0-1 Oklahoma -- -- 0-1 -- 0-1 Okla. State 1-2 -- -- -- 1-2 Texas -- -- -- -- -- Texas A&M 1-0 -- -- -- 1-0 Texas Tech 0-1 1-0 -- -- 1-1 Totals 4-5 1-4 0-1 -- 5-10
Missouri As The No. 10 Seed
This marks the fifth time that Missouri has been the No. 10 seed in the Big 12 Tournament ... the Tigers are 1-3 in first-round games as the 10th seed with the win coming in 1999 over Baylor ... MU has also gone 1-1 as the No. 7 seed in the 7-10 match up.
Mizzou-Texas Series History
Tuesday's game marks the 15th all-time meeting between the schools, with Texas holding a 13-1 overall lead ... UT won the first seven games before Mizzou claimed a 68-52 win over the 12th-ranked Longhorns at the Hearnes Center in 2001 ... UT has now won the last six but in the two most recent meetings, Mizzou had numerous chances to come away with a victory ...last year in Austin, the Tigers led 53-44 with 11:00 to play but missed their final 15 shots before losing by nine, and this year's back-and-forth contest had 16 lead changes and 11 ties before Texas won 79-77 in overtime.
Savant Sets Missouri Career 3FG Record
With her second 3-pointer at Oklahoma on Sunday, Carlynn Savant became Missouri's all-time leader in 3-pointers made with 141 ... she broke Tracy Lozier's record of 140, set from 2001-04 ... her .414 career 3-point percentage is second all-time but sits 21 points back of Stacy Williams' benchmark of .436.
38 Wins Over Last Two Years Among Mizzou Highs
Missouri has won a combined 38 games since the start of last year - a figure that ranks as the second-highest 2-year total in the last 17 seasons ... dating back to 1990, only the Cindy Stein-coached teams in 1999-00 and 2000-01 won more games as they totaled 40 between them ... when looking at regular-season totals only, the current total of 37 is one more than the aforementioned pair of teams.
Mizzou Among The League's Best Offenses
Missouri enters the Kansas game ranked first in the Big 12 in FT Pct. (.795), third in 3-FG Pct. (.362), sixth in FG Pct. (.425) and fifth in scoring offense (71.0 ppg) ... Mizzou and Texas A&M are the only two schools to rank in the top-half of the league stats in all four categories.
Mizzou `D' Strong In 3-Game Win Streak
Much has been said lately about Missouri's ability to close out ball games ... while the Tiger offense remained strong during the three-game winning streak, the defense stepped up down the stretch to help secure the victories ... in the last six minutes of the wins at Kansas, Nebraska and at home against K-State, MU held the opposition to just 25 percent shooting (8-of-25) and 23.1 percent from outside (3-of-13) ... Missouri also had a decisive scoring run to keep the momentum in its favor ... against KU it was a 10-0 run that made it 57-46 with 6:16 left; at Nebraska is was another 10-0 run that gave the Tigers a 45-42 lead with 8:09 to play as they outscored the Huskers 20-11 the rest of the way; a 12-2 run on Wednesday kept KSU at arms length before securing an eight-point victory.
Mizzou 17 Points Away From 9-7 Big 12 Record
Coaches and players will tell you that you can't worry about previous results and you need to concentrate on what's in front of you ... but a closer check of Missouri's 5-11 Big 12 mark and you can see why a number of coaches around the league have publicly said they don't want to see MU on their side of the Big 12 Championship bracket ... looking at their four closest losses and you will see that the Tigers were 17 points away from finishing 9-7 and in sixth place ... in losses to Texas (79-77 ot), Baylor (71-70), Texas A&M (69-63) and Kansas (70-66), Missouri held a lead or was tied in all three games at some point with less than 6:00 to play ... MU also held early second-half leads in road setbacks to Colorado and Iowa State.
The Chase To 1,000
Missouri's senior trio of Tiffany Brooks, EeTisha Riddle and Carlynn Savant are all within 70 points of joining the 24 previous Tigers to score 1,000 career points ... the chart below shows each student-athlete's current totals along with a projection of when they might crack the plateau.
Current Pts Needed 06-07 Gms To Total For 1,000 PPG 1,000* Tiffany Brooks 930^ 70 13.4 6 EeTisha Riddle 983 17 16.3 1+ Carlynn Savant 938 62 11.2 6* This projection is based on the 06-07 scoring average.
^ Tiffany Brooks scored eight additional points as a freshman at Kansas State for an NCAA career total of 938.
Brooks Heating Up At Same Time As Last Season
A year ago Tiffany Brooks averaged just 6.9 points in the Tigers' first 23 games before leading the team in scoring over the final eight contests with 14.8 ppg ... while her totals this season have been considerably higher and more consistent - 13.2 ppg all season - she has posted 13.8 ppg in Mizzou's last seven.