March 13, 2009

Columbia, Mo. -

Complete Release in PDF Format

For Openers
> Missouri earned its first victory at the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship since 2005, as the Tigers raced to an 81-60 victory over Texas Tech on Thursday ... Missouri scored 50 second-half tallies to break a 31-31 tie at the half ... Mizzou has topped 50 points in a half 12 times this year, including seven times in the second half.
> Missouri will face Oklahoma State in the semifinals on Friday night, which marks Mizzou's first trip to the semifinals of the league tournament since the 2002-03 campaign ... Missouri is actually 2-0 all-time in the Big 12 Championship semifinals ... MU earned an 89-80 win over Oklahoma in 1996-97 and a 68-63 win over Kansas in 2002-03 ... Missouri is 9-5 all-time in postseason tournament semifinals (since the Big Eight postseason tourney started in 1976-77).
> Missouri is 1-0 all-time vs. Oklahoma State in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship ... Mizzou topped OSU 60-58 in the second round of the 2003 Championships in Dallas, Texas, before that ensuing win over Kansas in the semifinals that same season.
> Zaire Taylor dished a Missouri record seven assists in the quarterfinal win over Texas Tech ... Taylor passed both Jimmy McKinney (2003 vs. Kansas) and Corey Tate (1997 vs. OU), who each had six dimes in the Big 12 Tourney ... Taylor also had just one turnover and now has 114 assists compared to just 38 turnovers this season ... His 3.0-to-1 assist/turnover ratio this year ranks among the Top 10 in America.
> It's certainly been quite the turnaround for Missouri Basketball this year, as the Tigers have already improved 10 games from last season's 16-16 record ... The 10-win improvement is the most at MU since 1988-89, when the Tigers went from 19 wins in 1987-88 to 29 wins that next season ... The biggest turnaround in Missouri history is 12 wins, which came in 1979-80 (13 wins to 25).
> Missouri has been outstanding at protecting the basketball over its last five games ... The Tigers had just 11 turnovers vs. Texas Tech on Thursday and are averaging just 10.4 miscues during that five-game stretch (Missouri is 3-2 during those five games).
> Missouri improved to 6-1 on the year vs. teams from the Big 12 South ... Mizzou's only loss came in the regular-season finale at Texas A&M.
> The Tigers rank among the nation's leaders in several statistical categories heading into this week's Big 12 Championship ... Mizzou is No. 5 nationally in scoring at 81.8 ppg, No. 2 in assists per game at 18.7, No. 2 in steals per game at 10.7, No. 2 nationally in assist/turnover ratio at 1.5 and No. 5 in scoring margin at 14.9 ... Another fun stat: Missouri is No. 5 nationally with 62.6 FG attempts per game and the Tigers have already made 205 more FGs than their opponents through 32 games thanks to the nation's No. 2-ranked turnover margin (+6.7). Missouri earned its first postseason victory since 2005 on Thursday and will now face Oklahoma State in the semifinals of the 2009 Big 12 Championship.
> Here is an odd stat ... Missouri and Oklahoma State both rank No. 5 nationally in scoring at 81.8 points per game and through 32 games, both clubs have scored an identical 2,618 points this season.
> Missouri and Oklahoma State have met 14 times on a neutral court and the Tigers are 9-5 all-time in those meetings ... Mizzou has won three consecutive vs. OSU in the league tourney, dating back to the Big Eight Conference ... Mizzou is also 5-2 all-time vs. OSU in the Big 12 / Big Eight postseason tourney.
> Missouri tied a season high with 14 players played in Thursday's 21-point win against Texas Tech ... Coming into the game, Missouri only had five players who had ever competed in the Big 12 Tournament on its roster.
> Missouri's 21-point win over Texas Tech was its second-largest in the Big 12 Championship era ... MU defeated Tech 80-47 on March 9, 2000 in Kansas City ... The Tigers' only other 20-point win in the Big 12 Tourney came against Iowa State (79-59) in 2002.
> Mizzou has now earned exactly half of its wins (13-of-26) by 20+ points, including five wins over Big 12 foes.
> Missouri is looking to secure its third trip to the Big 12 Championship finals ... The Tigers won semifinal match-ups in both 1997 and 2003, but MU has never won the championship game since joining the conference.
> The Tigers are enjoying their best season (26-6) since 1993-94 ... Missouri's 26 wins are the fourth most in school history.
> In fact, Mike Anderson's .638 winning percentage through three seasons (thus far) makes him the winningest coach in Missouri history during that "first three year stretch" ... Quin Snyder is second with a .620 winning clip through his first-three years.
> With his club's resurgence this season, CBS analyst Seth Davis listed Mike Anderson as one of his Top 10 candidates for National Coach of the Year.
> Anderson was also named a finalist for the prestigious Henry Iba National Coach of the Year Award, presented by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.
> ESPN's Pat Forde named Anderson a finalist for National Coach of the Year.
> A huge factor in Missouri's success this season has been its defense and MU has a school record 343 steals through 32 games.
> In fact, Missouri is averaging 10.7 steals per game which is just behind the 1998-99 Nebraska team for the most in Big 12 history.
> This season's club is also No. 2 all-time in school history with 18.7 assists per game ... The 1988-89 Tigers are tops with 19.0 dimes ... However Missouri is No. 2 nationally in assists per game this season.
> This 2008-09 Tiger squad is the first in school history to have 500 assists, 300 steals and 100 blocked shots.
> Another key for the Tigers continues to be the play of their bench ... On the season, Missouri's reserves are averaging 28.8 points per game, which is a school record.
> The catalyst for Missouri's improved scoring punch off the pine is its five player freshman class ... So far this season that group is averaging 21.1 points.
> With those great bench-scoring totals, the Tigers have had a school-record 11 different players reach double figures this season, surpassing the 10 players that reached double figures in 1961-62, 1974-75, 1994-95 and 2007-08.
> It's not just scoring where the Tigers are balanced ... Missouri has 10 different players averaging nearly 10 minutes a game on the year, including five newcomers.
> Sticking with the balance theme, Missouri has had a school-record tying 10 different players dish out at least 20 assists this season ... The 1987-88 Tigers also had 10 players with 20 dimes on the year, which is truly an incredible stat ... Last year's Tiger team, which was one of the most "unselfish" in school history, had eight players accomplish that feat.
> Missouri has had four or more players reach double figures in the same game 14 times already this season and have had six players do it three in the same game, including twice in Big 12 play vs. Colorado and Oklahoma State.
> With that scoring surge, Missouri has topped the 80-point plateau 19 times in 32 games this season and is 18-1 on the year when scoring at least 80 points ... Missouri has topped 80 points 43 times in the Mike Anderson era (93 games) ... To put that scoring in perspective, the Tigers topped 80 points just 37 times (in total 160 games) the five seasons before his arrival.
> One thing Tiger fans are enjoying this season is points off turnovers ... Missouri is forcing 19.2 turnovers per game and is averaging 22.0 points off those opponent miscues each night.
> Missouri is scoring an impressive 30 percent of its points this season off turnovers (22.0-of-81.8).
> Another impressive stat regarding Missouri's defense is that the Tigers force a turnover on 27 percent of their defensive possessions ... That means opponents are turning it over a little more than once every four possessions vs. the Fastest 40 Minutes in Basketball.