Missouri Basketball Post Game Notes
3/5/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
March 5, 2011
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Postgame Notes
- The Tigers hosted the Kansas Jayhawks today, a rivalry that dates all the way back to the Civil War. A sell-out crowd of 15,061 came out to show their support for Missouri Basketball.
- The loss puts the Tigers at 22-9 and 8-8 in Big 12 play. Mike Anderson is now 79-11 in Mizzou Arena since he took over the program in 2006-07.
- Prior to the contest, Missouri was the lone unbeaten Big 12 team at home. Their last loss was against Kansas in the 2009-10 season. The 17 wins for the Tigers at home is their seventh-longest streak in program history.
- In looking deeper into the Tigers' play at home, over the last three years, Mizzou is now 52-3 at home and 21-3 against Big 12 foes in that span. The Tigers boast an average 22.5 ppg margin of victory within the (not so) friendly confines of Mizzou Arena.
- Mizzou Basketball has 76 victories over its last three seasons, the winningest three-year stretch in school history. Tiger clubs from 1980-83 and 1988-91 won 75 games over a three-year stretch.
- The Tigers don't give shots up easily. They tied their all-time season record of 160 blocked shots during today's contest, the same number of shut-downs they tallied overall last season.
- Coach Anderson's trademark "Fastest 40 Minutes in Basketball" continues to be effective. The Tigers forced 24 turnovers and scored 23 points off those Jayhawk mistakes.
- Missouri's bench showed off its depth once again with a solid 35 bench points. Missouri is one of four teams nationally to have five players averaging double figures in scoring (along with Iowa State, Long Beach State and Detroit). Three Tigers boasted double figures in today's contest -- juniors Laurence Bowers with 22 and Marcus Denmon with 19, and sophomore Mike Dixon with 10.
- Bowers is showing the consistency Coach Anderson has been looking for during his last eight games, averaging 15.1 points and 7.3 rebounds to help give Missouri a steady inside presence. Bowers continued his tough work tonight with five steals and 10 rebounds to add to his 22 points. It was his third double-double of the season.
- Senior forward Justin Safford took to the floor for the last time at Mizzou Arena with his 12th start of the year. Safford has seen the revival of Missouri basketball since his freshman season when the Tigers went 16-16 and has helped the team to 92 wins during his college tenure.
- Missouri has two of the country's best young distributors of the basketball in Dixon and freshman Phil ("Flip") Pressey. Both underclassmen have topped 100 assists this season (both with 107) and they are just the second underclassmen tandem to top 100 assists in the same year, joining Anthony Peeler and current Oklahoma State head coach Travis Ford ... Peeler had 179 dimes that sophomore season, while Ford chipped in 105. The Missouri freshman record for dimes is 109 by Jimmy McKinney (2002-03).
- At the 2:40 mark, Denmon got the crowd on their feet with an impressive dunk, and a flagrant foul was called on the Jayhawk's Marcus Morris. Denmon put in the two free throws easily and went on to score a three-pointer on the Tiger's next possession, bringing Missouri just four points away from the Kansas lead. Unfortunately that was the closest the Tigers got to bridging the gap.
First Half Notes
- The Tigers went on a 10-0 run to nab the lead for the first time of the game at the 11:14 mark with a jumper by junior guard Kim English.
- Bowers put up a strong 10 points in the first half with Denmon right behind him tallying 8 points, making up over half of the Tigers' 31 points going into the tunnel.
- Missouri converted five offensive rebounds into eight second chance points and grabbed 10 defensive rebounds to deny Kansas a single second chance basket in the first half.
