Dec. 7, 2013

by Jay Wallis, Media Relations Student Assistant

The past eight seasons, the Missouri Tigers have been absolutely magnificent at home when going up against non-conference opponents. Mizzou has currently won 79 consecutive non-conference games. The team's last loss came in the team's first non-conference game of the 2005-06 season came against Sam Houston State (80-77). Since this loss, the Tigers haven't looked back once.

Starting from the beginning of the 2006-07 season--during which Mizzou has won 70 of these 79 non-conference home games--the club's margin of victory has been a commanding 26.0 points.

Some notable victories came against Arkansas in 2006 (86-64), Purdue in 2007 (73-63), California in 2008 (93-66), Oregon in 2009 (106-69), Vanderbilt in 2010 (85-82) and recently West Virginia this season (80-71) before today's win over UCLA.

None of these wins, though, have been quite as momentous as Saturday's nationally televised, 80-71, come-from-behind victory over UCLA, a team that was undefeated before visiting Mizzou Arena. The Bruins came into this game ranked No. 18 in the Associated Press poll and had won each of their last seven games by double figures.

By taking down UCLA, Mizzou now has its first win over a ranked opponent during this 79-game non-conference home winning streak. No matter what team has come to Columbia, the Tigers have taken care of business behind the support of their fans.

This year at home, the Tigers have continued their dominance against non-conference opponents, winning by an average margin of 16.0 points. Of the three victories that have been decided by single-digits (Gardner-Webb, West Virginia, UCLA), all three were cut to single digits after the game had already been decided.

They have two more non-conference home games this season coming against Western Michigan on December 15 and Long Beach State on January 4.