March 4, 2014
Arena: The Arena at Gwinnett Center (13,000)
TV:FOX Sports SportSouth
Radio: KTGR 100.5 FM/101.3 FM
Live Scoring: www.SECDigitalNetwork.com
Live Video: www.SECDigitalNetwork.com
MU Head Coach: Robin Pingeton
(St. Ambrose `90) 60-63 at MU (4th season)
MSU Head Coach: Vic Schaefer
(Texas A&M, `84) 13-18 at MSU (1st season)
TIGERS KICK OFF SEC TOURNAMENT PLAY AGAINST MISSISSIPPI STATE
Mizzou heads to its second SEC Tournament, as the Tigers are scheduled to face Mississippi State at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, March 5. The game will be broadcast on FOX Sports SportSouth and live scoring will be available. Mizzou is 0-2 against Mississippi State in program history with the last meeting coming this season on Jan. 26. Mississippi State earned a 69-62 win over the Tigers in Starkville. The Tigers are 0-1 in SEC Tournament play as well, falling to Vanderbilt, 53-40, last season.
UP NEXT
The winner of Game One will advance to face Florida in the next round of the tournament. Should the Tigers continue on and top Florida, Mizzou will face Kentucky on Friday, March 7.
SCOUTING MISSISSIPPI STATE
The Bulldogs closed out the regular season 18-12 and 5-11 in conference play. Mississippi State will see the Tigers after a loss at Georgia in the regular season finale. Junior Martha Alwal leads the Bulldogs as she averages 15.5 points and 8.9 rebounds per game. She is shooting over 50-percent from the field this season, the third best in the league. She leads the SEC with 2.6 blocks per game and her 3.2 offensive rebounds per game ranks second in the league.
LAST TIME OUT
• Mizzou fell to the Arkansas Razorbacks on Sunday, 72-70 to close out the regular season.
• Junior Morgan Eye led the Tigers with 20 points in the game.
• Freshman Jordan Frericks reset her career high with 18 points.
QUICK HITS
• Senior Bri Kulas and junior Morgan Eye have both reached the millennium mark in their DI playing careers, recording their 1,000th points at senior night against Ole Miss. Eye has joined the 1,000 point club at Mizzou in just three years, and Kulas needs just 21 points to join Mizzou's 1,000 point club.
• Morgan Eye leads the nation with her 106 three-pointers this season. This is her second consecutive season recording more than 100 treys. Last season, Eye finished with 112 treys to set the school and conference single-season records. She is just seven threes away from breaking her own record this season.
• Missouri's win over Ole Miss marked the 17th of the season, matching last year's win total. The number marks the most wins for a Mizzou team since the 2006-07 season. A win over Mississippi State would give the Tigers 18 total victories this year, the most since the 2005-06 season when the Tigers went 21-10.
• Missouri's six conference wins this season match the Tigers' conference record from last year, which stands as the best record in conference play since 2005-06 when Mizzou went 10-6 in Big 12 play.
• Should the Tigers tally 20 wins this season, it will be just the 13th season in program history that a Mizzou team has reached 20 wins. Prior to 2005-06, the last 20-win season came in the 2000-01 year.
• No. 10 Tennessee was the eighth ranked opponent that the Tigers have faced this season. Last season Missouri faced six total ranked teams during conference play. This is the first time in Coach Pingeton's career at Missouri that the Tigers have faced four consecutive ranked teams, they played three consecutive in her first season with Missouri.
• The Tigers' win over No. 16 Vanderbilt marks Mizzou's second win over a ranked opponent this season. Mizzou has earned two or more wins over ranked opponents in three of Head Coach Robin Pingeton's four years at MU. Should the Tigers top another ranked opponent this season, it will be the first time since the 2010-11 season that the Tigers have earned three top-25 wins. Prior to that, the last time Mizzou picked up three top-25 wins was the 2000-01 season.
• Missouri's last neutral site contest was against Hartford at the University of Miami Thanksgiving Tournament. The Tigers outscored Hartford by 23 points, outrebounded the team by 19 and held Hartford to just over 32-percent shooting, proving that the Tigers are tough to beat on unclaimed territory.
• The Tigers and the Bulldogs have met twice over the course of program history, and Missouri typically comes out ready to go. The Tigers have shot 50-percent or better from the field in the first half of the past two matchups and held the Bulldogs to 37-percent or less shooting through the full 40 miutes pf play. Not only that, but Missouri has shot 75-percent or better from the free throw line in both contests.
• With an 11-2 record in the non-conference, the Tigers gained momentum leading to conference play. In Tiger victories this season, Mizzou is holding its opponents to just 60.9 points per game with an average scoring margin of +15.5 points. Mizzou averages 4.3 blocks per game in winning contests and also outrebounds opponents by almost seven rebounds per game. Proving that the Tigers unselfish strategy works, the Tigers average 17.8 assists per victory, eight more than opponents. Also, five Tigers average seven points or more in Mizzou's victories.
• Under fourth-year head coach Robin Pingeton, Mizzou is continuing to play great team basketball. That is evidenced by Mizzou's 15.7 assists per game (fourth in the SEC and 53rd nationally).
• The Tigers have been on top of things on the road this season, out-shooting opponents in every category: Mizzou shoots 40.8-percent from the floor to opponents' 39.0, 41.8-percent from distance to opponents' 31.7 and 78.9-percent from the charity stripe to opponents' 69.3-percent.
• In road games this season, the Tigers are sticking together. Mizzou assists on 67.7-percent of its field goals. In fact, that has been a trend under the direction of head coach Robin Pingeton. Last season, Mizzou assisted on 64.7-percent of its field goals - up from 61.7-percent in 2011-12 and just 53.2-percent in 2010-11, Pingeton's first year. The team checks in at 64.4-percent this season, on pace with last season and 11-percent higher than in her first season as the team continues to buy into her team-first coaching style.
• This season the Tigers are averaging 3.4 blocks per game, a number that is much improved from last season when the Tigers averaged 2.3 blocks per game. Freshman Jordan Frericks is dominating in this category, she leads the team with 37 blocks on the season, good for an average of 1.3 per game (11th-best in the SEC).
• Staying on the topic of blocks, Mizzou has 100 blocks as a team this season, 21 more than it had all of last year (75). In fact, Frericks' 38 blocks are the most by a Tiger since Christine Flores (who was drafted in the WNBA draft) who had 93 during her senior season in 2011-12.
• The Tiger staff is stressing a defensive mindset this season, and Missouri's numbers are showing it. The Tigers are amongst leaders in the SEC: third in defensive rebounding at 28.6. per game and the Tigers are second in the league in defensive rebounding percentage at 70-percent.
• Speaking of rebounding, the Tigers are very good after the break this season, outrebounding opponents by almost three rebounds in the second half of games as the team averages 20.7 rebounds in the second half this season.
• This season, Kulas is averaging 18.6 points per game, good for second in the league. Kulas also ranks in the league's top-ten in FG% (10th, .440), FT% (2nd, .834), 3-point FG made (7th, 1.8 per game), and defensive rebounds (8th, 5.0 per game) as she is putting together an All-SEC-type season.
• Staying on the topic of Kulas, she is in elite company this season. She joins Tennessee's Meighan Simmons as the only players in the SEC to score 10 or more field goals in at least four games this season. Simmons was an All-American last season and the SEC Co-Player of the Year and the Preseason Player of the Year in the league and Kulas is averaging more points and more rebounds than Simmons this season.