Mizzou Opens Season vs. Central Arkansas at Mizzou Arena
OPPONENT	LOCATION	DAY	TIME (CT)	WATCH	LISTEN	STATS	Game Notes
Central Arkansas	Columbia, Mo.	Tuesday, Nov. 6	7 p.m.	SEC +	KTGR	Stats	Notes

Storylines

• Mizzou Men's Basketball launches its 113th season after reaching its first NCAA Tournament since 2012-13 a season ago. The trip to the Big Dance was the program's 27th all-time. Head caoch Cuonzo Martin became the 59th head coach in NCAA history to lead three different programs to the NCAA Tournament (Cal, Tennessee).
• Last season, Martin led Mizzou to 20 wins and a tie for fourth place in the SEC, Mizzou's best finish in league play since placing second in the Big 12 in 2011-12. Martin has seven 20-win seasons in 10 years as a head coach.
• Mizzou is looking for its fourth consecutive win in a season opener. Mizzu coaches are now 17-2 in debut games after Martin opened the 2017-18 campaign with an emphatic 74-59 victory over Iowa State. Mizzou has won 11 of its last 12 season-opening contests. 
• Mizzou is 90-22 (.804) in season openers with wins in 23 of its last 26 such games.
• The Tigers face with off with Central Arkansas for the second time in program history on Tuesday. The first meeting came on Dec. 18, 2010, when Mizzou prevailed, 116-63. The Tigers set Mizzou Arena records for points (116), field goals made (45) and assists (33) in that impressive win. It marked just the eighth time in program history Mizzou scored 116 points or more in a game.
• Mizzou is 14-2 against Southland Conference opponents with the last loss coming to Sam Houston State on Nov. 14, 2005.
• Mizzou (20-13) was the nation's third-most improved team record-wise in 2017-18.
• Mizzou went 13-3 at home last season, its best mark since going 17-0 in 2012-13. Mizzou Arena boasted the nation's highest attendance increase for the second consecutive season and the Tigers ranked 13th in nation in average attendance per game (15,061).

J Tilly

• Standout sophomore forward Jeremiah Tilmon is coming off an efficient freshman campaign in which he averaged 8.2 points and 4.3 rebounds per game.
• Tilmon led Mizzou in field goal percentage, shooting at a 56.4 percent clip from the field.
• The 56.4 field goal percentage was the second-highest single-season FG pct. for a freshman in program history.
• He is one of only two Tiger freshmen in program history to shoot above 55 percent and make at least 115 shots, alongisde Steve Stipanovich.
• Per 40 minutes, Tilmon posted 16.9 points and 8.6 rebounds. Per 100 possessions, he notched 25.1 points.
• He was one of only two Tigers to start all 33 games a season ago, joining first-team All-SEC guard Kassius Robertson.
• Tilmon tallied 33 blocked shots, the fifth-most in a single campaign by a Mizzou freshman.
• His 1.0 career blocks per game clip is currently tied for 8th on Mizzou's all-time list.

Round 4 for Puryear

• Senior Kevin Puryear has appeared in 32 more career games than anyone else on Mizzou's roster, earning 89 career starts.
• Puryear became the 46th Tiger in program history to eclipse 1,000 career points late last season.
• Puryear currently ranks 43rd on Mizzou all-time career scoring list with 1,014 career points and counting. He is just 33 points shy of the Top 40 on that list, trailing Mizzou and NBA legend DeMarre Carroll, who scored 1,046 points at Mizzou.
• Puryear's 79.7 career free throw percentage ranks 11th all-time at Mizzou. He has shot above 82 percent from the charity stripe in two of his three campaigns.
• Puryear did not miss a free throw in the final two minutes of games last season and only missed one in the final five minutes of games.
• When Puryear led Mizzou in scoring, the Tigers were 4-0 last season.
• Puryear played an active role on Mizzou's 2015-16 and 2016-17 squads, only experiencing victory 18 times during his first two seasons. The Tigers more than doubled that total with their 20 wins last season.

New Faces

• Mizzou's 2018-19 roster features 19 players, the SEC's largest roster.
• Mizzou welcomes 10 newcomers, including seven on scholarship (Torrence Watson, Javon Pickett, Christian Guess, Xaiver Pinson, Dru Smith, Mark Smith and KJ Santos) and three recruitied walk-ons (Parker Braun, Evan Yerkes and Brooks Ford). 
• Illinois transfer Mark Smith bolstered Mizzou's backcourt when he received a waiver for immediate eligibility from the NCAA. Smith appeared in 31 games for the Illini a season ago.
• Guess was a late addition for the Tigers after senior guard Cullen VanLeer  opted to medically retire, opening up a scholarhsip in September.

More Tidbits

• Mizzou went undefeated (7-0) at home during nonconference play last season.
• The Tigers won those seven games by an average margin of 20.1 points per contest.
• Cuonzo Martin has never lost a home opener in 10 seasons as a head coach. 
• Mizzou won 13 home games in a season for the ninth time in Mizzou Arena history a year ago.
• Senior Jordan Geist returns for a third season handling point guard duties. Geist ranked eighth in the SEC during league play in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.9).
• Geist's 28 points vs. Green Bay last season were the most by any returning Tiger. He scored 28 in just 23 minutes, the first Mizzou player to do so since the 1982-83 season. 
• Geist dished out a team-high 95 assists during the 2017-18 season and racked up 23 multi-assist games. Mizzou is 14-5 in Geist's career when he tallies four or more assists and 7-1 when he tallies five or more dimes. 
• Redshirt sophomore forward Mitchell Smith returns to the court for the first time since Jan. 4, 2017, after suffering a knee injury and redshirting last season. His last bucket came against Lipscomb on Dec. 29, 2016.
• Mizzou, which returns Tilmon and Puryear in the frontcourt, was a strong team on the glass a season ago. The Tigers ranked second in the SEC in rebounding defense, holding foes to just 32.6 boards per game. Martin's squad outrebounded its opponents in 22-of-33 games.