Mizzou Hoops Hosts Wofford Monday at Mizzou Arena

Monday, November 18

Columbia, Mo.

7 PM

University of Missouri

Wofford

11/17/2019 10:21:00 AM | Men's Basketball

Tip off is set for 7 p.m. on SEC Network Plus

Mizzou Hosts Wofford Monday Night at Mizzou Arena
OPPONENT	LOCATION	DAY	TIME (CT)	WATCH	STATS
Wofford	Columbia, Mo.	Monday, Nov. 18	7:00 PM	SEC +	Stats

Mizzou Basketball Game Notes

Game Notes

STORYLINES

Mizzou returns home to face Wofford (Nov. 18) and Morehead State (Nov. 20) in a three-day span. The pair of matchups will serve as prelimary games in the 2019 Hall of Fame Classic. It marks the Tigers' sixth all-time appearance in the Hall of Fame Classic since its inception in 2001. Mizzou is a two-time champion (2001 and 2011) and stands 5-5 overall at the event's primary games in Kansas City, Mo.
Mizzou owns a 2-0 advantage in the all-time series with Wofford, a team that reached the Second Round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament. The Tigers last beat Wofford, 83-74, in Columbia, Mo., on Nov. 13, 2015, which was also a Hall of Fame Classic preliminary matchup. Head coach Cuonzo Martin has never faced Wofford in his career.
Wofford won the 2019 Southern Conference regular season and conference tournament titles. Mizzou is 10-0 all-time vs. Southern Conference opponents. It will mark the Tigers' second game against a 2019 conference tournament champion in their first four contests after Mizzou downed defending Horizon League champion Northern Kentucky, 71-56, on Nov. 8.
Mizzou ranks ninth nationally in 3-point field goal percentage defense and sixth among teams which have played at least three games. Martin's squad is one of six teams nationally to hold at least three opponents to 27.6 percent shooting or worse from 3-point range in a game this season. The Tigers have allowed just 4.3 made triples per game through three games. Wofford ranks 15th nationally in total 3-pointers made with 43.
Mizzou has held opponents under 70 points 41 times in 68 games during the Martin era, which equates to 60.3 percent of games after limiting No. 21 Xavier to 63 points. Mizzou ranks 17th nationally in scoring defense, allowing just 53.7 points per game.
Xavier shot just 32.8 percent from the field last Tuesday, its worst performance since 2017. It marked just the third time Mizzou has held a Top 21 team to worse than 33-percent shooting since 2010 (second time under Martin - No. 21 Kentucky on Feb. 3, 2018).
Mizzou ranks ninth nationally in KenPom's adjusted defensive effiency metric, allowing just 86.6 points per 100 possessions. It's the second-best mark in the SEC behind Kentucky.
If the Tigers are able to hold Wofford to fewer than 63 points tonight, it will mark the first time Mizzou has held opponents to 63 or fewer points in four consecutive games to start a season since 1951-52, when the Tigers did so in eight straight game.

PINSON ELECTRIC OFF THE BENCH

Sophomore Xavier Pinson is averaging 10.7 points off the bench through three games - third-most on te team, while shooting 45.5 percent from the field and 73.3 percent from the free throw line after posting nine points and two assits at No. 21 Xavier.
Pinson leads Mizzou with 4.3 assists per game thus far, which ranks seventh in the SEC. He and Dru Smith are the only duo from the same squad in the SEC to both be averaging at least 4.0 assists per contest.
Pinson tossed in 15 points vs. Incarnate Word, making a career-high eight free throws in the process. He added five assists, one shy of his career high. He followed with eight points and a career-hgh tying six assists off the bench vs. Northern Kentucky. In the last six games dating back to March 3, 2019, against Ole Miss, Pinson is averaging 12.0 points and 3.9 assists while shooting 52.1 percent from the field. In that span he's made a team-best 24 trips to the free throw line, making 19 of those attempts (79.2 percent). Pinson became just the third Tiger in the Martin era to post multiple career 15-point, five-assist games in their career, alongside Jordan Geist and Kassius Robertson. He now has six 5+ assist games in his career. The performances vs. Incarnate Word and Northern Kentucky marked the first back-to-back 5-assist games of his career.
Pinson and Dru Smith both dished five assists against Incarnate Word. It marked just the third time two different Tigers recorded five assists in the same game since 2014. Terrence Phillips and Jordan Geist did so on March 4, 2017, vs. Auburn, and Jabari Brown and Jordan Clarkson accomplished the feat on March 1, 2014, vs. Mississippi State.

DRUUUU

Dru Smith exploded for 22 points, a career-high 10 rebounds, four assists and three steals at No. 21 Xavier, securing his first career double-double. He became the first Tiger to record at least 22 points, 10 boards, four dimes and three steals in a game since Doug Smith did so vs. Oklahoma in 1991.
Dru is a highly efficient and intelligent player, who sat out last season due to NCAA transfer rules. Dru is one of five Division I players in the last 20 years to shoot at least 45 percent from 3-point range, 55 percent from the field and 85 percent from the free throw line in the same season (Thomas Welsh - UCLA, Sterling Brown - SMU, Nick Masteron - Kennesaw State, Sam Sussenguth - North Dakota State). He's the only one in that group of five playing in 2019-20. Welsh and Brown are still playing in the NBA.
In his final season at Evansville, he was limited to 22 games due to an injury. In those 22 games, he reached double figures 18 times and scored 20+ points four times.
In his 53-game career, Dru has only gone one game without recording an assist, which came all the way back on Dec. 3, 2016, giving him 45 consecutive games with an assist.
In Mizzou's season opener vs. Incarnate Word, he dished five assists, reaching that mark for the 16th time in his career. He's now posted 18 straight multi-assist outings after dishing four more at No. 21 Xavier.
He's also collected a steal in 14 consecutive games dating back to Dec. 9, 2017. He had six steals in Mizzou's exhibition game against Central Missouri. The Mizzou single-game program record is eight.
Dru is also a career 85.5 percent free throw shooter. That is the 18th-best career clip from the charity stripe nationally among all active players. He's made 58 of his last 64 attempts from the free throw line (90.6 percent). His 8-for-8 performance from the line at Xavier marked the best outing by a Tiger at the charity stripe since Kassius Robertson went 8-for-8 on Feb. 3, 2018, vs. No. 21 Kentucky. Only 12 Tigers this decade have shot 100 percent from the free throw line when taking more than eight attempts in a game.

ATTACKING THE GLASS

Mizzou outrebounded Incarnate Word, 47-37, outpaced Northern Kentucky, 39-28, and edged No. 21 Xavier, 44-43, on the glass to move to 28-17 under Martin when the Tigers outrebound the opposition. Northern Kentucky's 28 boards were its fewest since grabbing 24 on Feb. 15, 2019. The Norse managed 28 boards or less only five times last season. Mizzou has outrebounded 12 of the last 13 opponents and 66.2 percent of its opponents under Martin.
Mizzou has 130 total boards, the most in the SEC and the third-most among all power conference teams nationally through one week of play after snatching 44 at No. 21 Xavier. Mizzou's 33.7 defensive rebounds per game are also an SEC-high and rank 15th nationally.
The Tigers' 47 rebounds in the opener were the most Mizzou has recorded in a single game since grabbing 52 in an 85-51 win over North Florida (Dec. 16, 2017).

ADDITIONAL DEFENSIVE NOTES

Mizzou held both Incarnate Word (42) and Northern Kentucky (56) under 59 points; the first time it has held consecutive opponents to 59 or fewer points since limiting UCF to 59 points Nov. 30, 2017, and Miami, Ohio, to 51 points on Dec. 5, 2017. Mizzou is now 17-0 under Cuonzo Martin when holding its foe to 59 or fewer points, and has won 24 of its last 25 games overall when doing that.
Xavier managed just 51 points at the end of regulation, its fewest in a game since scoring just 47 vs. Cincinnati on Dec. 8, 2018. The Musketeers have scored 51 or fewer points in regulation three times since 2013 after Mizzou's strong defensive performance.
Mizzou clamped down to hold Incarnate Word to 42 points in its season opener, the lowest scoring output from an opponent since the Tigers held Georgia to 39 points on March 6 last season, and the fewest yielded in a season-opener since holding Canisius to 42 in the 1991-92 season opener. The Tigers followed by allowing only 56 points to defending Horizon League champion Northern Kentucky. The Norse were held to 56 or fewer points just once last season (53 at UCF - Nov. 24, 2018) and have mustered 56 of fewer only nine times since 2015.
In the season opener, Mizzou forced 21 Incarnate Word turnovers, the most by an opponent since Texas-Arlington committed 21 turnovers on Dec. 4, 2018. Two days later, Northern Kentucky coughed it up 11 times, before Xavier committed 16 turnovers on Nov. 12, giving Mizzou three consecutive games forcing double-digit turnovers for the first time since a 3-game stretch from Dec. 9-Dec.19, 2017 against Green Bay, North Florida and Stephen F. Austin.