Mizzou Basketball Game Notes

• Game Notes

STORYLINES

• Mizzou faces Morehead State in what will serve as the second prelimary game 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 Morehead State, after beating the Eagles, 75-61 last season. Mark Smith led Mizzou with a career-best 22 poins in that victory as Mizzou made 11 triples to down the Eagles. Before these meetings in back-to-back campaigns, the Tigers and Morehead State hadn't squared off since Dec. 3, 1984 - a 75-60 Mizzou victory. Mizzou is 32-2 all-time vs. Ohio Valley Conference opponents.
• Morehead State is an undefeated 4-0 heading into tonight's matchup. Mizzou's opponents have been a combined 9-2 entering matchups with the Tigers this season (Incarnate Word - 0-0; Northern Kentucky - 1-0; Xavier - 2-0; Wofford - 2-2; Morehead State - 4-0). The Eagles rank 19th nationally in scoring margin, outscoring opponents by 24.3 points per game.
• Mizzou ranks eighth nationally in KenPom's adjusted defensive efficiency metric, allowing just 86.6 points per 100 possessions. The Tigers rank 10th in field goal percentage defense, 13th in 3-point field goal percentage defense and 16th in scoring defense. Cuonzo Martin's squad is one of four teams nationally to hold at least four opponents to 38 percent shooting or worse in a game this season. Only Ohio State and Mizzou have done that in all four of their respective games.
• The Tigers stifled Wofford on Monday, holding the Terriers to 56 points and zero field goals over the game's final 14 minutes. Mizzou forced Wofford into a season-worst 16 turnovers. The Terriers ranked ninth nationally in ball security entering the matchup, committing just 8.8 turnovers per game until running into Mizzou's buzzsaw defense. 
• Mizzou has now held opponents to 63 or fewer points in four consecutive games to start a season for the first time since 1951-52, when the Tigers did so in eight straight games.
• After limting Wofford to 56 points, Mizzou is now 18-0 under Cuonzo Martin when holding its foe to 59 or fewer points, and has won 25 of its last 26 games overall when doing so. Mizzou has held opponents under 70 points 42 times in 69 games under Martin (60.9 percent of games).
• Mizzou is looking for its second 4-0 start at home in three years during the Martin era. The Tigers are outscoring opponents by 24.7 points per game at Mizzou Arena thus far in 2019-20.

THE BEAST IN THE PAINT

• Junior forward Jeremiah Tilmon, Jr., is on a tear to start his junior campaign, shooting 81.5 percent from the field thus far (22-of-27). That leads all SEC players and ranks fourth nationally.
• Tilmon, Jr., is the only player nationally to shoot at least 77 percent in four different games this season after another dominant 6-of-7 performance vs. Wofford on Monday night. 
• The junior big man is also the only player nationally shooting 80 percent (min. 20 attempts) while also averaging at least 2.5 blocks per game.
• In addition to field goal percentage, Tilmon, Jr., is also leading Mizzou in scoring (13.3 PPG), rebouding (5.3 RPG) and blocked shots (2.5 BPG). He is coming off a 16-point outing vs. Wofford, which included his first career 3-pointer. 
• The 6-foot-10 center has helped Mizzou score 126 points in the paint this season - which amounts to 44 percent of its scoring thus far.
• Despite only seeing 20 minutes on the court, Tilmon, Jr., led Mizzou with 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting (77.7 percent), adding seven rebounds and a career-high five blocks in the season opener vs. Incarnate Word. He followed with 13 points, two swats and five boards vs. Northern Kentucky. 
• Tilmon, Jr., is the first Tiger to have five blocks in the same game since Jontay Porter had five against Ole Miss (Feb. 6, 2018). Only four players in program history have recorded more than five blocks in a game.
• The 6-foot-10 Tilmon, Jr., helped Mizzou score 42 points in the paint against Incarnate Word. Mizzou is 5-2 when Tilmon, Jr. is the team's leading scorer in his career.
• The early success for Tilmon, Jr., is carrying over from his sophomore campaign, when he shot 54.4 percent from the field (126-of-231), which is the highest field goal percentage of any returning player in the SEC. 
• In his first two seasons, Tilmon, Jr., has shot 55.4 percent from the field. He became only the second Tiger to shoot above 54 percent in back-to-back seasons, joining single-season record holder Ricardo Ratliffe (min. 150 attempts), who did so in 2010-11 and 2011-12. His current career 56.9 percent clip ranks fourth all-time in program history.
• Tilmon, Jr., is one of just two players in the SEC to have been named to the preseason Watch List for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar National Center of the Year Award. Tilmon, Jr., was joined by Florida's Kerry Blackshear — the Preseason SEC Player of the Year — who transferred from Virginia Tech, meaning Tilmon, Jr., is the only returning big man in the league on the list.
• Tilmon, Jr., was also named preseason second-team All-SEC by the league's coaches. He, Blackshear and Mississippi State's Reggie Perry were the only true forwards to make the All-SEC teams.
• Mizzou is now 13-5 when he's reached double figures since the beginning of the 2018-19 campaign and 3-0 this season.
• Tilmon, Jr., led Mizzou in blocked shots with 25 in 2018-19 — the sixth-most by a sophomore in program history, tying legends Doug Smith and Jevon Crudup. He already has 10 swats in four games as a junior, and is already 12 blocks shy of cracking Mizzou's all-time career blocks list. His current 2.5 blocks per game clip would shatter the program record - 1.9 blocks per game by Arthur Johnson from 2001-04.

ELITE DEFENSE

• Mizzou is eighth nationally in KenPom's adjusted defensive efficiency metric. All seven teams ahead of Mizzou reached the 2019 NCAA Tournament, including four Elite Eight teams - Virginia, Duke, Kentucky and Michigan State. 
• Mizzou ranks 10th nationally in field goal percentage defense (33.2 percent) and 13th in 3-point field goal percentage defense (22.6). The Tigers are one of seven teams nationally to rank in the Top 15 nationally in both categories. 
• Martin's squad is simply wearing teams down this season. In second halves alone, Mizzou is outpacing opponents by 143-95 - 12 points per second half. No opponent has mustered 30 points in a second half this season, as opponents are managing just 23.8 points in the final 20 minutes through four contests. The Tigers dismantled Wofford, 39-25, in the second half on Monday, allowing just four Terrier field goals. Wofford shot 19 percent from the field in the final period and 2-for-9 from beyond the arc despite the entering the game as a prolific team from outside the arc.
• Mizzou is allowing just 54.2 points per game (16th nationally). The Tigers haven't held opponents under 60 points per game in a campaign since 1981-82.
• Mizzou held Incarnate Word (42) and Northern Kentucky (56) under 59 points to start the season; 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 18-0 under Cuonzo Martin when holding its foe to 59 or fewer points, and has won 25 of its last 26 games overall when doing that.
• Xavier managed just 51 points at the end of regulation on Nov. 12, 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. Then Wofford, a team who ranked ninth nationally with just 8.8 turnovers per contest entering the game, committed 16 turonvers, giving Mizzou four consecutive games forcing double-digit turnovers for the first time since a 3-game stretch from Dec. 15-Dec. 30, 2011 against Kennesaw State, William & Mary, Illinois and Old Dominion.
• Mizzou is limiting second chance opponents well, outrebounding 12 of the last 14 opponetns and 65 perecent of its opponents under Martin. Mizzou has 153 total boards, the third-most in the SEC after snatching 44 at No. 21 Xavier. Mizzou's 29.8 defensive rebounds per game rank fourth in the league. 
• The Tigers also rank second in the SEC in defensive rebound percentage (.773), trailing only Kentucky. 
• Opponents have managed a combined 35 offensive boards in four games, which also trails only the Wildcats among all SEC teams.

DEPTH A KEY

• Coming into the season, Mizzou returned 60.4 percent of its scoring from 2018-19. The depth of the Tigers' bench figured to play a factor in Mizzou's successes — eight of the 13 scholarship players on the roster had at least 31 games of Division I experience under their belts. 
• The Tigers return seven letterwinners and all seven have made at least one career start, with four of them making at least 12 starts a season ago - Javon Pickett (35), Jeremiah Tilmon, Jr. (34), Mark Smith (21), Xavier Pinson (12), Torrence Watson (4), Reed Nikko (2) and Mitchell Smith (1).
• Those seven Tigers accounted for 48.4 points per game in 2018-19 and shot a combined 43.8 percent from the field (498-of-1,137). They're joined now by Dru Smith, who shot 57.8 percent from the floor in his final season at Evansville in 2017-18. He's a career 52.4 percent shooter.
• The returning group is also joined by an impressive and explosive group of four-star freshmen in Kobe Brown, Mario McKinney, Jr., and Tray Jackson. Mizzou also introduces redshirt freshman Parker Braun to the floor this year. The 6-foot-10 athletic forward spent last season learning Martin's system and developing during a redshirt campaign, and is coming off a four-point outing in a career-best 10 minutes vs. Wofford.