Mizzou Men's Basketball Opens 114th Campaign Wednesday vs. Incarnate Word

Wednesday, November 6

Columbia, Mo.

7 PM

University of Missouri

Incarnate Word

NCAA Men's Basketball: Mizzou Tigers vs. Central Missouri Mules

Mizzou Men's Basketball Opens 114th Campaign Wednesday vs. Incarnate Word

11/5/2019 11:34:00 AM | Men's Basketball

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

Mizzou Opens Season at Home vs. Incarnate Word
OPPONENT	LOCATION	DAY	TIME (CT)	WATCH	STATS
Incarnate Word	Columbia, Mo.	Wednesday, Nov. 6	7:00 PM	SEC +	Stats

Mizzou Basketball Game Notes

Game Notes

STORYLINES

Mizzou Men's Hoops open its 114th campaign on Wednesday, and its third under head coach Cuonzo Martin, looking for its fifth consecutive win in a season opener.
Mizzou is 91-22 (.805) in season openers with wins in 24 of its last 27 such games. The Tigers have won 11 of their last 12 season openers, and are 2-0 under Martin. Mizzou coaches improved to 17-2 in debuts after Martin's 74-59 victory over Iowa State in 2017. His squad followed with a 68-55 win over Central Arkansas in the 2018-19 season opener.
This marks the second straight year Mizzou opens its season against a Southland Conference opponent. Mizzou and Incarnate Word have never faced off, but the Tigers are 15-2 all-time against Southland teams.
Coach Martin is 1-0 in his head coaching career against Incarnate Word. His California team beat the Cardinals, 74-62, on Dec. 9, 2015. Martin and Incarnate Word head coach Dr. Carson Cunningham have strong ties. Martin's first year as an assistant coach at Purdue in 2000 was Cunningham's senior season as a Boilermaker.
Entering 2019-20, Mizzou returns 64 percent of its scoring from a season ago, the second-most in the Southeastern Conference behind only Arkansas. Among the returning contributions, 60.7 percent of scoring came from freshmen and sophomores.
That returning core was instrumental to Mizzou's stout defense a season ago. The Tigers' defense and rebounding, always a staple under Coach Martin, was key to their success in 2018-19. Mizzou finished first in the SEC in defensive rebound percentage (.315), second in rebounding defense (31.0) and fourth in scoring defense (67.8). Mizzou held its opponent under 70 points 18 times a season ago and went 14-4 in those games.
Mizzou held a public exhibition on Friday night vs. Central Missouri, defeating the Mules, 80-56. Four Tigers reached double figures, led by freshman Kobe Brown (12 points).

QUICK HITS

In 2017-18, Cuonzo Martin became the 59th head coach in NCAA history to lead three different programs to the NCAA Tournament (Cal, Tennessee and Mizzou). It was the program's 27th all-time NCAA appearance and the first since 2012-13.
In the past six seasons, Coach Martin has produced eight NBA Draft selections. In that span, only four NCAA programs have produced more NBA Draft picks - Kentucky, Duke, UCLA and North Carolina.
In the Martin era, Mizzou is 20-9 in nonconference play, including a 13-1 mark at Mizzou Arena.
With three 4-star freshmen set to make their debuts Wednesday night, Coach Martin has inked eight 4-or-5 star recruits in less than three years on the job at Mizzou.
Martin has won 35 games in two seasons at Mizzou, which already surpasses the previous regime's 27 victories in two campaigns.

TILMON ONE OF SEC's BEST BIGS

Mizzou junior forward Jeremiah Tilmon, Jr., shot 54.5 percent from the field a season ago (126-of-231), which is the highest field goal percentage of any SEC player returning in 2019-20.
In just two seasons, Tilmon, Jr., has shot 55.4 percent from the field. After a 56.4 percent clip as a freshman and last year's performance, he became the second Tiger in the past three decades 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.
The 54.5-percent clip last season was the ninth-best field goal percentage by a sophomore in program history. His career field goal percentage of 55.4 percent currently ranks sixth all-time at Mizzou and is the highest by a Tiger since 2011-12.
In early October, the Naismith Hall of Fame released the Top 20 candidates on the preseason Watch List for the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar National Center of the Year Award. He is one just two SEC players on the list, alongside 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.
Tilmon, Jr., was vital to Mizzou's success a season ago. He reached double figures 15 times and the Tigers went 10-5 in those contests.
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.
The big man also led Mizzou in rebounding with 5.9 boards per game and 183 total boards. Of the 183 rebounds, 74 came on the offensive end. He's just the third Tiger since 2009 to grab that many in a campaign as a sophomore and the ninth overall. Tilmon, Jr., grabbed at least seven boards in 12 outings. Mizzou went 7-5 in those contests.

DEEP ROSTER

Eight of Mizzou's 13 scholarship players have at least 31 games of Division I experience under their belt, including transfer Dru Smith, who will make his Mizzou debut on Wednesday after sitting out last season.
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 (31), Jeremiah Tilmon, Jr. (30), Mark Smith (17), 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 in his final season at Evansville in 2017-18. He's a career 52.4 percent shooter.
Lone senior Reed Nikko has appeared in 86 consecutive games at Mizzou.
The returning group is also joined by a trio 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. He spent last season learning Martin's system and developing during a redshirt campaign.

SMITH & SMITH

Mizzou's 2019-20 backcourt will be anchored by Smith & Smith - juniors Dru Smith and Mark Smith.
Dru Smith 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 with an injury. In those 22 games, he reached double figures 18 times and scored 20+ points four times.
In his 50-game career, Dru has only gone one game without recording an assist, which came all the way back on Dec. 3, 2016, giving him 42 consecutive games with an assist. He's also collected a steal in 11 consecutive games dating back to Dec. 9, 2017. He had six steals in Mizzou's exhibition game against Central Missouri on Friday. The Mizzou program record in a single game is eight.
Dru is also a career 85 percent free throw shooter. He's made 42 of his last 46 attempts from the charity stripe (91.3 percent).
Mark Smith shot a blistering 45 percent from 3-point range, the highest percentage in the SEC (min. 100 attempts). It was the fourth-highest by a sophomore in Mizzou history and the eighth-highest ever in program history. He was one of 28 players nationally to shoot 45 percent from 3-point range and one of just six from power conferences.
Before going down with an ankle injury in February, Mark was averaging 11.4 points and 5.2 rebounds (second-most on the team) after averaging just 5.8 points and 1.4 rebounds as a freshman at Illinois.

SOPHOMORE TRIO

Mizzou's slew of injuries a season ago opened the door for freshmen Xavier Pinson, Javon Pickett and Torrence Watson to play a combined 94 games and start a combined 47 contests. They went on to become the first Tiger trio since Arthur Johnson, Rickey Paulding and Wesley Stokes in 2000 to each score 200+ points in their first season.
Watson hit 53 triples in 2018-19, setting a new single-season Mizzou freshman record, and Pinson shot 40 percent from beyond the arc, the third-highest single-season mark from beyond the arc in program history. Meanwhile, Pickett led the trio in scoring at 7.7 points per game, making 31 starts.
Watson, Pickett and Pinson all had separate 20-point scoring games during their first year in Columbia. It marked the first time in program history that Mizzou had three different freshmen scoring 20+ points in a game in the same season.