Mizzou Basketball Game Notes

• Game Notes

#RALLYFORRHYAN

• Donate at www.RallyForRhyan.org or by texting R4R to 83200.
• Saturday's matchup vs. Arkansas features the sixth annual Rally For Rhyan game. Rally for Rhyan was started in 2016 to help the daughter of former Mizzou assistant coach and now Assistant AD for Major Gifts Brad Loos. Brad's daughter Rhyan was fighting a battle against pediatric cancer. The original goal was to raise $10,000 at the first annual Rally for Rhyan game to help fund clinical trials for pediatric cancer research and thus, aid Rhyan in her fight.
• Fast forward six years later and the Mizzou Family has raised more than $500,000 for the Rally for Rhyan Foundation and pediatric cancer research, with $250,000 alone coming from Rally for Rhyan games. 
• Rhyan Loos won her battle with cancer, and is in remission! Rhyan wants the fight to continue though, for her friends, and all those affected by pediatric cancer, so with her bravery leading the charge, the Rally for Rhyan tradition will go on.
• Mizzou is 5-0 in its previous Rally for Rhyan games.

STORYLINES

• Head coach Cuonzo Martin enters Saturday's matchup with Arkansas just one win shy of 250 career wins. 
• In Mizzou's Jan. 2 victory over Arkansas, the Tigers earned just their second win in Fayetteville since 1991. 
• Mizzou and Arkansas meet for the 53rd time in their program histories. The Tigers have faced the Razorbacks more than any more than any SEC opponent, meeting 36 times before Mizzou became an official member of the SEC.
• Mizzou has won four of the last six matchups with Arkansas. The Tigers are looking for their fifth consecutive win over the Razorbacks at Mizzou Arena. 
• A win on Saturday would give Mizzou a regular season sweep of the Razorbacks for the first time since 2013-14 and just the second time in program history. 
• The Tigers enter Saturday on the heels of a loss at Ole Miss. Mizzou hasn't lost back-to-back games all season and hasn't done so since Feb. 29 and March 4 of the 2019-20 campaign. 
• Mizzou is one of eight teams nationally with five Quad 1 victories. Mizzou has three wins over Top 10 teams (No. 10 Alabama, No. 6 Tennessee, No. 6 Illinois) in the same season for the first time since 2011-12. The Tigers boast four ranked wins and four true road victories, and all four of their losses have come against Quad 1 opponents. 
• From December of 2013 until Cuonzo Martin's first year at the helm, Mizzou hadn't beaten a ranked opponent in more than 1,500 days. Mizzou has four alone this season and the Tigers are 8-6 against ranked teams under Martin.
• Mizzou checks in at No. 10 in the AP Top 25 poll. That's the highest since Dec. 24, 2012, the highest ranking for any SEC team currently and gives Mizzou nine consecutive weeks in the Top 25 (the 14th-longest streak nationally).  
• Mizzou is 5-0 in games decided by five or fewer points this season.
• Mizzou handed Alabama its first SEC loss of the season last Saturday and is now responsible for the Crimson Tide's last two league losses, including the 2019-20 season finale. In those two games, Alabama shot 30.4 percent and 33.3 percent, respectively - the two worst shooting performances of the Nate Oats era. 
• After scoring 26 points vs. Kentucky, 16 against Alabama and 17 at Ole Miss, redshirt senior Dru Smith is on a tear, having reached double figures in nine consecutive games - the longest streak by a Tiger since Jordan Geist in 2018-19. A 10th consecutive game would mark the most since Kassius Robertson's 10-game streak in 2017-18. Dru's averaging 16.7 points per game in that span and earned his third SEC Player of the Week honor this season, the most by a Tiger in a campaign since Utah Jazz star Jordan Clarkson in 2013. 
• In its 13 wins, Mizzou has averaged 76.8 points, while shooting 46.7 percent from the field.