Another step for the Missouri Tigers: Doing battle as a ranked team at Arkansas
The schedule doesn’t let up for the Missouri Tigers.
For the fourth time in five games, the Mizzou men’s basketball team faces a ranked team when the Tigers visit No. 13 Arkansas on Wednesday.
The difference between this contest and others before it: Missouri, too, is ranked. For the first time in two years, the Tigers enter a game ranked in the Associated Press Top 25, arriving in Fayetteville, Ark., ranked No. 20.
Count Razorbacks coach Eric Musselman among those impressed by what new MU coach Dennis Gates and his staff have accomplished to date, including consecutive victories over ranked Illinois and Kentucky.
“This a very confident Missouri team playing at a high, high level,” Musselman said. “I’m really impressed their coaching staff coming in and getting older, veteran guys.”
Building the roster through the transfer portal was really the only option for Gates and his staff, and that created an uncertainty about the Tigers’ team heading into the season.
The players transferring to Missouri had been good, some even garnering all-conference recognition, at their previous stops. But how would it all blend in Columbia?
The answer, in the opinion of those who vote in the AP poll, is this: Missouri, 12-1 overall, 1-0 in the SEC, has been better than all but 19 teams nationally this season.
“They’ve created an identity and a style of play on both sides of the floor, which is the hardest thing to do as a coach led alone a coach in year one,” Musselman said.
Four of the five players who average in double figures for Mizzou — D’Moi Hodge (16.5), Noah Carter (10.6), DeAndrew Gholston (10.5), and Nick Honor (10.) — are newcomers to the program.
The fifth is the team’s hottest player, forward Kobe Brown. He’s not leading the Tigers in scoring, as he did last season, but he’s coming off consecutive 30-point games: 31 against Illinois and 30 against Kentucky.
He’s the first Tigers player since Thomas Gardner in 2006 to record consecutive 30-point games, and according to Missouri is just the third player in the past 25 years to record back-to-back 30-point games against ranked opponents. The others: Davidson’s Stephen Curry (2008) and Iowa’s Matt Gatens (2012).
Brown needs one more point to reach 1,000 in his career.
“He’s elevated his game,” Musselman said. “He’s a veteran player in this league ... he can score from three-point play and off the bounce. He’s a movable piece that you can put in different scoring positions on the court.”
Neither team has played since last Wednesday, the day the Tigers topped Kentucky and the Razorbacks fell at LSU.
Missouri also looks for a couple of firsts in Wednesday night’s game in Fayetteville. The Tigers could beat their third ranked opponent in three games for the first time. Also, they’re bidding to become 2-0 in SEC play for the time in 11 seasons in the league.
The details
When: Wednesday
Where: But Walton Arena, Fayetteville, Ark.
Tip-off: 7:30 p.m.
TV: SEC Network
Radio: KMBZ (98.1 FM)
