Men’s Basketball Travels to Face Minnesota Thursday

The Missouri men’s basketball team hits the road for the first time this season, squaring off with Minnesota. The Tigers are set to battle the Big Ten foe Thursday at 8 p.m. on Big Ten Network.

ABOUT THE TIGERS
• Missouri went 2-1 during its first three games of the season, coming off a 68-50 win over SIU Edwardsville on Monday.
• Graduate Sean East II has led the team in scoring in all three games this season, averaging 18.3 points on 74.1 percent shooting.
• Noah Carter (13.3) and Nick Honor (10.3) are also scoring in double figures for the Tigers.
• Carter also leads MU with 7.7 rebounds with Caleb Grill chipping in 7.3.
• Jesus Carralero Martin leads MU with eight assists with Nick Honor and Anthony Robinson II adding in seven apiece.
• Mizzou is averaging 74.7 points, while allowing 66.3 points per game.

ABOUT THE GOLDEN GOPHERS
• Minnesota enters Thursday’s non-conference matchup with a 2-0 record, defeating Bethune-Cookman and UTSA.
• The Gophers are led by Dawson Garcia with the junior leading the team with 22.5 points, 10.0 rebounds and 4.5 assists.
• Three additional players are scoring in double figures, led by 18.0 points from Cam Christie.
• The Gophers are coming off a season where they finished 9-22 overall and 2-17 in the Big Ten.

SERIES HISTORY
• The schools are meeting for just the third time and the first in over 60 years.
• The teams last met in a home-and-home series in 1959 and 1960 with Minnesota claiming both contests.

TIGERS VERSUS BIG TEN
• Missouri has played Big Ten schools 142 times during its history with a 57-85 all-time mark versus the conference.
• More than a third of the games are versus Braggin’ Rights rival Illinois (53-of-142) with Thursday’s contest the first against a Big Ten school outside the Illini since a 2014 win against Northwestern.
• The Tigers are aiming for their first true road win against a Big Ten foe since winning at Indiana, 63-58, on Dec. 6, 2003.

DEBUT REVISITED
• Whitten Family Men’s Basketball Head Coach Dennis Gates is set to make his first visit to Williams Arena since his debut game as head coach.
• Leading Cleveland State in 2019, Gates and the Vikings fell to the Gophers, 85-50.
• Since that debut season – which CSU finished 11-21 – Gates has led his teams to a 66-30 record and three postseason trips.

BEAST OF THE EAST
• Graduate Sean East II has started his final college season strong.
• East led the Tigers in scoring in each of the first three games of the season, averaging 18.3 points.
• East is the first Tiger to lead the team in scoring in the first three games since DeMarre Carroll in 2007-08 – no Tiger has led the team in the first four games since Albert White in 1998-99.
• Additionally, his 55 total points are the most by a Tiger in the first three games since Jabari Brown (59) and Jordan Clarkson (58) in 2013-14.

EFFICIENCY FOR EAST
• The key to the strong start for Sean East II is his high-efficiency marks.
• East is averaging 18.3 points on just nine field goal attempts per game – tallying 2.04 points for each shot.
• Overall, East ranks 16th nationally with a true-shooting percentage of 85.3 and 23rd with an effective field-goal mark of 85.2.

DEFENSE LEADS VERSUS SIUE
• The Tigers are coming off a strong defensive contest in a win over SIUE on Monday.
• Mizzou allowed the Cougars just 50 points – the fewest allowed by a Coach Gates MU team.
• The Tigers were especially strong in the second half, not allowing a single field goal for 16:30 of action as they forced 16-straight misses.
• Overall, Mizzou is off to a much stronger start than one year ago – allowing 10 fewer points.

EXPERIENCED ROSTER
• A veteran roster will take on the challenges of the 2023-24 campaign for Mizzou.
• The average age of the Tigers’ roster this season is 21.2 years old.
• MU currently ranks eighth nationally with 3.06 average years of experience with seven players in their fifth year (including all five starters).
• Overall, the Tigers boast 1,034 games of Division I experience with 481 games started.

VANOVER DEBUT EXPECTED
• Another experienced player expected to make his debut Thursday is center Connor Vanover.
• The 2023 Summit League Defensive Player and Newcomer of the Year at Oral Roberts, Vanover missed the first three games of the year due to his participation in the Portsmouth Invitational.
• Last year, Vanover was second nationally in blocks (3.2 per game) and 3-pointers by a 7-footer (46).