Mizzou Basketball Set for Top-20 Battle at Arkansas

A matchup of two top-20 programs is set for Wednesday night as No. 20 Missouri takes on No. 13 Arkansas on the road in Fayetteville. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. on SEC Network.

ABOUT THE TIGERS
• Missouri is 12-1 during the 2022-23 season with a 1-0 record in SEC play. Mizzou is ranked No. 20 in the AP poll and No. 21 in the coaches poll.
• The Tigers are coming off back-to-back wins against nationally-ranked foes, defeating No. 16 Illinois and No. 19 Kentucky.
• Kobe Brown led MU to both wins – scoring a combined 61 points versus the Illini and Wildcats.
• Overall, five Tigers average in double figures – led by D’Moi Hodge with 16.5 points and Brown with 15.6 points.
• Brown also leads the Tigers with 5.7 rebounds, while Nick Honor has a team-leading 3.7 assists.
• Mizzou ranks third nationally with 88.8 points per game, while allowing 74.7 on defense.

ABOUT THE RAZORBACKS
• Arkansas is ranked 13th in both national polls after an 11-2 start to the year.
• The Razorbacks lost their SEC opener last Wednesday, falling at LSU by three, 60-57.
• Ricky Council IV leads Arkansas with 17.9 points.
• Anthony Black also chips in 12.2 points with a team-leading 3.7 assists per game.
• Makhi Mitchell leads all active players on the team with 5.5 rebounds per game.
• Arkansas is averaging 77.7 points per game, while allowing 61.8 defensively.

SERIES HISTORY
• In a series that dates back to the 1950-51 season, Arkansas holds a 32-26 advantage over Mizzou.
• The Razorbacks are also 13-8 versus the Tigers since Missouri joined the SEC prior to the 2012-13 campaign with an 18-10 all-time mark in Fayetteville versus MU.
• Arkansas has won its last four meetings in the series with Mizzou’s last win an 81-68 road victory in 2021.

12-1 START
• The Tigers are currently enjoying one of their best starts in years.
• Mizzou’s 12-1 start is tied for its second-best in the last 40 seasons – only the 2011-12 team had a better start by winning its first 14 games.
• Overall, it marks the fifth time in the last 40 years that MU has won at least 12 of its first 13.
• It is also the 21st time in the last 50 seasons that MU has won at least 11 non-conference games (first since 2013-14) – 18 of the 21 previous occurrences resulted in NCAA Tournament bids.

RANKED TIGERS
• With its 12-1 start to the 2022-23 campaign, Mizzou is now ranked for the first time this year.
• The Tigers enter Wednesday’s game ranked No. 20 in the AP poll and No. 21 in the coaches poll.
• MU is ranked for the first time since an 11-week run ended in February 2021.

RANKED WINS
• A large reason why MU earned its first spot in the national poll was due to a pair of recent top-20 wins against No. 16 Illinois and No. 19 Kentucky.
• It marks the first time the Tigers defeated a nationally-ranked school in back-to-back games since the 2009 NCAA Tournament and the first time in the regular season since 2001-02.
• With a win Wednesday, Mizzou will own wins over a ranked-team in three-straight games for the first time in school history.

DOMINANT VICTORIES
• Not only has Mizzou won consecutive games over ranked foes but its done it in dominant fashion.
• MU defeated the Illini (93-71) and Wildcats (89-75) by a combined 36 points, trailing for only 1:41 with double-digit halftime leads in both games.
• The 22-point win over Illinois is its biggest over its rival (previous high was 18 in 1994), while also marking MU’s largest win over a ranked team since a 92-53 victory versus No. 20 Cal in 2011.
• Mizzou then scored 89 points in the win versus UK – the most allowed by a John Calipari-coached Kentucky team in SEC play (228 games).

TIGERS IN THE SEC
• Mizzou will now aim to keep its winning ways going with a rare unbeaten SEC start.
• In its 11th season of play in the SEC, the Tigers have never started with two-straight league wins in their first 10 years in the conference.
• Mizzou’s victory over UK ended a four-game losing streak in SEC openers and improved the team to 4-7 overall – MU has followed its previous three opening-day victories with a loss, however.

A PAIR OF 30 PIECES
• The key for Mizzou’s nationally-ranked wins was the performance of senior Kobe Brown.
• Brown scored 61 points in the two victories – shooting 60.6 percent from the field (20-33) and 58.3 percent from 3-point range (7-12).
• The senior is the first Tiger with back-to-back 30-point games since Thomas Gardner in 2005-06.
• In fact, Brown is just the third Division I player in the last 25 years to score at least 30 points in back-to-back wins against ranked teams – joining Davidson’s Stephen Curry (2007-08) and Iowa’s Matt Gatens (2011-12).