No. 20 Mizzou Hosts Vanderbilt Saturday

Back in Columbia for its first home game as a nationally-ranked school this season, the No. 20 Missouri men’s basketball team hosts Vanderbilt on Saturday for an 11 a.m. tipoff on CBS.

PROMOTIONS
• The first 1,000 fans at Saturday’s game will receive a Mizzou Arena replica.
• Country artist Roman Alexander is also set to perform at halftime.

ABOUT THE TIGERS
• Missouri is 12-2 during the 2022-23 season with a 1-1 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 three-straight games against nationally-ranked foes, emerging with a 2-1 record in those three contests.
• Five Mizzou players average in double figures – led by D’Moi Hodge with 15.8 points per game.
• Senior Kobe Brown isn’t far behind with 15.3 points to go with a team-leading 5.4 rebounds.
• Nick Honor leads the Tigers with 3.7 assists.
• Mizzou ranks fourth nationally with 87.3 points per game, while allowing 74.6 on defense.

ABOUT THE COMMODORES
• Vanderbilt owns an 8-6 record, winning its last three games overall.
• The Commodores won their SEC opener on Tuesday, posting an 84-79 overtime win against South Carolina.
• Liam Robbins leads Vanderbilt with 12.6 points, 5.9 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per game.
• Myles Stute (11.0) and Tyrin Lawrence (10.4) also average in double figures.
• Ezra Manjon has a team-leading 3.1 assists.
• The Commodores are averaging 70.9 points per game with a scoring defense of 66.9.

SERIES HISTORY
• Missouri owns a slight 8-7 edge in the all-time series with Vanderbilt.
• MU has won all six games versus the Commodores in Columbia, including all four SEC meetings.
• Vanderbilt ended Mizzou’s four-game winning streak in the series last year with a 70-62 win in Nashville.

STRONG STARTS
• The Tigers are currently enjoying one of their best starts in years.
• Mizzou is 12-2 to open the season for the first time in nine years and the 11th time overall in the past 40 seasons.
• Of the 10 previous times the Tigers won at least 12 of their first 14 games, 11 resulted in NCAA Tournament bids.
• With a win on Saturday, Mizzou will improve to 13-2 for just the ninth time in the last 40 seasons, while moving to 2-1 in SEC play for just the third time in its 11 seasons in the conference (joining the 2012-13 and 2017-18 teams).

RANKED TIGERS
• With its 12-2 start to the 2022-23 campaign, Mizzou is now ranked for the first time this year.
• The Tigers entered the national rankings on Monday at 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.

NO. 4 IN SCORING OFFENSE
• One of the biggest keys to success this season for Mizzou is owning a top scoring attack.
• Mizzou enters the game ranked fourth nationally with an offense of 87.3 points.

TARGETING 70 POINTS
• While the Tigers are averaging nearly 90 points this season, the magic number is just 70 for MU.
• The Tigers have won their last 15 games when scoring at least 70 points, including a perfect 11-0 mark this season.
• On the opposite end, Mizzou is just 1-2 this year when held under the target – losing 20 of its last 21 games overall with 69 or fewer points.

TRIPLE SUCCESS
• Missouri’s performance beyond the 3-point arc has largely been a key to success.
• One of the nation’s top 3-point shooting teams, Mizzou is ranked 18th in the country with 9.7 triples per game and 64th with a percentage of 36.9 – placing second in the SEC in both.
• The Tigers are a perfect 12-0 this season with at least seven made 3-pointers (shooting 37.6 percent) but have made just six in each of its two defeats this year (shooting 30.8 percent).

DEPTH IN NUMBERS
• Behind MU’s attack is a number of weapons.
• Nine Tigers have scored in double figures this year, while Mizzou is just one of 14 schools in the country to feature five players averaging at least 10.0 points.
• Additionally, the Tigers are one of just 11 Division I teams to feature seven different players that have led the team in scoring.

FIRST-HALF BLITZ
• Mizzou has made a habit to start strong this year.
• MU has led by at least 10 points at some point in the first half in 10-of-14 games, while not trailing at any time in the second half in 10 of its 12 wins.
• In fact, in their last three games against ranked teams, the Tigers have led by an average of 13.0 points after 15 minutes of action (30.3 to 17.3).