A night of big numbers for Mizzou

It was a night of superlatives at Mizzou Arena. Among the numbers that stood out for the Tigers:

116-The most points ever scored under Mike Anderson.

"Corliss (Williamson) is a competitor and I'm a competitor. We're still working on some things," Anderson said. "At the same time, you don't want to embarrass nobody and I wouldn't do that."

53-The second largest margin of victory under Anderson (the Tigers beat Texas-Pan American by 56 last season).

"Coach stressed a sense of urgency," Kim English said. "Good teams play the best teams the same way they play the worst teams. You can't get up for Georgetown and then just think you're going to come out against Central Arkansas. Every time you step out on the court, it has to be that sense of urgency, especially if we want to be one of the best teams in the nation."

11-Assists by Phil Pressey, the 14th time a Tiger has had at least 11. It is also the highest number in the Big 12 this year and ties a Mizzou freshman record.

"The way I feel, it's contagious," Pressey said. "Once I start passing, Kimmie's gonna do the same thing, L-Bo's gonna do the same thing. Once we're all passing, I mean, if a lot of assists are going on, that means a lot of buckets are going in."

10-Assists by Kim English marking the first time (we think) the Tigers have had two players with double-digit assists.

English was asked to recall his definition of an assist during his sophomore season: "Something my teammates accumulate," he admitted with a grin.

But there he was, dishing out ten of them, one more than the number of shots he attempted.

"I'm actually a pretty good passer, but I get sometimes caught up in trying to force the issue a little bit too much," English said. "Coach Watkins has been getting on me a lot to slow down. He said, 'Shoot open shots. Just be a shooter. Do what you do best.' I kind of took that as a slight to me and to my game. Nothing I can't do on the court. Maybe that will get him off me a little bit."

33-Assists as a team, falling just four short of the school record.

"We shared the basketball tonight," Anderson said. "You talk about 33 assists on 45 field goals, that's being pretty efficient."

66.2-Percentage of shots the Tigers made.

7-Players in double figures, the first time the Tigers have had that many since a 117-45 win over Chicago State on December 2nd, 1995.

And despite all those superlatives, a couple of other numbers stood out to the players after the game:

5-Turnovers by Pressey, all in the first half.

"He's gonna get on me a lot about turnovers," Pressey said of Anderson. "That's like my big pet peeve right there. If I get a turnover, I'm so down on myself."

22-Offensive rebounds by Central Arkansas.

"Offensive rebounds," Laurence Bowers said. "Giving up too many offensive rebounds."

There was one other number the Tigers addressed: One. That's the number of wins Missouri has over Illinois in the last decade.

"They beat us two years ago. And the last ten before that," English said. "With them coming off a loss, they're gonna be really hungry. I know how we felt coming into that game last year after them beating us. I know McCamy and Mike Davis, Tisdale, the leaders of that team are gonna be really hungry coming into this game in St. Louis."

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