11/13/2023 basketball Edit

Tiger Tip-Off Preview: SIU Edwardsville

Drew King • PowerMizzou

Basketball Writer

A rocky second half against Memphis led to Mizzou’s first loss of the season on Friday. Though the team played fairly well throughout the majority first half, Missouri went ice cold on offense and squandered a 14-point lead, suffering a 70-55 defeat.

The team has had bigger losses and worse shooting performances in its time with head coach Dennis Gates. The goal for the black and gold Tigers is to move past it, as they often did last season.

“Now we'll look at the film, either it'll be a loss or lesson, and figure out which one it is,” Gates said after the loss. “Our job is to regroup. Our job is to continue to get better as a program in this infant stage of the season and also, you know, collectively getting to know each other.”

Mizzou’s first chance to redeem itself comes against SIU Edwardsville. The Cougars had their best season since becoming an NCAA Division I program in 2008 last year, going 19-14 overall. The team had minimal roster turnover in the offseason and has higher expectations this year — Brian Barone’s fifth as head coach. SIUE dropped its season opener on the road against Dayton, 63-47, then picked up its first win over NCAA Division III school North Park on Thursday, 92-67.

The Tigers and Cougars faced off with each other last year on Nov. 15, 2022, ending in a 105-80 victory for MU. The 105 points Missouri scored was tied for the most they had in any game last year — a positive sign for a team looking to bounce back offensively.

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TIP TIME INFORMATION

Missouri (1-1) vs. SIU Edwardsville (1-1)

WHEN: 7 p.m. CT

WHERE: Mizzou Arena, Columbia, Missouri

TV: SEC Network+

SERIES: Memphis leads, 4-0

KENPOM PREDICTION: Missouri 80, SIU Edwardsville 65

PROJECTED STARTERS

SIU Edwardsville Cougars

Player	Class	Height	PPG	RPG	APG
Damarco Minor	JR	6-0	11.5	10.5	3.0
Ray'Sean Taylor	JR	6-1	11.0	3.0	1.5
Shamar Wright	R-SR	6-7	29.0	4.0	3.0
Lamar Wright	R-SR	6-7	11.0	4.5	2.0
Terrance Thompson	JR	6-8	5.5	2.0	0.5

Missouri Tigers

Player	Class	Height	PPG	RPG	APG
Nick Honor	GR	5-10	13.0	3.0	2.5
Sean East II	GR	6-2	17.5	2.0	2.0
Caleb Grill	GR	6-3	10.5	8.5	0.5
Noah Carter	GR	6-6	12.5	6.0	1.5
Jesus Carralero Martin	GR	6-7	0.0	2.0	3.0

BY THE NUMBERS

Statistical Matchup

Mizzou	Category	SIUE
78.0	PPG	69.5
74.5	Opponent PPG	65.0
44.6	FG%	44.0
31.0	3PT%	45.2
83.3	FT%	74.4
-1.5	Rebounding Margin	-2.5
1.1	AST/TO Ratio	1.1
70	KenPom Rank	243
57	Offensive Efficiency Rank	267
85	Defensive Efficiency Rank	210
245	Tempo Rank	156
202	Strength of Schedule Rank	46

KEYS TO THE GAME

1. Regain offensive rhythm. Missouri clearly hasn’t gotten off to the start it wants to from beyond the arc, making just 31.0% of its 3-pointers on the season after Friday’s let-down against Memphis. But Gates doesn’t plan to change his approach any time soon. He still expects his players to fire away with confidence. The Tigers have established a track record of returning to form after rough shooting nights — after their three worst performances from distance last season, the team improved from the 3-point line the next game every time by an average of 30.6 percentage points. MU will be motivated to make a similar leap on Monday.

2. Keep the Cougars off the free throw line. SIUE was one of the nation’s best at earning foul shots a year ago, taking 23.2 attempts from the charity stripe per game and ranking 12th in the country. Junior starting guards Ray’Sean Taylor and Damarco Minor combined to draw 9.2 fouls per 40 minutes last season and each hit their free throws at above an 82.0% clip. Free throws accounted for 23.4% of the points the Cougars scored last year according to KenPom, which ranked ninth among all schools. The team took 35 shots from the stripe last season against Mizzou, making 30. In SIUE’s loss to Dayton last week, the Flyers held the team to 15 free throw attempts. With 7-foot-5 Oral Roberts transfer big man Connor Vanover still unavailable to play, the Tigers will need to be smart to keep its forwards out of foul trouble.

3. Pressure Ray’Sean Taylor. The 6-foot-1 guard struggled to take care of the ball in last year’s meeting with Missouri, committing nine turnovers and handing out just two assists. The team as a whole coughed the ball up 21 times, leading to 26 points. Eight different Tigers came up with a steal, former guard D’Moi Hodge leading the way with four. Taylor had another six giveaways in SIUE’s loss to Dayton, and the Flyers posted 17 points off turnovers for the game. MU’s turnover percentage hasn’t reached the same heights as last season yet — Monday’s meeting might present an opportunity to give it a boost.

PREDICTION

Mizzou is going to be a tough team to play against when it’s actually hitting shots. Friday’s loss felt like a team unsure of how to work itself out of an offensive slump while its chemistry is still developing early in the season. Monday’s matchup against SIUE is set up to be a get-right game. I’ve got the Tigers winning 85-67.