The No. 15 Missouri Tigers (19-6, 8-4) are hoping to extend a two-game winning streak as they take on the No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide (21-4, 10-2) at 8 p.m. tonight (SEC Network).
Here’s a scouting report, some Mizzou notes, matchups to watch and what I think will lead to a Tiger win.
Scouting Report
Alabama enters the matchup following its first loss since Jan. 14 after dropping a 94-85 game against No. 1 Auburn on Saturday.
Alabama had major wins in the non-conference portion of the schedule against Wake Forest, Memphis, then-No. 25 Illinois, then-No. 6 Houston, Rutgers, then-No. 20 North Carolina and Creighton, while dropping two games to then-No. 13 Purdue and Oregon.
The Tide kicked off SEC play with a three-game winning streak before dropping a 74-64 game against then-No. 21 Ole Miss, which was by far the lowest Alabama has scored this season.
Alabama has the No. 1 offense in the country with an average of 90.3 points per game, leading No. 2 Gonzaga by more than two points (88.0) and third-place Kentucky (85.9) by almost 4.5.
The Tide allow opponents to score 79.1 points per game.
In SEC play, those numbers are 90.75 points scored and 81.17 points allowed per contest.
The Tide have scored 100 points against SEC opponents four times in 12 games.
Alabama shoots 48 percent from the field, 33.9 percent from 3 and 71.5 percent from the free-throw line with an average of 19.2 free throws per game.
The Tide allow opponents to shoot 41.3 percent overall, 29.8 percent from beyond the arc and 71.2 percent from the free-throw line on 15.4 free-throws per game. The game marks the third consecutive team and fourth in Missouri’s past five opponents that holds opponents to less than 30 percent shooting from 3-point range.
Alabama outrebounds its opponents by an average of 44.4-36.5, but turns the ball over significantly more than its opponents at 13.2-10.2 on average. The Tide average 5.0 blocks per game, but also average 4.2 of their own shots blocked per contest.
Graduate guard Mark Sears (6-foot-1, 190 pounds) leads the Tide with 17.8 points per game to go with 4.8 assists per contest. Graduate forward Grant Nelson (6-11, 230) is next at 12.6 points per game to go with a team-high 8.3 rebounds and 1.36 blocks per contest, while sophomore guard Aden Holloway (6-1, 180) adds 11.7 points and 1.92 assists per game off the bench.
Freshman guard Labaron Philon (6-4, 177) adds 10.4 points and 3.4 rebounds to go with 3.44 assists per game.
Graduate center Clifford Omoruyi (6-11, 250) has started all 25 games, while sophomore forward Jarin Stevenson (6-11, 215) has started 21-of-25.
Alabama is No. 6 in the NET rankings, while Missouri is No. 16.
This will be the 23rd all-time meeting between the teams, with Alabama leading the series 15-7 including winning the past four matchups.
Missouri’s last win in the series was Jan. 8, 2022, when the Tigers won 92-86 in Columbia.
Mizzou Notes
Mizzou and Alabama are the only teams in the country averaging eight or more made 3-pointers and 18 or more made free throws per game ... The Tigers are the only team in the country with three games of three or fewer turnovers this season ... Mizzou is looking for a third top-five win in a single season for the first time since 1988-89 ... Mizzou won its past two games by a combined 37 points, the most for back-to-back SEC games in six years ... The Tigers have out-rebounded their opponents in 8-of-12 SEC games this year after doing so only once in 36 opportunities the past two seasons.
Matchups
Speed of play
Not many teams want to try to keep up or even speed up the Tigers.
Alabama will.
Alabama leads the country with 78.3 possessions per game, the next highest major-conference team isn’t until UCF at 75.5 for 12th.
The Tigers are all the way down at No. 170 with 70.5 possessions per game and have slowed down recently, averaging just 68.5 in their past three games.
When the Tiger offense is clicking, there aren’t many teams that can keep up, but Alabama is one of them.
Which leaves me interested in what the strategy will be.
Will the Tigers try to compete in a track meet with the fastest team in college basketball? Or will they try to muddy the waters and slow it all down even though Missouri’s offense works best when moving quickly?
Turnovers
The main issue associated with a team that moves as fast as Alabama does is it's impossible to be careful with the ball.
And the Tigers are great at both taking advantage when their opponents are careless while not being careless themselves.
After a game where Missouri forced nine Georgia turnovers and scored 18 points off of them, while turning the ball over just three times and allowing only 2 points off those opportunities, this could be the way best advantage the Tigers have in this game.
What I'm looking for
I’m going for it, it's turnovers.
I think that’s the way the Tigers win. It won’t be an 18-2 advantage in points off turnovers like it was against Georgia, but if the Tigers can win that category by double digits, while not turning the ball over more than a handful of times, I think that will be the key.
Alabama can run better than anybody, the Tigers have to use that against the Tide in careless moments and have to take advantage when they get the chance.
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