I’m going to try out a new idea to publish a couple of hours before basketball games this season, let me know what you guys think or have any suggestions for other things you’re looking for. It will be part basic scouting report, part matchups and part what I’m keeping an eye out for or want to learn about the Tigers.
There won’t be a ton to learn about Missouri in the next handful of games, but I’d like to get this idea built out a little bit before we get to the California, Kansas, Illinois portion of the non-conference schedule.
Scouting report
The Howard Bison come in 0-1 after losing their season opener to Kansas 87-57.
Freshman guard Blake Harper (6-foot, 5-inch) led the team with 16 points and was 3-of-3 from beyond the arc. Senior guard Bryce Harris (6-4, 220-pounds) and graduate guard Jaren Johnson (6-5, 185) co-led the team with six rebounds each.
The Bison shot 22-of-58 (37.9 percent) overall, 8-of-22 (36.4 percent) from 3 and 5-of-12 (41.7 percent) at the free-throw line.
The Bison forced 14 Kansas turnovers and committed 17 of their own.
Matchups
The Bison started four guards and junior forward Dom Campbell (6-9, 268) against Kansas. I have no reason to think they’ll start a different lineup tonight, but that’s mostly because I don’t know Howard basketball, so I don’t have much to go off of at this point.
I would expect Campbell to be matched up with Josh Gray in the post, but Campbell didn’t play half the game against Kansas, while graduate forward Cameron Shockley-Okeke (6-6, 195) played 20 minutes, so we’ll have to see how much the Bison rotate between their front-court options.
Gray has the size advantage against just about any option, as the Tigers do all over the floor.
I’m unsure at this point how Missouri coach Dennis Gates is feeling about the point guard spot at this point. Anthony Robinson played very well against Memphis and Tony Perkins didn’t. They’ll both certainly get minutes tonight, as will most of the team, and either will likely be matched up with Harper at the top of the key.
Tamar Bates, Caleb Grill and Mark Mitchell will likely get a combo of Marcus Dockery (6-2, 170-pound senior guard), Anwar Gill (6-4, 205-pound graduate guard), Johnson and Harris to start, but there’s going to be a whole lot of rotating tonight so the matchups are kind of hard to guess in advance.
I’d expect the Tigers to stick with the 2-3 zone they ran most of the time against Memphis and it’ll look pretty good tonight.
What I'm looking for
The turnover-to-assist ratio is always something Gates likes to mention after games, I expect that won't be an issue tonight because of the competition level.
I’m going to try to keep an eye on rotations and keep track of who has the most success while on the floor together. We’ll see how that goes.
I also expect we’ll get the first real look at the freshmen tonight, so getting the first glimpse of how they all look will be great.
Head on over to the Tiger Walk to let me know what you’re looking out for tonight.