Alright, back to a couple of cupcakes before Braggin’ Rights in about a week. Take a look at what I’ll be watching today in Missouri’s (8-1) matchup with the Long Island Sharks (4-8).

It’ll probably be the corgi race at halftime rather than the game.

Long Island enters the matchup having lost five of its last six games, with the win coming at home against York College - a Division III team from what I can tell.

The lone matchup LIU played against a power-conference opponent was a season-opening game against Ole Miss, which the Sharks lost 90-60.

The Sharks score 71.8 points per game and allow 70.9, which considering the winning percentage is .333, having a positive scoring differential is actually kind of impressive (it helps to beat a DIII team 103-53). LIU shoots 43.5 percent from the field, 31.5 percent from 3 and 67 percent from the free-throw line, where it averages 11.7 attempts per game.

Redshirt junior guard Malachi Davis (6-foot-4, 172 pounds) leads the Sharks with 17.5 points per game, while senior forward Jamal Fuller (6-5, 215) scores 10.7 points and brings down 5.3 rebounds per game, both second on the team. Senior guard Terell Strickland (6-0, 175) scores 9.1 points, brings down 4.9 rebounds and dishes out 5.17 assists per game.

The starting lineup has usually consisted of a combo of Davis, Fuller, Strickland, junior guard Blake Lander (6-5, 205) and freshman forward Shadrak Lasu (6-8, 200). Lasu leads the team at 6.0 rebounds per game, but has missed two contests.

LIU is No. 332 in the KenPom rankings, while Mizzou is up to No. 51. The matchup gives Missouri its fourth opponents ranked lower than No. 300 along with Lindenwood (No. 350), Arkansas Pine-Bluff (No. 362) and of course Mississippi Valley State (No. 364 out of 364).

No.

I'm not doing this for Long Island.

Sorry.

No emotional/energy letdown. That’s the only reason this game might be within 25 points at halftime. It’s easy to be energetic with a full arena chanting Mr. Brightside against your biggest rival which happens to be the top team in the country.

It’s not so easy when the arena is empty again and you’re playing a Long Island team that has to schedule DIII opponents to get a win a third of the way through the season.

This should be an easy game start to finish, but I’m worried about a letdown. We saw it for a little while early in the Lindenwood game, the energy just wasn’t there, then Tony Perkins sparked it off the bench and the team ran away with a 20-point win.

This should be easy enough that even if there’s problems, it should be a 20+-point win, but if the Tigers can come out energetic and maintaining some level of energy (it’s just not going to be as high as last weekend) then they should win by 35+ for the fourth time this season.

Get the young guys in there a lot, let the walk-ons play for a bit. No excitement after halftime is key.

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