Arizona Wildcats Basketball vs. Mizzou: What you need to know

The now 8-1 beaten up Arizona Wildcats basketball team takes on the 5-3 Missouri Tigers this Sunday night at 6 p.m. MST/5 p.m. PST.

Arizona is up one in the series between the Wildcats and the Tigers. The game coming up on Sunday will be the first of a two-year deal between the schools for a basketball series starting at the McKale Center this season.

SERIES HISTORY VS. ARIZONA (Arizona on top 2-1)

12-29-84 Mizzou won 76-73 at Honolulu, HI (Hawaii Pacific Invitational)
03-26-94 Mizzou lost 72-92 at Los Angeles, CA (Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament)
11-24-14 Mizzou lost 58-72 at Maui, HI (Maui Invitational)

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Arizona Wildcats:

In 2014, the Associated Press started their article on the win against Mizzou last Thanksgiving weekend with the sentence, “Slow starts and strong finishes are nothing new to Arizona.” Seems like this could have been this week’s headlines. Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Brandon Ashley were the stars in the last matchup each scoring 15 points.

The Wildcats winning streak for home games is now up to 43 games. Forty-four games should be no problem but so should have been beating Fresno State.

The injury train is a nightmare for Wildcats fans who just suffered through a football season full of injuries. When will this stop? It just doesn’t seem fair.

Zeus is out for the next 3-5 weeks now, Kadeem Allen went down in the Fresno State game, and Gabe York was beaten up according to coach Sean Miller in his post-game presser Wednesday night. York wasn’t as active on defense as he could’ve been.

Once again, like against the Gonzaga Bulldogs, the Wildcats were low on fouls, their opponent was shooting prolifically, and they did not have the lead going into the second half. Also once again, Arizona came alive in the second half, and the Cats beat their second Bulldogs team 85-72.

Allonzo Trier scored a season-high 27 points ending his performance with a huge slam dunk to put the lid on the pot. The more experience he has with the team, the more he seems cemented with the team.

Coach Sean Miller confessed that he has had to change the way he has been coaching Trier, Miller’s letting his McDonald’s all-American Wildcat play his game and is not forcing him to play outside of his comfort zone. Miller doesn’t have the time or depth on the team to have tried to change Trier’s style at this point in the season.

Trier has also learned how to take ball screens better. Trier confessed that he was feeling more chemistry on the team lately, something that was evidently missing when they all were playing in the tournament in Anaheim.

A lot of Trier’s success tonight is contributed to watching and breaking down game tape with the coaches. Ryan Anderson feels everyone is unselfish on the team, and he also mentioned that everyone is letting Allonzo play his game. But Trier is not done improving, “Right now, I’m getting better, but I’m far from where I’ll be pretty soon.”

Both of these players mentioned in the post game press conference that they are trying to improve on how strong they come off of ball screens. This is how Trier finished the game, WOW!

"And that's how you finish a game in style"

Allonzo served as the backbone of the team, but Gabe York served as the spark. York had just earned national player of the week honors from ESPN’s Andy Katz. He helped pull the Wildcats ahead in the fourth quarter and made some huge shots at the right time. York shot and made two 3-pointers, and drove to the basket for another shot. He ended up scoring nine of his total 12 points with about three minutes to go in the game.

We have yet to find out Allen’s status. As for York, he kept playing against Fresno State even though he was hurting, but there was no mention that he was not going to play on Sunday. Miller advised reporters that the team has suffered 15 injuries thus far in the season, and that was the most he has ever remembered having to endure in his career thus far.

Missouri ‘Mizzou’ Tigers:

Fun fact: The Tigers’ home record this season is a perfect 5-0. Sound familiar?

If you look at the box score from Mizzou’s last game against Omaha, you will see that the game was won in the first half, that’s when the Tigers outscored Omaha by seven points 37-30. In the second half, the two teams scored the more points than the first half, but they each scored the same amount of points (48), winning 85-78.

One could conclude that Mizzou’s defense was better in the first half, this will bode well for Arizona since they have cranked up their defense in the second half of the last two games.

Mizzou made 48.1% of their field goals, 37.5% of their 3-pointers and 76.3% of their free throws.

Here are a few more highlights from Mizzou’s last game care of MUTigers.com:

Mizzou’s offense was led by freshman forward Kevin Puryear, as he finished with 18 points and a career-high eight rebounds.
Puryear’s strong night marked his fourth consecutive double-digit scoring game and seventh overall this season.
Freshman guard Terrence Phillips (Orange County, Calif.) knocked down a trio of three-pointers in the first half, matching his season-high in just the first 20 minutes of play.
Phillips finished with 14 points, marking his second-highest scoring effort of the season and fourth double-digit game.
Puryear and Phillips both play roughly 25 minutes, but what was impressive was that freshman guard K.J. Walton scored 10 points in the 10 minutes he played, his third double-digit scoring game.

Another fun fact: The Tigers head coach Kim Anderson is a two-time Mizzou graduate (1979, ’81) earned 2014 NABC National Coach of the Year honors after leading the University of Central Missouri to the 2014 NCAA Division II title.

Highlights from the Tigers last game against Nebraska-Omaha:

Game Information:

Records: Arizona (8-1) vs. Missouri (5-3) Arizona -10 (MGM)

Series: Arizona 2 Mizzou 1

Last game: Arizona beat Fresno State 85-72, and Mizzou beat Nebraska-Omaha 85-78

Date: Sunday, December 13th

Game Time: 6:00 p.m. MST (AZ) and 5:00 p.m. PST, TV –Pac-12 Networks, Radio – TuneIn, Arizona IMG Sports Network

Location: McKale Center, Tucson, Arizona

Prediction: Arizona may be down Zeus and Allen, and Miller’s deep bench is looking shallow, he may have to play Justin Simon more at guard, and possibly we will also see more of Chance Comanche, who showed the nation he can dunk.

Both teams are coming off of a win, so confidence will be high although Mizzou’s coach Kim Anderson played each of his players for nine minutes or more so their bench has gotten more in-game practice. All of the Mizzou players also scored. Anderson is not taking playing Arizona lightly.

"We have to play harder all the time. You can't take a break. You can't do that against Arizona." -Kim Anderson on #Mizzou
— KTGR Big Show (@KTGRBigShow) December 10, 2015

Arizona will lull the Tigers into thinking they are a soft team on defense in the first half. The Wildcats will go into halftime behind just like they did in the last two games, but the Wildcats will pour on the defense and get more aggressive in the second half.

Next: Arizona Wildcats Basketball: Wildcats Take Out Fresno State 85-72

They will pull out a win for Arizona’s 44th consecutive win in McKale. Wildcats fans will be clutching their hearts during the last five minutes of the second half, and then will be wiping their brows in relief at the end of the game.

Arizona will beat the point spread:

Arizona 78

Mizzou 66

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