Men’s basketball opens SEC play with No. 2 Auburn

The University of Missouri men’s basketball begins Southeastern Conference play this weekend, opening league play at No. 2 Auburn. Tipoff is scheduled for Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. on SEC Network.

ABOUT MISSOURI
• Mizzou finished its non-conference campaign with an 11-2 record.
• MU earned an 82-65 win over Alabama State in its nonconference finale on Monday.
• Four Tigers have scored in double figures this season, led by Mark Mitchell with a team-high 13.8 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.1 blocks.
• Follows Mitchell’s lead as a double-digit scorer Tamar Bates (12.9), Caleb Grill (12.6) and Anthony Robinson II (10.7).
• Robinson also leads Mizzou with 3.8 assists and 2.5 steals per game.
• Mizzou ranks 10th nationally with an offense rating of 87.3 points and 15th with a scoring margin of +19.7.

ABOUT AUBURN
• Auburn is currently ranked No. 2 in both the AP and USA Today Coaches Poll.
• The Tigers finished their non-conference season with a 12-1 record, winning their last five games.
• Auburn is led by Johni Broome, who has a team-best 18.2 points, 11.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game.
• The Tigers average 88.3 points but only allow 64.8, a points advantage of +23.5.

HISTORY OF THE SERIES
• Auburn is 10-6 over MU in 16 all-time meetings. AU has won the last four games of the series and seven of the last eight.
• Auburn has also won 5 of 6 contests at home, with Missouri earning its only win in their first meeting at Auburn in 2014.
• Mizzou’s last series win came in 2020, when it defeated No. 11 Auburn 85-73 in Columbia.

MIZZOU AGAINST THE TOP TWO
• Missouri faced a challenge in its SEC opener against the second-ranked team in the country.
• Overall, the Tigers are 6-34 against teams ranked in the top two of the AP Poll.
• The good news for Mizzou is that it doesn’t have to go far back to beat one of its top two opponents, as the Tigers defeated top-ranked Kansas on Dec. 8.
• Mizzou faces the added challenge of winning the game on the road as the Tigers are 1-15 against top-two opponents all-time.
• The Tigers’ only road win against a top-two team was when No. 2 Missouri beat No. 1 Kansas 77-71 in 1990. MU has lost its last nine road games to No. 1 or No. 2 teams.

MIZZOU IN SEC OPENING
• The Tigers will begin their 13th season in the SEC on Saturday.
• Missouri is 4-8 in conference openers since joining the league, including a 1-3 record in its opening game on the road.
• The only time the Tigers started SEC play with a road win was at South Carolina in 2018, 79-68.

TWO TOP 10 offenses collide
• Saturday’s game has a chance to be a high-scoring affair, featuring two of the top 10 offenses in the country.
• Auburn enters the game ranked fifth nationally with 88.3 points per game, while Missouri is 10th with 87.3 points.

GOT TO THE LINE
• One notable difference for MU early in the season is its ability to get to the free throw line.
• MU ranks first nationally with 21.2 attempts per game from the free throw line and second with 29.2 attempts.
• The Tigers increased their attempts by 11.0 per game compared to last season, when they finished last in the SEC with 18.2 per game.
• MU is also second nationally with a free throw rate (FTA/FGA) of 51.4 percent and 18th with 24.2 percent of its points coming from the charity stripe.

CONSTANT INJURY
• The key to a good offense is consistency, and the Tigers are certainly doing that so far in the 2024-25 season.
• Missouri has scored at least 75 points in all 13 games this season, its longest streak since 14 games in the 2011-12 season.
• The Tigers are one of just four schools, along with Florida, Iowa State and South Dakota, to have scored at least 75 points in every game this season.

WELCOME BACK, CALEB GRILL
• The Tigers received a welcome addition in their last game with the return of Caleb Grillwho missed five games with a neck injury.
• Grill is the team’s leading 3-point threat, ranking third on the team with 12.6 points, first with 2.9 triples made per game and first with a 3-point clip of 51.1 .
• Grill allows the Tigers to stretch the floor as a team, with Mizzou averaging 26.0 attempts from 3-point range in the eight games he played versus 17.6 in the five he missed .
• Saturday will be Grill’s first SEC game of his career since he missed the entire SEC season last year with a wrist injury.