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Pohto vs. UNLV

Shockers Set for First Road Test at Mizzou

11/24/2021 9:59:00 PM

WICHITA STATE (4-1, 0-0 AAC) at MISSOURI (3-2, 0-0 SEC)
Friday, Nov. 26, 2021 | 8:05 p.m. CT
Columbia, Mo. | Mizzou Arena (15,061)
 
Tickets: MUTigers.com
TV: SEC Network w/ Tom Hart & Mark Wise
Radio: KEYN 103.7 FM (GoShockers.com/Listen) w/ Mike Kennedy & Bob Hull
Live Stats: ShockerStats.com
Series: MU leads 4-0; Last: Dec. 6, 2020 in Wichita (MU 72, WSU 62)
 
 
TELECAST:
The game will air on SEC Network with Tom Hart (PxP) and Mark Wise (Analyst) on the call. SEC Network is available nationwide on most major cable, satellite and streaming providers (including Cox Communications, as part of its Sports & Information Tier, on Channel 276, HD 2276). SEC Network subscribers can stream live and on demand via the ESPN App or SECSports.com.
 
SHOCKER RADIO:
Listen live on KEYN 103.7 FM and online at GoShockers.com/Listen with Mike Kennedy (now in his 42nd season as Voice of the Shockers) and Bob Hull (analyst). Pregame coverage begins one hour before tipoff.
 
 
OPENING TIPS:
  • Wichita State travels to Columbia, Mo. on Friday for a non-conference matchup against the Missouri Tigers.
  • Mizzou has won all four series meetings, including last December in Wichita (72-62). This will be the Shockers' first visit to Columbia in just shy of 70 years. The teams played once in 1950 and twice more in January, 1951.
  • Mizzou (3-2) took third-place in last weekend's Jacksonville Classic, defeating SMU in overtime before falling to Florida State in the championship game.
  • The Shockers are out to 4-1 start after taking third-place in last weekend's Roman Main Event in Las Vegas. WSU lost to now No. 17 Arizona in overtime but bounced back to defeat UNLV on Sunday, 74-73.
  • Four of WSU's five games have been decided in the final  minute and three of them have featured heroics from Tyson Etienne. He hit a 32-foot three ahead of the final buzzer in a 60-57 win over Jacksonville State, forced overtime against Arizona on a three-ball with 13 seconds left and delivered two game-winning free throws with 3.4 seconds remaining to knock off UNLV.
  • Etienne is averaging 3.8 points in the first half compared to 15.0 after halftime. He had five at intermission against UNLV but finished with 28. In the Arizona game he scored three first-half points but ended with 27.
  • WSU has won the turnover battle in all five games (+4.2). The Shockers have forced an average of 20.0 turnovers in their last three games (20 vs. TSU, 22 vs. UA and 18 vs. UNLV) and are at 18.2 overall.
  • The Shockers went 5-2 last year in true road games, marking the 11th straight season that they've finished .500 or better on the road.
  • WSU's .748 road winning percentage since the start of the 2011-12 season trails only to Gonzaga.
  • The Shockers have won 16 of their last 23 in enemy territory going back to February, 2019.
  • Etienne, the preseason American Athletic Conference Player of the Year, is WSU's leading scorer at 18.8 points.
  • Etienne has made at least one free throw in 28-straight going back to his freshman year (2019-20). That's the longest Shocker streak since the 2003-04 season when Jamar Howard put together a run of 58 straight.
  • 6-5 defensive ace Dexter Dennis (8.0 ppg) and 6-8 big man Morris Udeze (7.0 ppg) share the team lead at 6.0 rebounds and 1.2 blocks-per-game.
  • Ricky Council IV has been a playmaker off the bench, averaging 11.0 points and a team-high 1.6 steals. He tallied six steals in two games in Las Vegas.
  • WSU is 4-1 despite holding just one halftime lead.
 

GREAT OUT OF THE GATE:
  • The Nov. 21 win over UNLV was Isaac Brown's 20th as Shocker head coach. It took him just 27 games to reach that milestone, tying Gary Thompson (1964-65) for the fastest start in the program's modern era.
  • Thompson's initial roster included a couple of top-10 NBA Draft picks in Dave Stallworth and Nate Bowman. Both players exhausted their eligibility before the end of the season, but Thompson still managed to guide the 1964-65 Shockers to the Final Four.

WSU Modern Era Head Coaches // Fastest to 20-Wins:
t1. Isaac Brown (2020) – 27th Game  
t1. Gary Thompson (1964) – 27th Game        
3. Eddie Fogler (1986) – 30th Game
4. Gene Smithson (1978) – 36th Game
5. Harry Miller (1971) – 40th Game

 
TRENDING:
  • In Sunday's win over UNLV, Craig Porter Jr. played a career-high 28 minutes, 31 seconds at point guard. Porter, who is in his second season with the Shockers and his first as a starter, has a 2.47 career assist-to-turnover ratio (37A, 15 TO).
  • Four of the Shockers' top-six scorers on a per-minute basis are reserves. The quartet of Ricky Council IV (17.6), Kenny Pohto (14.9), Monzy Jackson (14.3) and Qua Grant (12.8) provide some serious firepower.
  • WSU's bench is contributing an average of 24.0 points-per-game or roughly 35% of the scoring.
  • As of Wednesday, Tyson Etienne ranks No. 18 nationally in minutes-per-game (37:29).
 
 
THE SERIES WITH MIZZOU:
  • WSU is looking for its first win in five tries against MU.
  • Friday's matchup is the second in a four-year series that began last year in Wichita.
  • It will be the Shockers' first visit to Columbia in almost 70 years. The teams played three games in a two-year span (all in Columbia and all Mizzou victories) between 1950 and 1951 before reviving the series last fall.
  • For perspective, the last time the Shockers played in Columbia (Jan. 17, 1951), future All-American and all-time scoring leader Cleo Littleton was still a senior at Wichita East High School. The Shocker program was just six years into a transition from small college to the Missouri Valley Conference and struggling to find its footing. Shortly after that season ended, Wichita hired Littleton's high school coach, Ralph Miller, and the pair helped elevate Wichita U. onto the national stage.
  • The 2020 trip to Wichita wasn't the Tigers first appearance at the Roundhouse. That came in the first round of the 1978 NCAA tournament, when Mizzou fell in double-overtime to Utah.
 
LAST YEAR vs. MIZZOU:
Dec. 6, 2020 in Wichita (MU 72, WSU 62)
  • Playing in an empty Koch Arena, due to county health mandate, WSU saw its 16-game non-conference home winning streak snapped.
  • Tyson Etienne and Monzy Jackson scored 14-each. Alterique Gilbert added 13 points, six assists.
  • Mark Smith scored 19 points and Dru Smith and Kobe Brown tacked on 14-appiece to pace Mizzou.
  • The undersized and undermanned Shockers (down four scholarship players due to COVID-19 protocol) had difficulty keeping up with Mizzou's height and experience.
  • Helped by 15 fast break points, Missouri out-shot WSU from the field, 48.1 to 33.3%.
  • Gilbert fed Morris Udeze for a dunk on the game's first play, but the Shockers missed 11 of their next 12 shots. Missouri capitalized with a 15-2 run.
  • Gilbert scored 12 in the first half (including seven in the final 76 seconds), as WSU clawed within 34-30 at half.
  • Mizzou scored 15 of the first 18 points out of the locker room to build a 16-point advantage with 14:09 to play.  WSU missed 10-of-11 during that stretch.
 
SCOUTING THE TIGERS:
  • The Tigers return just two rotation players and 20% of total minutes from last year's NCAA tournament team (16-10, 8-8 SEC, 7th-place)
  • 6-8 forward Kobe Brown is a three-year starter and the team's leading scorer (16.2) and rebounder (7.2). Last year against WSU, he put up 14 points and seven rebounds in 17 just minutes before fouling out.
  • 6-5 guard Javon Pickett -- the team's lone senior -- has moved into the starting lineup and is averaging 9.0 points in a team-high 31.6 minutes.
  • MU is picked 10th out of 14 teams but hopes to outperform those expectations with help from four transfers:
  • 6-6 UMass transfer Ronnie DeGray III (UMass) is the Tigers' second-leading scorer (11.4) and rebounder (6.8).
  • 6-2 guard Amari Davis was second team All-Horizon last year at Green Bay, where he averaged 17.2 points.
  • Jarron Coleman (Ball State) was the 2020 MAC Freshman of the Year and put up 13.8 points as a sophomore.
  • Dajaun Gordon played the last two seasons at Kansas State. In 2020-21 he started 22 games and averaged 9.1 points and 5.5 rebounds in 28.5 minutes.
  • Mizzou is 2-1 at home this year with wins over Central Michigan and Northern Illinois and a loss to Kansas City.
  • The Tigers defeated WSU's AAC rival SMU in overtime on Sunday as part of the Jacksonville Classic but fell to Florida State in Monday's title game (81-58).
  • The Tigers are out-rebounding foes by an average of 6.2-per-game.
 
MATCHUP MASHUP:
  • The Shockers have won their last two SEC road games (2013-14 at Alabama and 2020-21 at Ole Miss). Their last loss came during the 2012-13 season to a Tennessee team coached by… Cuonzo Martin.
  • Martin is, indeed, a familiar foil. He went head-to-head with the Shockers eight times while leading the Missouri State program (2008-11) and twice during his time at Tennessee (2011-14). WSU is 6-5 against Martin all-time.
  • Nationally, there are 14 sets of brothers representing 13 different Division I schools. The Shockers will go head-to-head (to head) with at least four of them before the season is through. They've already faced South Alabama's tandem of Andrew & Alex Anderson (Nov. 13) and the Arizona duo of Azuolas & Tautvilas Tubelis (Nov. 19). Friday they're set to take on Mizzou's Kobe & Kaleb Brown. During conference play they'll face SMU's duo of Marcus & Michael Weathers.
  • Sadly, the previous note has a disappointing footnote. Just one Anderson and Tubelis actually played in the USA and Arizona games, and Mizzou's Kaleb Brown has clocked just five minutes this season.
  • Isaac Brown grew up playing against Mizzou legend Melvin Booker in Pascagoula, Mississippi. The two attended rival high schools (Brown at Pascagoula and Booker at Moss Point).
  • Mizzou ranks 326th out of 347 eligible teams in KenPom's "minutes continuity" measurement (percentage of minutes played by returners). By contrast, the 2020-21 Tigers finished the year ranked sixth nationally in that category.
  • WSU is 105th in continuity – up from 234th in 2020-21.
  • The Shockers have faced a number of transfer-heavy teams already this season. After opening against a Jacksonville State squad that returned over 96% of its points and minutes, WSU has since seen South Alabama (14th from the bottom in minutes continuity), UNLV (21st from the bottom) and now Mizzou (22nd from the bottom).
 
 
ON THIS DATE: NOVEMBER 26
  • The Shockers are 8-4 all-time on Nov. 26, last playing (and winning) in 2019 when they beat South Carolina, 70-47, in a Cancun Challenge semifinal matchup.
  • 1994 – Jamie Arnold grabbed 21 rebounds in a 78-67, season-opening win over SMU at Levitt Arena.
  • 2013 – Ron Baker scored 23 points and sank all 11 free throw attempts as the Shockers defeated BYU, 75-62, to win the CBE Classic championship at Kansas City's Sprint Center. It was win No. 7 in a 35-0 start.
 
 
A SHOCKER WIN WOULD….
... Improve their record to 5-1.          
... Make them 6-2 in true road games under Isaac Brown with three-straight wins.
... Be their first-ever against Mizzou (1-4).
... Make them 1-3 all-time in Columbia.
... Make them 7-5 all-time against Cuonzo Martin.
 
A SHOCKERS LOSS WOULD...
... Drop their record to 4-2.
... Give Mizzou a 5-0 series lead (4-0 in Columbia).
... Make WSU 6-6 all-time vs. Cuonzo Martin.
... Be less good than a win.
 
 
UP NEXT:
  • The Shockers continue on the road next Wednesday, Dec. 1 at Oklahoma State (7 p.m. CT, ESPN+).
  • WSU has won its last two visits to Gallagher-Iba Arena (2017 & 2019). Prior to that, the Shockers were 2-13 in Stillwater, dating back to 1934.
  • WSU and OSU revived the series in 2016 and have met in four of the last five years. In that span, the visiting team has won all four matchups.
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