First Scouting Report: UK to open SEC play at high-scoring Missouri
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Game day: No. 19 Kentucky 88, Florida A&M 68
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Wednesday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Florida A&M in Rupp Arena.
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A look ahead to the Kentucky Wildcats’ next men’s basketball game:
The opponent
No. 19 Kentucky (8-3, 0-0 SEC) will face Missouri (11-1, 0-0 SEC) on Wednesday, Dec. 28, at Mizzou Arena (seating capacity 15,061) on the campus of the University of Missouri in Columbia:
The game will tip off at 7 p.m. (EST) and be telecast by the SEC Network.
In their most recent outing, Coach Dennis Gates and the Tigers blitzed No. 16 Illinois 93-71 Thursday night at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.
Series history
Kentucky leads the all-time series with Missouri 14-2. Since the Tigers joined the SEC in 2012-13, UK leads the series 10-2.
Most recent meeting
Keion Brooks scored 17 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead a balanced Kentucky attack and Oscar Tshiebwe went for 13 points and 20 rebounds as UK blitzed Missouri 83-56 on Dec. 29, 2021, at Rupp Arena in Lexington.
Power rankings
The NCAA NET Rankings have Kentucky No. 30, Missouri No. 65.
In the Pomeroy Ratings, Kentucky stands No. 8, Missouri No. 60.
The Sagarin Ratings have Kentucky No. 14, Missouri No. 70.
Know your foe
1. So far in the first season with Dennis Gates as Missouri head man, the Tigers have employed a high-octane brand of basketball. Through 11 games, Mizzou is fourth in the country in scoring (88.4 points a game); fifth in turnover margin (plus-7.2) and 10th in field-goal percentage (50.2 percent).
In those 11 games, the Tigers have gone over 80 points nine times; over 90 points five times and over 100 points twice.
2. Going into Thursday night’s neutral court showdown with border rival Illinois, Missouri’s most impressive wins were an 88-84 victory at Wichita State Nov. 29 and a 68-66 neutral-court win over Central Florida in the Orange Bowl Basketball Classic in Sunrise, Fla.
Missouri’s sole loss in its first 11 games was an emphatic one — defending national champion Kansas rolled into Columbia and put a 95-67 thumping on Mizzou.
3. Gates is the former Cleveland State head man and four of the Vikings players followed him to Missouri. One of those Cleveland State transfers, 6-foot-4 graduate student D’Moi Hodge, leads the Tigers in scoring (16.4 ppg) and is hitting 51.2 percent of his shots and 42.2 percent of his three-point attempts.
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Senior forward Kobe Brown — one of only three returnees from Cuonzo Martin’s final Missouri team in 2021-22 — is averaging 12.9 points and 5.7 rebounds. The 6-8, 250-pound product of Huntsville, Ala., is hitting 60.6 percent of his field-goal attempts and 39.1 percent of his three-point tries.
This story was originally published December 21, 2022 at 8:55 PM.
