TV Schedule: Sunday, December 22, 1:00 pm ET (ESPN)
Location: Enterprise Center, St. Louis, Missouri
For the 41st straight year, Missouri and Illinois will meet for the annual Braggin’ Rights game in St. Louis. The Tigers have won three of the last five games in this series but trails the Illini 20-34 overall. The previous three games in the rivalry haven’t been particularly close, but this game rarely disappoints.
Missouri (10-1) is riding a 10-game winning streak into the matchup with Illinois, its first win streak of that many games since 2013. On Tuesday, the Tigers beat Jacksonville State by 11 after trailing for a large portion of the game. Jacob Crews was the latest Mizzou player to lead the team in scoring, making six threes off the bench on his way to a game-high 19 points.
Illinois started the season with six wins in seven games but has dropped a couple of matchups as of late. Illinois couldn’t hold off Tennessee in its last game, falling to the Volunteers 66-64 at the buzzer. Kasparas Jakucionis led Illinois with 22 points in the loss, for his fifth straight game with at least 20 points.
Coming into the matchup with Illinois, Missouri is top-10 in the country in points per game (88.7 ppg), field goal percentage (52%), two-point percentage (61.8%), free throws made (21.1) and attempted (29.5), steals (10.5 spg), and bench points per game (44.6). Eight different Tigers have led the team in scoring through the first 11 games. Mark Mitchell (13.5 ppg), Tamar Bates (12.3 ppg), and Anthony Robinson II (11.5 ppg) are averaging in double figures this season to lead Missouri in scoring. Caleb Grill (13.6 ppg) was the team's top scorer but has been sidelined for the past few games with a neck injury.
Defensively Missouri is much improved from last year. The Tigers are holding opponents to 66.7 points per game on 40.6 percent from the floor. Although better, Mizzou still has a couple of vulnerabilities on that end of the court. Missouri allows opponents to grab 12.1 offensive rebounds per game which puts the Tigers in the bottom 50 in the country in that category. Missouri has also struggled to defend the three at times this season. Mizzou has allowed an opponent to make at least eight threes in eight games this season. However, Missouri has been able to look past some of the defensive woes because of the level of competition.
Illinois (7-3) has also been solid offensively this year, averaging 84 points per game. The Illini does most of its damage on the offensive end from three. This season Illinois is averaging 10.6 made threes per game on nearly 33 attempts, making 32.4 percent from deep. Illinois is led in scoring by a trio of freshmen. Kasparas Jakucionis (16.1 ppg), Tomislav Ivisic (14.2 ppg, 9.7 rpg), and Will Riley (13.5 ppg) are all averaging more than 13 points per game, and junior Kylan Boswell (10.1 ppg) is also chipping in double-digit points this year.
On the defensive end, Illinois has been one of the best teams in the country, holding opponents to 64.6 points per game. The Illini are in the top 10 in all of the shooting percentage categories, only allowing opponents to make 36.9 percent from the floor, 42.4 percent from two, 26.4 percent from three, and 61.5 percent from the line. And as good as those numbers are, Illinois’ rebounding numbers are even better. This season Illinois is averaging 45.6 rebounds per game, which is tied with Tennessee State for the most in D1.
Missouri has won ten straight games on the back of being efficient on the offensive end of the court, while Illinois has used one of the toughest defenses to take even the best teams in the country out of their offensive rhythm - see the game against Tennessee. Illinois might be the better team on paper, but Missouri is coming into this matchup with all the momentum. The Illini have struggled recently to pick up wins, but the Tigers have played a weak non-con schedule.
Missouri will need to score the ball early and often and try to keep the rebounding margin somewhat close to give the Tigers a solid chance at picking up the win. While Illinois will need to defend the paint well and get hot from three. No matter who ends up winning, this should be another exciting matchup in what has turned into one of the better annual rivalry games in college basketball.