Things to watch for: Missouri Edition

By: Tyler Adkins

It’s game day in the Bluegrass as ESPN’s College Gameday show has rolled into Lexington to see the Wildcats take on the Missouri Tigers. If UK wants to book their ticket to the big dance, they can take a very, very large step in that direction tonight with a win. Missouri comes in at 19-7 and 8-5 in their first season in the SEC. With that, let’s get to the things to watch for:

*Home Court Pride

This isn’t necessarily a player category, but more of a team category due to what it means in tonight’s game. UK needs to be able to defend its home court and win either or both of the games against Missouri and Florida at home. This team hasn’t been as good at home as previous Calipari teams have been but they still have only lost 2 games at home this season. Missouri is only 1-5 on the road so far in conference play so they haven’t exactly been road warriors. The Cats need a win tonight and the UK home crowd should be able to help them get it tonight.

*Containing the guards

Jabari Brown and Phil Pressey have been terrific for this Tiger team this year and they are as good of a combo as there is in the SEC. UK needs to limit Pressey off the dribble and not allow him to get by his defender as that is when he is able to create and wreak havoc on defenses. On the other side is Jabari Brown who is a terrific shooter and flat fill it up if he is given space on the perimeter. It is presumed that Archie Goodwin will be defending Brown and he needs to be up in his face from the tip and limit his touches. If UK can hold those two guards to less than 25 combined points and less than 40% from the field then it will go a long way in getting the win.

*Own the glass

Missouri is a very good rebounding team and feasts on the offensive glass when opposing teams don’t block them out. Missouri averages 13.5 offensive rebounds per game and UK cannot allow them to start grabbing offensive boards if they want to get a win. The bigs for UK have to be terrific tonight on the glass and if they can hold Missouri to less than 10 offensive rebounds then it should be a Big Blue victory tonight at Rupp.

That’s all for today. As always, go big blue.