January 08, 2004
Game notes for Saturday's Big 12 opener at Missouri...
GAME #12
Texas A&M Aggies (7-4, 0-0 Big 12)
at
Missouri Tigers (5-5, 0-1 Big 12) 12:30 p.m. (CST)
Saturday, Jan. 10, 2004
Hearnes Center (13,300 cap.)
Columbia, Mo.
RADIO: Dave South, play-by-play Colin Killian, commentary Airtime: 12:10 p.m. (CST) ONLINE: www.AggieAthletics.com TELEVISION: Dave Armstrong, play-by-play Jon Sundvold, commentary
Riding a two-game winning streak, the Texas A&M Aggies (7-4, 0-0) open Big 12 Conference play against the Missouri Tigers (5-5, 0-1) on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. (CST) at Hearnes Center (13,300 cap.) in Columbia, Mo. The game will be televised regionally by ESPN Regional. A&M is coming off a 89-63 win against Long Island at home on Tuesday, while the Tigers are coming off a 70-65 loss to Iowa State in their Big 12 opener on Wednesday in Ames, Iowa. Missouri is 3-1 at home while A&M is 2-3 in road games. Missouri leads the series, 9-2, including a 4-0 record in Columbia, but the Aggies won last year in College Station, 73-71.
ABOUT MISSOURI: The Tigers return four starters and seven lettermen from last year's team, which finished 22-11 overall, tied for fifth in the Big 12 with a 9-7 mark and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Missouri is in its fifth season under head coach Quin Snyder. A preseason favorite to win the Big 12 title, the Tigers have been ranked as high as No. 3 in the national polls this season, but have lost four of their last five games. Five Missouri players average in double figures scoring. The Tigers are led by a pair of All-Americans in senior forward Rickey Paulding (6'5"), who is averaging 14.3 points and 5.7 rebounds, and senior center Arthur Johnson (6'9"), who is adding 13.1 points and 7.2 rebounds. Senior forward Travon Bryant (6'9") adds 12.2 points and 7.1 rebounds and ranks second in the Big 12 in three-point accuracy, making 61.1 percent. Freshman forward Linas Kleiza (6'8"), contributes 11.6 points and a team-best 8.8 rebounds, while sophomore guard Jimmy McKinney (6'3") averaged 10.6 points and leads the team with 2.9 assists per game. As a team, the Tigers rank second in the Big 12 in rebounding margin at +10.9 per game and also rank second in offensive rebounding (16.1) and three-point field goals (6.8). Missouri is averaging 74.6 points while allowing 71.8 and ranks last in the league in turnover margin at -4.3 per game.
SERIES: Missouri leads the series, 9-2, with a 4-0 advantage in games played in Columbia (all at the Hearnes Center). A&M won last year in College Station, 73-71, ending a six-game Missouri winning streak in the series. The teams first met in the first round of the 1969 Sun Bowl Tournament in El Paso, with the Tigers winning, 81-79. The teams last met in Columbia two seasons ago, with the Tigers breaking away late for a 74-50 victory.
COACHES:
- TEXAS A&M: Melvin Watkins (UNC Charlotte '77)
- 60-95 at A&M (6th year)
- 102-115 overall (8th year)
- 1-5 vs. Missouri
- 1-4 vs. Quin Snyder
MISSOURI: Quin Snyder (Duke '89)
- 89-54 at MU (5th year)
- 89-54 overall (5th year)
- 4-1 vs. Texas A&M
- 4-1 vs. Melvin Watkins
SIDEBARS: A&M senior forward Jesse King and Missouri senior center Arthur Johnson played on the same high school team (Pershing HS in Detroit) and remain close friends...King was a senior when Johnson was a junior...A&M senior guard Leandro Garcia-Morales played for his native Uruguay in last summer's Pan American Games in the Dominican Republic, where his team faced the American team that included Missouri's Rickey Paulding and Arthur Johnson...the Americans won a squeaker against Uruguay, 74-72...Missouri coach Quin Snyder was a member of the 1987 Duke team that defeated Shelby Metcalf's Aggies, 58-51, in the first-round of the 1987 NCAA Tournament...Snyder played seven minutes in the game and did not score...A&M Associate Head Coach Lew Hill and Missouri Assistant Coach Lane Odom spent three seasons together on the East Carolina staff from 1995-98...Hill came to A&M with Melvin Watkins in 1998, while Odom joined the staff at Watkins' old school, North Carolina Charlotte, under Watkins' successor, Bobby Lutz....first-year assistant coach Lance Irvin is the younger brother of former Missouri standout Byron Irvin.
WATKINS QUOTEBOARD: "We had a lot of good play from our guys against Long Island and I was pleased with that. We tend to play to the level of competition, but this time we stayed focused on what we wanted to do. We hope that gives our kids some confidence. We did a much better job of distributing the basketball. We tell our players that they have to earn minutes. As we move into conference play, it becomes a different game. We have been preaching about coming out and finishing games and we did that against Long Island. We will find out a lot about ourselves in the next couple of weeks against Missouri and Kansas and hopefully what we learn will be positive. Missouri is a very talented team with a lot of different weapons. They are a really good rebounding team and they can hurt you with their three-point shooting ability."
LONG ISLAND RECAP: COLLEGE STATION -- Antoine Wright scored 25 points as Texas A&M defeated Long Island 89-63 Tuesday night. A&M (7-4) got a spark from Luis Clemente, who scored 13 points off the bench in relief of center Andy Slocum. Slocum had 15 points and nine rebounds. Long Island (4-7) was led by Brandon Thomas with 16 points and Raymond Edwards with 14 points. Wright bettered his season average of 14.3 points per game before halftime. He scored 18 points in the opening period, capped off by a 3-pointer with three seconds remaining to give A&M a 44-27 lead at the break. A&M made of 23-of-24 free throw attempts, setting a Big 12 Conference record for free throw accuracy at 95.8 percent . The game marked A&M's fourth win in its past five games. A&M had lost three-straight in mid-December before getting back on track.
LAST YEAR AGAINST MISSOURI: COLLEGE STATION (AP, Feb. 12, 2003) -- Bernard King scored a season-high 29 points and Bradley Jackson scored the go-ahead basket with 2 seconds to play to lead Texas A&M to a 73-71 win over No. 21 Missouri on Feb. 12, 2003. The Aggies beat a ranked opponent for the first time since Jan. 23, 2001 when they defeated No. 24 Texas, 80-74. Missouri's Travon Bryant hit a 3-point basket from the top of the key to tie the score at 71 with 23 seconds to play. Jackson then drove to the basket and lofted a short jumper over Missouri's Arthur Johnson to give the Aggies the win. The Tigers (14-6, 5-4) had one more chance but King stole an inbounds pass from Jimmy McKinney to end the game. Missouri led 37-30 at halftime--its biggest lead of the game--but the Aggies scored the first nine points of the second half and the teams went back and forth the rest of the way. Jackson finished with 10 points. Arthur Johnson led Missouri with 18 points while Rickey Paulding added 15. Led by their outside shooters, the Aggies went on a 13-2 run to take a 24-15 lead midway through the first half. King made a basket and then a 3-pointer to key the spurt while Jackson added another 3-pointer on an assist from King. Antoine Wright added a 3-pointer and Jesse King hit a basket to complete the 13-2 run. The Tigers answered with a 22-6 run over the final eight minutes of the half.
QUICKIE NOTES:
- The Aggies set a Big 12 record for free throw accuracy against Long Island, making 23-of-24 (.958). In the last three games, A&M has made 85.0 percent from the line (51-of-60). For the season, the Aggies rank third in the Big 12 at 70.4 percent.
- After averaging 40.1 bench points the first seven games, the Aggies averaged just 14.0 points off the bench in the next three games, but had a whopping 44 against Long Island.
- Senior center Andy Slocum has had four double-doubles this season and is averaging 11.2 points and 10.3 rebounds in the last six games.
- Jesse King has scored in double figures in a team-high eight games and has made 16 straight free throws.
- Antoine Wright has averaged 22.3 points and 3.3 three-pointers in the last four games.
- Leandro Garcia-Morales scored a season-high 14 points and made 4-of-4 three-pointers against Louisiana-Monroe and ranks second in the Big 12 in assists-to-turnovers ratio (3.00).
- As a team, the Aggies rank third in the Big 12 and 31st nationally in scoring (80.2). The Aggies rank 17th nationally in offensive rebounding (15.6), and 22nd in assists (18.0) and assists-to-turnovers ratio (1.22).
- After committing a season-high 28 turnovers against Louisiana-Monroe, the Aggies had only 10 against Long Island (five in last four minutes of the game by reserve players).
- The Aggies rank third in the Big 12 in three-pointers made per game (6.5), but have made just 28.1 percent in the last three games.
- Kevin Turner's career three-point percentage of .428 ranks as the best in school history and is the fifth best in Big 12 annals.Turner ranks fourth in the league this season in three-point percentage (.500).
- A&M ranks last in the Big 12 in scoring defense (75.2) and field goal percentage defense (.458), and are 11th in three-point percentage defense (.368), but has allowed just 66.7 points and 40.5 percent shooting (.318 on three-pointers) in the last three games.
- The Aggies have posted a rebounding margin of +21.5 in the last two games, including a huge 43-16 rebounding edge against Louisiana-Monroe, one of the most dominating rebounding performances in school history.