First Scouting Report: UK will open SEC home slate with ‘revenge game’ vs. Missouri
A look ahead to the Kentucky Wildcats’ next men’s basketball game:
The opponent
No. 6 Kentucky (11-2, 1-0 SEC) will face Missouri (8-6, 0-1 SEC) on Tuesday, Jan. 9, at Rupp Arena (seating capacity 20,545) at Central Bank Center in downtown Lexington.
The game will tip off at 7 p.m. and be telecast by ESPN.
Mizzou dropped its SEC opener 75-68 to visiting Georgia Saturday afternoon in Columbia.
Series history
Kentucky leads the all-time series with Missouri 14-3, but the Tigers have won two of the past three meetings.
As UK head man, John Calipari is 10-3 vs. Mizzou.
Missouri coach Dennis Gates is 1-0 vs. the Wildcats.
Most recent meeting
Missouri star Kobe Brown scored 30 points and grabbed six rebounds and Louisville native Sean East added 12 points off the bench as the Tigers routed No. 19 Kentucky 89-75 on Dec. 28, 2022, at Mizzou Arena in Columbia.
Oscar Tshiebwe had 23 points, 19 rebounds and two steals to pace Kentucky. UK freshman Cason Wallace hit five 3-pointers and had 19 points.
Power rankings
In the Pomeroy Ratings, Kentucky is No. 19 and Missouri No. 89.
The NCAA NET rankings have Kentucky No. 24, Missouri No. 104.
Know your foe
1. Entering SEC play, Missouri was 2-3 vs. power conference teams. The Tigers won at Minnesota 70-68 and at Pittsburgh 71-64 but lost at Kansas 73-64 and to Seton Hall 93-87 and Illinois 97-73 on neutral courts in Kansas City and St. Louis, respectively.
The Tigers have also faced two tradition-rich, non-power conference foes, losing to Memphis 70-55 but defeating Wichita State 82-72.
2. The Missouri roster has a couple of players with Kentucky ties. The Tigers’ best player this season has been super-senior guard Sean East. The 6-foot-3, 180-pound East is averaging 17.1 points, 2.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists and making 56.8% of both his field goal attempts overall (84-of-148) and his 3-point shots (21-of-37).
East is a Louisville native, though he played his high school basketball across the Ohio River in New Albany, Indiana. In last season’s Mizzou win over UK, East had 12 points in 19 minutes and was perfect as a shooter — 4-of-4 on field-goal attempts, 1-of-1 on treys and 3-of-3 on foul shots.
Former Eastern Kentucky University guard Curt Lewis, another product of the city of Louisville, is coming off the bench for Mizzou. The 6-5, 215-pound junior averaged 11.1 points a game for EKU as a redshirt freshman in 2020-21, then averaged 9.7 points as a sophomore the following season for the Colonels.
Last season, Lewis led John A. Logan to the junior college national championship.
So far at Mizzou, Lewis has not really gotten untracked. He went into play Saturday averaging 2.3 points and 1.1 rebounds and shooting 25% (4-of-16) while averaging 7.9 minutes a game.
3. Another familiar face on the Missouri roster is 7-3, 247-pound former Arkansas center Connor Vanover.
Mizzou is the fourth college team Vanover has played for, following California (2018-19), Arkansas (2019-22) and Oral Roberts (2022-23). Vanover had his best year as a collegian last season for ORU, when he averaged 12.7 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.2 blocks.
This season, Vanover has not been nearly as effective in his return to the SEC. In 10 games, Vanover is averaging 4.8 points and 2.5 rebounds while playing only 12.2 minutes a contest.
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