Mizzou focused to defend home court in sellout showdown with Vanderbilt
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Mizzou Men's Basketball has its sights set on maintaining its flawless home record in front of its second sellout crowd of the season.
The Tigers (12-3) are welcoming the Vanderbilt Commodores (13-2) to Columbia on Saturday afternoon with a chance to sweep its two-game homestand and improve their record inside Mizzou Arena to a sparkling 13-0.
MU is carrying the momentum into this contest. The team snapped its 19-game, regular season conference losing skid that dated back to last season in its last outing against LSU with a comfortable 16-point win while Vanderbilt suffered a 76-64 defeat at home against No. 14 Mississippi State in its most recent contest.
With Tuesday's win, head coach Dennis Gates' group extended its perfect track record of defending their home court this season, which will be a pivotal trend to continue throughout a challenging SEC slate. Currently, nine of the conference's 16 teams are listed in the latest AP Top 25 Poll, and nine of Mizzou's remaining 16 games of league play are against ranked programs. With that in mind, MU is focused on capitalizing on its home court advantage while also seeking to steal some victories on the road.
"You definitely have to take care of home court, but also, you have to be able to win some games against high quality opponents, which is every game on our roster. Whether you can get one at home or one on the road, you have to cherish the wins when you get the opportunity to be on that side of the scoreboard," Gates said at Friday's press conference. "Taking care of home court has been an advantage for us. We have great, great fans, who have sacrificed, even last game through the inclement weather, to get here. I want our fans to come out and support us this Saturday and be able to make an impact on this game."
You can watch the full press conference with Coach Gates in the slideshow above.
Along with protecting its home gym, Mizzou's success during the 2024-25 season stems from sustaining one of the top scoring offenses in the nation. The Tigers currently own the NCAA's No. 11-ranked scoring offense with 85.7 points per game, the No. 16-ranked field goal percentage with a 49.76-mark and the top-ranked tally in bench points, averaging almost 41 points per game from non-starters. MU's bench has scored 611 points this season, led by the country's active all-time leading scorer Marques Warrick. The Northern Kentucky transfer has had to adjust to a new role in his first season at Mizzou, serving as one of the first players to get their name called off the bench each game for Coach Gates. The veteran guard is averaging 9.2 points and 16.9 minutes per game in his new role, which he has embraced.
"I was kind of overthinking it at first, going into the preseason, and how I'm supposed to balance that with the new situation, but Coach Gates just told me, from day one, I got the green light, so that helps a lot," Warrick said. "Being here and playing with good teammates around me, everybody can make plays, everybody can make shots, so that just helps being able to score and distribute."
You can watch the full press conference with Warrick in the slideshow above.
Maintaining its success on the offensive end of the floor will be important against Saturday's opponent, which also boasts one of the country's best scoring offenses. Vanderbilt currently has the No. 20-ranked scoring offense in college basketball, guided by head coach Mark Byington in his first year leading the program. Guards Jason Edwards and A.J. Hoggard are both averaging double-digit scoring this season, including a team-best 17.1 points per game from Edwards, and forward Devin McGlockton has also chipped in 11.2 points and a team-high 8.2 rebounds per game for the Commodores. Those three players and their team's 10-deep roster are all on MU's radar in preparation for this contest.
"Coach B's team in Vanderbilt, you know, they're a very feisty team. Defensively, does a great job. They have unbelievable players being able to make plays for each other with experience," Gates said. "Ultimately, for us, we got to do a great job of taking care of the basketball, doing the things that we do, not allowing their defense to push us out and play our style of basketball."
"They're really good defensively. Their guards are pesky, tough defenders, actually one through five really, they can guard a lot of position on the floor," Warrick said. "We're going to be looking for them to just be in the passing lanes, have quick hands and stuff like that, so their guards are really tough."
The Tigers will be hunting for their 13th consecutive win at home when tipoff arrives at 2:30 p.m.
