Missouri Basketball Travels to Tuscon to Take on the Arizona Wildcats

Missouri basketball takes on the top team in the Pac-12 Sunday night, with Tiger Nation feeling confident.

After Wednesday night’s win over a sound Nebraska-Omaha team, Kim Anderson’s bunch is en route to Tuscon where they will take on the No. 13 ranked Arizona Wildcats on Sunday evening.

With Mizzou clearly on a motivated roll as of late, keeping their home record perfect at 5-0 this season, the question begs to be asked; could the Tigers be primed for an upset?

One can’t help but look back to the game against Xavier where Missouri played incredibly in the first half, showing a glimpse of their potential against a top-tier team. With something that last year’s squad didn’t have in a winning streak like this, it remains to be see what could happen with a more refined attack from newer star players like Kevin Puryear, K.J. Walton and Terrence Phillips.

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But the goal in this game? It could be in stopping Allonzo Trier.

Their freshman sensation came in with a lot of hype, and for the most part, he has delivered. That includes a cool 27 points in U of A’s win against Fresno State in their last contest. But the times he hasn’t delivered? In both the Wildcats lone loss to Providence and their overtime win against Santa Clara, Trier had only five points.

Of course to just focus on Trier would be to ignore their leading scorer, the tough 6’9″ senior Ryan Anderson. Mr. Anderson is a physical forward who uses his 230 pound presence to create advantages for himself.

So between these two, it’s already clear that the level of defense Mizzou plays is going to have to be outstanding. What did Coach Anderson say about his team’s defensive effort their last time out?

“It was an ugly win…But, having said that, we did a good job defensively, so I’m happy with the win and proud of these guys,” Anderson told The Maneater on Wednesday.

In case you were wondering, Arizona has an 8-1 record, best in the Pac-12 Conference. One of their wins came against previously No. 13 ranked Gonzaga, 68-63. It will take the best defensive effort Missouri can gather, but is it enough? The true answer won’t come until after tip-time for the Tiger optimists, of which there are several for now.

Game time is set for 7:00pm CT Sunday night on Pac-12 Network.