Coming off an impressive 20-point win on the road at Howard in the season opener, the Mizzou Tigers host Southeast Missouri State (SEMO) as they will play in front of the Tiger faithful for the first time this season at Mizzou Arena.
Last year, the Tigers were an impressive 19-2 when playing inside Mizzou Arena, with their two losses being to ranked Texas A&M and Kentucky squads.
Coming into this year, expectations were high for the Tigers and fans haven’t seen their team play at Mizzou Arena since last season’s loss to Kentucky on March 8.
Last season, SEMO had one of their best seasons in program history as they finished with an impressive 21-12 record, including a strong 15-5 record in OVC play.
Coached by Brad Korn, the Redhawks have seen bits of success since he took over the program in 2020. Since then, he has a career 74-86 record, but he also led the team to an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2023, just the second in program history.
With the departure of Rob Wright to High Point via the transfer portal this past offseason, the Redhawks will lean on their homegrown guards from St. Louis, BJ Ward and Braxton Stacker.
The season opener for the Redhawks resulted in a blowout 92-67 loss to Saint Louis University this past Monday on the road.
For the Redhawks, the Tigers will be an even harder test as they will have to navigate all of the talent on this Tiger roster.
Mizzou comes in with one of the deepest rosters in college basketball and they showed exactly just that in the win on Monday night.
In the win at Howard, Shawn Phillips Jr. had a career-high 16 points and the Tigers seem to have more versatility with him in the lineup rather than what they had with Josh Gray last year.
With SEMO’s tallest starter from Monday listed at 6-foot-7, anticipate another strong showing from the Tiger big men, specifically Phillips.
In addition to Phillips, West Virginia transfer Jayden Stone was a spark for the Tigers off the bench as he finished the game with 13 points, nine of which coming in the second half as the Tigers pulled away from the Bison on Monday night.
The Tigers and Redhawks tip off Friday night at 7 p.m. CST with the game streaming live on ESPN+.