Mizzou basketball vs. Stephen F. Austin: Projected lineups, time, TV, what to expect

Stephen F. Austin at Missouri

WHEN/WHERE: 8 p.m. Tuesday at Mizzou Arena in Columbia

TV/RADIO: ESPNU; KMBZ (980 AM)

PROJECTED LINEUPS:

ABOUT MISSOURI (9-2): This is the final game of a four-game homestand for the Tigers, who face Illinois in the annual Braggin’ Rights game Saturday in St. Louis. … Missouri has already surpassed its win total from a season ago, but first-year coach Cuonzo Martin continues to harp that his players can not get comfortable with their early success. Since losing to West Virginia in the AdvoCare Invitational championship game Nov. 26, Mizzou has won four straight. The team is undefeated at home this season. … The Tigers are shooting 41.2 percent from deep, which ranked 16th in the country as of Wednesday morning. Just more than 45 percent of Missouri’s total field-goal attempts have come from beyond the three-point arc. Three Missouri players — Kevin Puryear, Jordan Geist and Kassius Robertson — have attempted more than 20 three-pointers this season and have converted more than 40 percent. Geist leads that group in three-point percentage (48.4). … Senior forward Jordan Barnett has averaged 18.2 points over his past six games. He recorded his second double-double of the season (18 points and 11 rebounds) against North Florida on Saturday. … The Tigers are still figuring out their point guard rotation, and true freshman Blake Harris has had solid performances in Missouri’s past two games. In 18 minutes against Green Bay, he scored eight points, grabbed six rebounds, recorded three assists and three steals. He turned the ball over twice. Against North Florida, he turned the ball over just once in 20 minutes and had seven assists. Martin has said point guard is the hardest position for a true freshman to play.

ABOUT STEPHEN F. AUSTIN (10-1): The Lumberjacks are the best team Mizzou will face during its four-game homestand. They are coming off a road win against another Southeastern Conference opponent: LSU. Their only loss this season came on the road against another SEC team: Mississippi State, which beat the Lumberjacks 80-75. … Stephen F. Austin is one of the country’s best defensive teams. According to Ken Pomeroy’s statistics, the Lumberjacks have forced their opponents to turn the ball over on 29.3 percent of possessions, and they have stolen the ball on 15.7 percent of their opponents’ possessions. As of Wednesday morning, those numbers rank first and second in the country in their respective categories. … This could represent a problem for Missouri, which has struggled to hold onto the ball at times this season and has had 20.3 percent of its possessions end in turnovers. … The Lumberjacks have made five straight postseason appearances. Last season, they played in the Collegeinsider.com Tournament. The season before that, they lost to Notre Dame by a point in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. That ended a three-year run of Stephen F. Austin playing in the NCAAs. … Coach Kyle Keller is in his second year at Stephen F. Austin. This is his first Division I head coaching job. He had previously been an assistant at Texas A&M, Kansas and Oklahoma State.

This story was originally published December 18, 2017 at 11:42 AM with the headline "Mizzou basketball vs. Stephen F. Austin: Projected lineups, time, TV, what to expect."