Georgia-Missouri basketball preview: TV, time and projected lineups

Georgia at Mizzou

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

TV/RADIO: ESPN2; KMBZ (98.1 FM)

PROJECTED LINEUPS:

ABOUT MISSOURI (11-4, 1-1 SEC): Missouri’s topic of this season has been learning how to finish games. In a win at South Carolina last week, Missouri let the Gamecocks threaten late. In the Florida game, point guard Jordan Geist turned the ball over with the game tied, which led to a game-winning fast break layup for the Gators. … Coach Cuonzo Martin’s point guard rotation took a hit when freshman Blake Harris decided to transfer last week, a day before the Florida game. Against the Gators, that resulted in Terrence Phillips and Cullen VanLeer playing early minutes. They combined to play 18 minutes in the first half, but they weren’t very effective and played just five minutes combined in the second half. The team’s leading scorers, Jordan Barnett and Kassius Robertson, are both averaging nearly 33 minutes per game and played the entire second half of the Florida game. Over the past three games, Barnett has sat out for just two minutes total. … Barnett scored a career high 28 points against Florida and has converted 35 of 68 three-point attempts during Mizzou’s past 10 games. He is shooting 43.3 percent from three after making just 30 percent of his three-point shots a season ago. ... After recording 21 turnovers each in back-to-back games against Stephen F. Austin and Illinois, Mizzou turned the ball over 13 times against South Carolina and just 11 times against Florida.

ABOUT GEORGIA (11-3, 2-1 SEC): The Bulldogs finished eighth preseason SEC poll but nearly beat Kentucky on the road to begin conference play. Georgia, which received one top 25 vote in the most recent AP poll, then responded with double-digit home wins over Ole Miss and Alabama. … Senior Yante Maten, a 6-foot-8 forward, was one of three players to receive the preseason SEC player of the year honor. He is second in the league in scoring average and first in rebounding average (9.4 per game). Junior guard William Jackson II averages 10.1 points and 4.0 assists per game. … Georgia doesn’t force many turnovers, but its defense’s effective field goal percentage — which weighs three-pointers more heavily than two-pointers — is 43.7 percent, according to KenPom.com. That ranks first in the SEC. The Dawgs’ opponents have made just 30.7 percent of their three-point attempts this season, which could present a problem for Mizzou, a team that relies on shots from beyond the arc. … Georgia does not shoot many three-pointers itself. Only 25.3 percent of the Bulldogs points have come from threes. … Georgia is one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the SEC. Maten is averaging 4.2 offensive rebounds per game.

This story was originally published January 9, 2018 at 12:07 PM with the headline "Georgia-Missouri basketball preview: TV, time and projected lineups."