Missouri Tigers seeking 9th straight basketball win Saturday against Long Island
The Missouri Tigers men’s basketball team aims to continue steamrolling its nonconference slate on Saturday.
Mizzou has won eight straight games thanks to a 76-67 victory over then-No. 1 ranked Kansas last Sunday at Mizzou Arena. The Tigers have not lost since their season opener vs. Memphis.
With Long Island rolling into Mizzou Arena for a Saturday morning game that’s set to tip off at 11 a.m., MU is looking to match the Dennis Gates-era program record of nine straight wins, set in the coach’s first season in Columbia. The Missouri-Long Island game will be broadcast on SEC Network+.
LIU ranks 333rd and 310th in the KenPom and NCAA Net rankings, respectively. For context, No. 10 Kansas currently ranks 11th and 17th, respectively.
The Sharks come into the matchup 4-8, with their only Division I victories being wins over California Baptist (90-77 on Nov. 15) and Charlotte (79-76 on Nov. 23).
LIU is led by redshirt junior Malachi Davis. A 6-foot-4 guard, he averages 17.5 points per game. Senior Jamal Fuller leads the Sharks in rebounds, averaging 5.3 per game to go with 10.7 points. The 6-5 forward joins Davis and 6-8 forward Shadrak Lasu as the three Canadians on the team.
The Sharks are coached by former NBA point guard Rod Strickland. Strickland played college basketball at DePaul and was selected No. 19 overall by the New York Knicks in the first round of the 1988 NBA Draft.
The 1998 second-team All-NBA member only spent three seasons with the Knicks before being traded to the San Antonio Spurs in 1990. He then spent the rest of his 17-year career with six different teams, including the Portland Trail Blazers and Washington Wizards.
The 2008 New York City Basketball Hall of Fame inductee landed his first head-coaching gig with LIU in 2022, after serving as director of basketball operations at Memphis and an assistant at USF for three seasons.
Gates on analytics
Gates invited the media to Mizzou Arena for a special session Thursday, with the goal of educating reporters and Mizzou fans about analytics.
“My goal and my intention is to just allow you guys to get the deeper dive and perspective that I have, our staff have and the business around us have that it will also help you guys in narration of the stories — good, bad or other,” Gates said. “My hope is that our common fan, the ones that are in the stands (and) the ones that are at home, get a better understanding through you guys’ work: a different perspective to see the game of basketball being played, the decisions being made and also how it can be really, really advanced in helping players perform.”
The Tigers use HD Intelligence — an analytics consulting company that helps Mizzou gain an edge beyond the eye test and box score.
“It does not take away from my gut reaction of what decisions I have to make, so I still have to veto even analytics sometimes, to make sure I’m still having my pulse on it,” Gates said. “Analytics isn’t running our program.”
Gates used analytics in his decision-making during the second half of Missouri’s 98-93 win over Cal in the SEC/ACC Challenge on Dec. 3 at Mizzou Arena.
Gates saw Anthony Robinson II’s nine first-half points on 3-for-4 shooting and decided to utilize the sophomore guard in pick-and-rolls more often in the second half.
“If I notice something in a game, and I know it’s going up,” Gates said, “it impacts my play call.”
The Tigers (8-1) look to utilize the analytics provided by HDI as the season progresses, but Gates emphasizes that a human will always have the final say.
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