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For as long as Missouri has managed to walk the line of the bubble, things could come to a hinge point for the Tigers in its third-to-last week of conference play. The slate features two ranked opponents, with Missouri hosting No. 19 Vanderbilt on Wednesday before traveling to take on No. 20 Arkansas on Saturday. The two opponents rank fifth and fourth respectively in the conference in scoring.
Vanderbilt threatens to the hand the Tigers' a second consecutive home loss for the first time since the 2023-2024 season. The Commodores are one of the most improved teams in the conference, consistently in the top three of the conference standings throughout this season after finishing 12th in the conference last season.
The Commodores have won five of their last six games. Through those five wins, Vanderbilt averaged 87 points.
That scoring, for the most part, hasn't slowed down when Vanderbilt has taken on the best defenses in the conference. Against Florida, the SEC's second best defense, the Commodores scored 94. Against Kentucky, the third best in the conference, Vanderbilt earned an 80-55 win.
"They're a tremendous team when it comes down to scoring," Missouri coach Dennis Gates said in a press conference Tuesday. "They've been that through the entire year."
The offensive effort for Vanderbilt this season has been led by sophomore guard Tyler Tanner, who has averaged 20.75 points per game across SEC play. Additionally, Tanner is a pesky defender, sitting ninth in the country with 2.5 steals per game. How Tanner matches up with Missouri's T.O. Barrett, who is physical on both ends of the court, is one of the key matchups to watch for the game.
"Tyler Tanner is one of the most improved players in the country," Gates said. "His speed, his quickness, very seldom does he make mistakes, being able to not only make decisions quick, but being able to get his team involved."
Though Vanderbilt doesn't have the same height as Missouri, the Tigers are expecting for the interior offense that has been cruicial to their success to be challenged.
"They push the ball, they don't allow rim shots," forward Jacob Crews said of Vanderbilt. "They're one of the best in country at not allowing rim shots. So obviously, we're really good at getting rim shots, and I think that's going to be really where the battle is won."
Internally for Missouri, the focus down the final stretch is on consistency. That goes for game-to-game, but also for within the 40 minutes of a game. Gates believes Missouri has shown what its capable of at its best in "spurts" during games, but not yet for a full game.
"We have to be able now to put 40 straight minutes together of consistent basketball with no panic," Gates said. "Teams get up and down with the score. Runs happen. I think we've handled on the road well, being down in the last five minutes, six minutes of a game, close to seven or eight points, and then working our way back. At home, we got to allow simplicity, allow ourselves to make plays for each other and not home-run plays."
The searching for a home-run play and the lack of consistency certainly hit Missouri in its underwhelming performance in a loss to Texas on Saturday.
Missouri entered halftime trailing by just three points. But six unanswered points from Texas in the middle of the second half quickly spiraled into the Longhorns leading by seven or more points for each of the last 10 minutes. Missouri never managed to puncture the lead enough for a comeback. The Tigers shot 1 for 4 from 3-point range in the final 10 minutes.
"Just continuing to not live and die by every play," Crews said of what Missouri needs to do down the stretch. "Understand that we're gonna have some good plays, gonna have some bad plays. We're gonna turn the ball over, we will give up an offensive rebound from them like, just keep going. It's a game of runs. We've had a lot of games where i seemed it wouldn't go our way, and it went our way."
Missouri will get its chance at what would be one of its best wins on the season Wednesday at 8 p.m. when it hosts the Commodores.
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Joey Van Zummeren is the lead writer for Missouri Tigers on SI, covering the Tigers since 2023. He also has experience reporting on the Green Bay Packers and high school sports. A Belleville, Ill., native, he joined Missouri Tigers On SI as an intern in 2023.
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