FAYETTEVILLE -- Missouri was struggling through a 2-8 start in SEC play before facing the University of Arkansas on Feb. 8 at Mizzou Arena.
The Tigers beat Arkansas 83-79 in overtime to start what has been their best two-week stretch of the season.
Missouri (13-13, 5-8) is 3-1 in its past four games going into today's rematch against the Razorbacks at Walton Arena.
After beating Arkansas, the Tigers played No. 25 LSU tough before losing 82-78 at the Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge.
Missouri then came back home and beat No. 11 Auburn 85-73 and Ole Miss 71-68 for the Tigers' first back-to-back SEC victories.
"I think they're more confident," Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman said of facing Missouri for the second time in two weeks. "I thought the game against us, it was obviously an overtime game and could have gone either way.
"But I think with each game, since we left playing there, they've gotten more and more confident. I think any time you beat a ranked team [Auburn], you're going to be really, really confident. And I thought they played well on the road against a great LSU team.
"You look at a four-game sample size, they're playing as well as anyone in the conference right now, and their attitude shows that, and the energy that they play with shows it."
Home, road strife
Arkansas has lost four consecutive SEC games at Walton Arena, its longest home conference losing streak in 49 seasons.
Until the Razorbacks' recent slide, they hadn't lost four consecutive home conference games since the 1970-71 season when they lost seven Southwest Conference games in a row in Fayetteville.
Missouri is 1-8 on the road this season -- winning 64-54 at Temple -- and 0-6 in SEC road games.
So one of the teams is going to break its home or road SEC losing streak today.
"We don't really talk to our team about how many games we've won or lost," Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman said. "Like, we hadn't won many games at Florida in a long time."
Florida beat Arkansas 73-59 on Tuesday night for the Gators' 14th consecutive home victory over the Razorbacks, who last won in Gainesville in 1995.
"It's kind of irrelevant," Musselman said of losing streaks in SEC home games or at Florida. "Right now, Saturday at noon, we have a 40-minute basketball game that we've got to try to win, and Missouri's got to try to do the same thing."
Missouri Coach Cuonzo Martin was asked if winning an SEC road game is the next step for the Tigers.
"There's no doubt about it," Martin said. "But I think they look forward to it [playing on the road]. I really do.
"Just the mental focus that it takes to win road games. Even though you're in a different venue you should want whatever comes with that. Because I think there's growth as an individual. I grew and I went past something.
"That's a great feeling to be able to win a road game. That's our goal."
Arkansas is 16-9 against Missouri in Fayetteville, where the Razorbacks have won five in a row over the Tigers. Missouri's last victory at Arkansas was 75-71 in 2014.
Jones nears 1,000
Junior guard Mason Jones, in his second season at Arkansas after playing at Connors State Junior College in Warner, Okla., as a freshman, is 17 points shy of scoring 1,000 points as a Razorback.
The 6-5 Jones, averaging 20.8 points to lead the SEC ahead of Ole Miss guard Breein Tyree and his 20.3 average, is on the verge of becoming the 44th Razorback to score 1,000 points and eighth to do it in two seasons.
The seven Razorbacks to score 1,000 points in two seasons are Todd Day, Scotty Thurman, Dusty Hannahs, Bobby Portis, Jaylen Barford, Daryl Macon and Martin Terry.
Jones scored 17 points at Missouri two weeks ago.
"He's a competitive basketball player," Missouri Coach Cuonzo Martin. "He tries to will his team to win games.
"Of course, he's an elite scorer. He goes right, goes left. He makes pull-ups. He can make threes.
"Anytime you have a guy with that size attacking downhill and knows how to make free throws, it puts pressure on your defense. He's not a guy who relaxes. That's one of the reasons he's one of the best two scorers in our league."
Jones leads the nation in free throws made (179) and attempted (218). He hit 11 of 14 free throws at Missouri.
Pinson coming on
Missouri sophomore guard Xavier Pinson is averaging 10.3 points on the season, but 23.5 in the last four games while increasing his career high three times.
Pinson scored 24 points against Arkansas to surpass his previous career high of 20 points as a freshman against Ole Miss. In the last two games, Pinson scored 28 against Auburn, then 32 against Ole Miss.
"He's really quick, he can get to the basket," Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman said of Pinson. "Then he's also a three-point threat. So when you have a guy that can make a three and has a really quick first step, he's another guy that confidence-wise is through the roof right now. Then you add in free throws attempted, that's how you get 32."
Pinson has hit 29 of 34 free throws in the past four games -- including 12 of 13 against the Razorbacks and 10 of 11 against the Rebels -- and 8 of 16 three-pointers.
"He's not an east-west guy," Missouri Coach Cuonzo Martin said of Pinson not scoring on lateral moves. "As he continues to get stronger he can become that. But right now you have to have him downhill, putting pressure on the defense and making plays."
Chaney's role
Arkansas sophomore forward Reggie Chaney started seven consecutive games and averaged 23.0 minutes, then he was replaced in the lineup at Florida by Ethan Henderson and played five minutes off the bench.
Henderson had a career-high 7 points and 3 rebounds in 10 minutes before fouling out.
"We wanted to give Ethan an opportunity, he hadn't started a game yet," Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman said. "I thought he did some really good things with his activity. His second jump is quicker than some of our other guys' first jump.
"But having said that, he had five fouls in 10 minutes."
Musselman deciding who to play at that forward spot could change game to game.
"It could be giving someone an opportunity and turning five minutes into 10 minutes." Musselman said. "It's been a constant, trying to figure out which guy can supply something for us that equates to a win."
Chaney had a career-high 17 points and matched his career high with 11 rebounds against Missouri earlier this season.
"I thought Reggie scored the ball pretty well around the basket," Musselman said. "I thought he rebounded the ball pretty well."
Musselman said another stat which must be taken into account in Chaney's play at Missouri is that Tigers 6-10 center Reed Nikko, who is averaging 3.6 rebounds, had 11 against Arkansas, including seven on the offensive end.
"Sometimes statistics on a piece of paper can be misleading when you go back and watch film," Musselman said. "We were extremely disappointed that we did not box out Nikko more. Seven offensive rebounds is way too many for him, so we've got to do a better job collectively as a group to keep him off the glass."
Sports on 02/22/2020