Arizona-Missouri pregame: A matchup of (relative) babies

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Arizona’s three leading scorers might be freshmen, but Missouri is even more reliant on young players this season.

How do we know this? KenPom.com, of course.

Kenpom has an “experience” calculation of the average years of college experience a team’s roster has, factoring in the minutes played by each player and his experience. (It's the second item explained in this post).

Thus Arizona, which plays Lauri Markkanen 32.7 minutes a game while Kobi Simmons (28.3) and Rawle Alkins (29.1) average in the high 20s, is ranked No. 326 in experience out of 351 Division I teams.

Then there’s Missouri, which starts three sophomores and has a leading scorer who is a true freshmen.

The Tigers are 346, the sixth youngest team in America.

“We’re a young group,” Missouri coach Kim Anderson says, noting that he just heard about the stat, “and we have our moments where you can tell we’re young.”

The full ranking of teams is sorted here by the experience calculation.

There’s more optimistic-sounding prose posted to Allonzo Trier’s Twitter page.

Among other things, it says "There is still time for you to put things to where you want them to be. To seize the things you've been reaching out for."

Trier has missed nine games because of an NCAA eligibility issue that appears to be under appeal. He was cleared by the NCAA to begin traveling last week, however, and has been practicing while ineligible.

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Not only are DeAndre Ayton and Alex Barcello playing in the Hoophall West event in Scottsdale this weekend -- Zack Rosenblatt will have coverage of that event posted this weekend -- but Ayton and his Hillcrest Prep team will also play Sunday at 3 p.m. in the Duel in the Desert event at Bella Vista College Prep in Scottsdale.

There will also be games at Bella Vista today featuring California's Prolific Prep and three other teams. The full schedule for that event is attached as a photo. (click on the arrow at the top of the Frankie Hughes photo in order to see it).

Barcello's Corona Del Sol team will play again Saturday at 4:30 against Christ the King at Scottsdale Chaparral High School. The Hoophall West schedule is here.

Here's the school-produced notes from Arizona and Missouri.

Our preview story on Missouri's rebuilding job, and the role Terrence Phillips is playing in it, is attached to this post. The scouting report is also.

Xavier is having a Pac-12 kind of week. After a loss at Boulder, the Musketeers are returning home to face Utah on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. (FOX).

UCLA will host Michigan in the other big game involving Pac-12 teams Saturday (6 p.m., ESPN2). So far, it's been good times for Bryce Alford.