COLUMBIA, Mo. — Almost half of the 15,061 seats inside Mizzou Arena went untouched Saturday, reflecting a fan base still skeptical of their team’s multiyear rebuild.
“It’s like I said,” Missouri coach Kim Anderson said, referring to the Tigers fans. “It’s the Show-Me State.”
So the fact that Arizona was playing its first true road game of the season in a 79-60 win over Missouri on Saturday was irrelevant, really. Of the 7,532 fans in the building, about 1,000 of them were wearing UA red or blue colors, and the porous Missouri student “Zou” section wasn’t quite the Zona Zoo, or any sort of zoo at all.
But a challenge it was, anyway. The Wildcats, as we know well by now, are pretty good at creating adversity all by themselves.
Down as usual to just seven scholarship players and having to play at 10 a.m. on their body clocks, the Wildcats flirted with serious foul trouble, especially to leading scorer Lauri Markkanen.
They also didn’t even have the support of the presently ineligible Allonzo Trier and their three injured players, all of whom remained in Tucson to better get through fall semester finals.
So even though UA took quick leads of 13-3 and 25-8, the Wildcats started seeing trouble midway through the first half. Markkanen picked up two fouls early then fouled out with just 21 minutes played, scoring in single digits (eight points) for the first time of his college career. Three other guys had four fouls each, even reserve forward Keanu Pinder, who joined Rawle Alkins in collecting a team-high nine rebounds.
The Wildcats led by only five at halftime. They led by only four with 16:15 left in the game, and by seven just after Markkanen picked up his third foul two minutes later.
The momentum wasn’t turning in their favor, but the Wildcats didn’t appear to care. The team’s three designated interviewees — Alkins, Kobi Simmons and Markkanen — all said they remained confident.
“We just trust each other so much we knew we were gonna get the job done,” Markkanen said.
Mostly, the Wildcats took care of things from the perimeter, making a season-high 13 3-pointers on 24 attempts. Alkins and senior guard Kadeem Allen had four each, while Simmons made three and even Markkanen popped in a couple before his day ended early, on a foul-out with 2:53 left.
All that blew a hole through a Tigers defense that entered the game holding its mostly midmajor nonconference opponents to just 23.7 percent.
“They really mixed their defenses — 1-3-1 zone, 3-2 zone, man to man, press dropping to zone,” Miller said. “I think the thing they wanted us to do is dare us to take some 3s and test us. We passed the test.”
Anderson’s strategy was understandable. The Wildcats entered Saturday’s game shooting 36.6 percent from 3-point range, having shot 27 percent or less in four different games. Last Saturday at Gonzaga, they were just 1 for 8.
So why not dare them?
“I don’t think they’ve shot that well all year,” Anderson said. “We did OK early but they figured it out. We tried to junk it up a lot. We played three, four, five different defenses … some of it was good, but they shot the ball so well.”
So, different defenses, foul trouble, early tip time, short bench … whatever.
UA kept going.
“It was just staying very confident and sticking to what we do, no matter who we have or the circumstance,” Simmons said. “That’s what we did.”
Arizona wound up letting its lead shrink to no fewer than four points, 45-41 with 16:15 left, later using a 21-0 run to put the game away and negate all that foul trouble.
It’s possible that Missouri, the fifth-youngest team in Division I, didn’t realize what was coming.
“We’ve got to understand that once you catch up, the other team keeps playing,” Anderson said. “They don’t just take time off. You can’t get (the deficit) to five and take a deep breath and say ‘Oh yeah, we’re back now. We can cruise for five or 10 minutes and then we’re gonna put the hammer on them.’
“You can’t do that against Arizona.”
Anderson knew that much first hand. UA beat Missouri 72-53 in the 2014 Maui Invitational during Anderson’s first season, then clobbered the Tigers 88-52 last season at McKale Center.
That puts UA’s average victory margin over Anderson’s Tigers in those three games at 24.7 points.
It’s easy to see why, to Miller, Saturday’s game was likely the most satisfying of the three.
Trier, the UA’s top returning scorer, is out with his NCAA eligibility issue. Point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright is out with a high ankle sprain, and two other guys have long since suffered season-ending ACL tears (Ray Smith, Talbott Denny).
Yet UA won easily, improving to 8-2 and ensuring their streak of 83 straight appearances in The Associated Press Top 25 poll will turn to 84 on Monday.
After the game, Miller tried to explain it all to an assembled group of media that was predominantly covering the Tigers, alluding to the possibility of adding Trier to the floor soon.
“We’re going through a lot right now,” Miller said. “Arguably our best or second-best player hasn’t played and our starting point guard is out. I think it’s been well-documented we have a couple other guys with season-ending injuries.
“In short time, I’m hopeful we can get some guys back. But in the meantime this was a meaningful game, our first true road game of the year. I’m proud of our guys’ effort and approach because it wasn’t a smooth from start to finish game for us.”
