The Mizzou men’s basketball faces its first power-conference opponent of the season when it hosts Minnesota on Wednesday night. Tipoff at Mizzou Arena is set for 7 p.m. on SEC Network +.
PROMOTIONS
• Wednesday’s game is a White Out with all fans encouraged to wear white to Mizzou Arena.
• Mizzou Arena will be a beer special during the game, starting at just $1.99 for each one.
ABOUT THE TIGERS
• Missouri is a perfect 3-0 through its first three games of the season.
• The Tigers are coming off a 38-point win, 106-68, over VMI on Sunday – their largest of the season.
• Senior Mark Mitchell led MU with his second-straight 20-plus game and first double-double as a Tiger, chipping in 24 points and 10 rebounds.
• Overall, Mitchell leads Mizzou with 20.7 points and ranks second with 7.0 rebounds.
• Five Tigers score are scoring in double figures with Jayden Stone (14.3), Anthony Robinson II (14.3), Shawn Phillips Jr. (11.5) and Sebastian Mack (11.3) following Mitchell’s lead.
• Phillips also leads Mizzou with 8.0 rebounds, while Stone has a team-best 3.3 assists.
ABOUT THE GOLDEN GOPHERS
• Minnesota won its first two games of the season, dominating Gardner Webb and Alcorn State.
• The Gophers have outscored opponents by an average of 91.0 to 55.0 this season.
• Cade Tyson leads the team with 25.5 points – shooting 45.5 percent from 3-point range.
• Jaylen Crocker-Johnson is second with 14.0 points to go with a team-best 15.0 rebounds.
• Isaac Asuma leads the team with 6.0 assists.
SERIES HISTORY
• The schools are playing for the fourth time and just the second time in the last 65 years.
• The teams last met in Minneapolis two years ago. Trailing by 20 points with just over 11 minutes remaining, Mizzou outscored Minnesota, 31-9, to finish the game with a 70-68 victory.
• Minnesota won the first two games of the series during the 1959-60 and 1960-61 seasons.
TIGERS VERSUS BIG TEN
• Missouri has played Big Ten schools 145 times during its history with a 58-87 all-time mark.
• More than a third of the games with the league are versus Braggin’ Rights rival Illinois (55-of-145).
• Overall, Mizzou is 2-2 against the Big Ten under Coach Gates.
FAMILY RIVALRY
• Family bragging rights are on the line Wednesday.
• Whitten Family Head Coach Dennis Gates is set to face his brother, Armon, who is in his first season as assistant coach with the Gophers.
• The brothers have met four times previously – Armon winning three times and Dennis once.
HOT SHOOTING LEADS THE WAY
• The Tigers have not wasted a lot of time finding their shooting rhythm in 2025-26.
• Mizzou is making 57.2 percent of its field goals through three games with a 41.8 percent clip from 3-point range.
• In fact, Mizzou has eclipsed 50 percent shooting in all three of its games in 2025-26 – its longest streak to start a season since 1983-84.
50 PERCENT OR BETTER
• As Mizzou continues to make 50 percent of its field goals, it continues to pile up the wins.
• The 50 percent mark is almost a guaranteed win for the Tigers as MU is now 33-1 under Coach Gates when hitting the mark, including 15-0 since the start of the 2024-25 season.
DOMINATING THE PAINT
• The best way to have a high shooting percentage is to take close shots and that’s exactly where the Tigers have thrived in 2025-26.
• Mizzou is outscoring teams, 152-46, in the paint this season – an average of 50.7 to 15.3.
• On Sunday, Mizzou outscored VMI, 60-2, in the paint. The 60 points scored are the third most by MU under Coach Gates, while the two points are easily the lowest allowed (previous low was 16).
MARK MITCHELL SHINES EARLY
• Mark Mitchell has led the charge inside for Mizzou and has started the season on an elite level.
• Mitchell has averaged a team-best 20.7 points, shooting 69.7 percent from the field.
• He has eclipsed 20 points in the last two games, doing so in back-to-back contests for the second time in his career.
• The senior also added his first double-double as a Tiger on Sunday versus VMI with 10 boards.
• Overall, Mitchell is the first Tiger to average 20.0 points through the season’s first three games since Leo Lyons in 2008-09.
KEEP GETTING BETTER
• Junior Anthony Robinson II is a leader for Mizzou and has continuously improved since day one.
• Through three games this season, Robinson is averaging 14.3 points, 3.3 steals and 2.7 assists.
• Most notable, though, is his performance from beyond the arc, where he is shooting 66.7 percent (6-of-9).
• Shooting has been the biggest improvement from Robinson during his career as he has gone from 20.5 percent as a freshman to 40.0 percent as a sophomore to now 66.7 percent.
