How to Watch: Mizzou Men's Basketball Hosts Tennessee
James Bond fans will recognize how a popular movie scene was sort of like the ongoing Missouri men's basketball season.
In "Diamonds Are Forever," villain Ernst Blofeld's henchmen were known as Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd, who often carried out their duties in extremely cruel and sadistic ways, while amusing themselves while reciting inappropriate, stale quotes.
"If at first you don't succeed, Mr. Kidd," ...
"Try, try again, Mr. Wint."
Of course, they come to a predictable end after posing as stewards on a cruise boat and trying to feed Bond and the heroine a meal that would end with "La Bombe Surprise" for desert (which, of course, included a real bomb). Instead, Mr. Kidd ended up in flames and jumped overboard into the ocean, before Mr. Wint was thrown over the railing with the bomb attached.
Although Mizzou continues to try and notch its first SEC win of the season, so far all of those efforts have, well, blown up.
Tuesday night, No. 5 Tennessee will visit Mizzou Arena, with the Volunteers one game out of first place in the conference standings, and challenging to be a No. 1 seed in the upcoming 2024 NCAA Tournament.
Who: No. 5 Tennessee (19-6, 9-3 SEC) at Missouri (8-17, 0-12)
When: 6 p.m. CT, Tuesday
Where: Mizzou Arena
TV: SEC Network, Tom Hart (play-by-play) and Dane Bradshaw (analyst)
Last time out, Tigers: Mizzou was edged at Ole Miss, 79-76. Leading scorer Sean East II returned after missing two games due to an injury and finished with 25 points and six assists. He's averaging 16.0 points and 4.2 assists per game.
Last time out, Volunteers: Tennessee crushed Vanderbilt 88-53. The last two wins have been by an average of 32 points. Dalton Knecht is the leading scorer with 20.1 points. Jonas Aidoo is averaging 11.7 points to go with a team-leading 7.5 rebounds, while Zakai Zeigler adds 11.0 points a team-best 5.6 assists.
The series: Tennessee is 1-3 over last four outings versus Missouri after winning each of the prior four contests. Since the Tigers joined the SEC the Vols have a 9-6 edge. Dennis Gates is the only SEC coach Rick Barnes has never beat, as Mizzou knocked the Vols out of the SEC Tournament last year, but UT hasn't lost in Columbia, Mo., since Jan. 17, 2018.
