How to Watch the Oklahoma Sooners Battle the Missouri Tigers on the Road

The Sooners have lost five games in a row, and they will battle a confusing-but-strong Missouri squad on Saturday.

Oklahoma guard Nijel Pack prepares to shoot against Alabama. | Carson Field, Sooners On SI

Missouri has been arguably the SEC’s most confusing team in the first few weeks of conference play.

The Tigers opened their league slate with wins against Florida and Kentucky before falling to lowly Ole Miss. They responded with a win against Auburn, a Final Four team from a year ago, before losing back-to-back contests against LSU and Georgia.

At 3-3, Mizzou is squarely in the middle of the pack in the SEC standings — and that’s a much better spot than where Oklahoma sits.

The Sooners have lost five conference games in a row after they opened their SEC schedule with a home win against Ole Miss. Most recently, OU fell 85-76 to South Carolina on Tuesday. The Sooners are 11-8 overall and 1-5 in conference play, putting them in a tie for last place with LSU.

OU has tumbled in the NET rankings amid its skid. And, if nothing else, a win against Missouri on Saturday would at least pause their ongoing slide.

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How to Watch Oklahoma at Missouri

Location: Mizzou Arena (Columbia, MO)
Date: Jan. 24
Time: 1 p.m.
TV: ESPN2
Radio: 107.7 FM The Franchise

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But it won’t be easy — the Tigers are a strong team when they play their best basketball.

What’s most unique about Mizzou is its depth. The Tigers have 11 players averaging more than 13 minutes per game. In five of their first six conference contests, they played 10 or more players.

Missouri’s backcourt is crowded but impressive.

The Tigers’ offense runs through shooting guard Mark Mitchell, who is averaging 17.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game. Fellow guards Jayden Stone, Jacob Crews and Trent Pierce are also averaging double figures.

This means that Oklahoma’s guards will have to be at their best to both neutralize and keep up with Missouri’s backcourt group. For OU, guard Xzayvier Brown has commanded the offense lately, scoring more than 20 points in each of the Sooners’ last three contests. Nijel Pack, though, has struggled lately, shooting 3-of-19 on 3-pointers in the last three games.

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Mizzou’s weakness is its frontcourt.

The Tigers don’t have a forward or a center who is averaging more than 20 minutes per game. Center Shawn Phillips Jr. is their most-played big man, and he is averaging just 7.8 points and 4.6 rebounds per game — for reference, two of Missouri’s guards are averaging more boards than him.

This feels like a game where the Sooners can bully Missouri down low, assuming their big men don’t get into foul trouble. 

Forwards Tae Davis and Derrion Reid both shot 50 percent or better in Tuesday’s loss to South Carolina, and 6-11 center Kirill Elatontsev has shown his versatility lately, making four 3-pointers in the last three games. Center Mohamed Wague has gotten into foul trouble early in several games this year, but when he’s able to play freely, he’s someone that can force opponents to keep the ball near the perimeter.

Tuesday’s tilt against the Gamecocks felt like a must-win — but the Sooners fell short. Because of that, Saturday’s game feels like it has the same stakes.

Even though Missouri is a quality opponent and the game will be played in a hostile environment, OU would fall deeper into a hole that it likely wouldn’t escape with a loss to the Tigers.