After rolling to six consecutive victories over low- and mid-major teams at home, the Missouri Tigers will face quite a different test in the SEC/ACC Challenge.
The SEC’s Tigers (6-1) will host ACC newbies the California Golden Bears (6-1) on Tuesday in Columbia, Mo.
Missouri coach Dennis Gates, who played at California, expanded his playing rotation through the early part of the season. As a result, a dozen Tigers average double-digit minutes.
Leading scorer Caleb Grill (13.6 points per game) was injured early in Missouri’s latest game, an 81-61 victory over Lindenwood on Wednesday. He was stretchered off the court with a neck injury which proved not to be serious.
Gates said on Monday that Grill is sidelined day-to-day but won’t play against Cal.
Missouri guards Tony Perkins and Marques Warrick combined to score 35 points off the bench against Lindenwood to fill the void left by Grill. Perkins, a second-team all-Big Ten player at Iowa last season, missed two games earlier this season with a leg injury.
“I had some battles early trying to figure out my situation, but I just kept sticking with it, grinding, finding out ways to stay in game shape and get healthy,” Perkins said after scoring 18 points against the Lions. “Today it felt good to run up and down the floor. Feeling more and more like myself every day.”
Guard Tamar Bates (11.9 points per game) and forward Mark Mitchell (11.0 points, 4.9 rebounds) have been the mainstays of Missouri’s revolving lineup.
Cal is off to its best start since the 2016-17 season. Its only loss came at Vanderbilt and its victories include a 71-66 decision at Southern California.
Andrej Stojakovic leads the Golden Bears with an average of 17.7 points per game while adding 5.1 rebounds per contest. The versatile 6-foot-7 sophomore has scored 15 or more points in all seven games this season.
The Golden Bears played without injured regulars Jovan Blacksher Jr. (16.3 ppg ), BJ Omot (10.8) and DJ Campbell (8.8) while defeating Air Force, Sacramento State and Mercyhurst in their past three games.
Freshman guard Jeremiah Wilkinson stepped up with 23, 16 and 25 points in those games, respectively.
“Jeremiah Wilkinson has been such a key member of the team,” California coach Mark Madsen said. “Very few people can stay in front of Jeremiah. He’s had multiple four-point plays.
“He’s just relentless attacking the rim.”
