Georgia travels to Columbia, Missouri on Saturday afternoon to take on the Missouri Tigers at 1 ET. Georgia (10-3) takes an 8 game winning streak on the road to begin conference play.

Missouri (8-5) has begun the year in disappointing fashion after making the Round of 32 a year ago. They have lost some tough games against great teams (Kansas and Illinois) but they also have a terrible loss at home to Jackson State. Mizzou is a solid offensive team that will try to get a lot of their points from beyond the 3-point line. They have 3 players (Sean East, Nick Honor, Tamar Bates) who have shot over 29 threes on the year and are shooting over 42% on this season. Georgia will need to be focused on these 3 players and force them into tough mid range shots throughout the game.

Missouri is led by Sean East who has averaged 17 points and 3 assists a game this year. He has shown remarkable improvement from a year ago and has increased his scoring average by 10 points and his shooting percentage by 13%. Georgia will need to be keyed on him because he makes the Missouri offense go. Georgia will likely use a combination of Thomasson and Demary to try to contain East throughout the game.

Missouri is a much better offensive team than defensive and I think that bodes well for Georgia. They are one of the best teams in the country in steal and block percentage so Georgia will need to take care of the ball so they can get shots up. However, teams have shot pretty well against Missouri from 2 point range so look for Georgia to have success driving the ball inside. Missouri like Georgia is not very good on the boards so Georgia will look to try to capitalize on that and win the rebounding matchup. If Georgia takes care of the ball they should be able to score throughout this game. 

For Georgia, this game will be won on the defensive end of the floor. This will be their first tough road environment (FSU was 40% full) of the season and Missouri will come out with a lot of energy. Georgia needs to begin the game focused on the defensive end of the floor because a bad start could quickly snow ball into a blow out loss if things do not go their way.

I would look for Noah Thomasson to have a statement game in this one. He is the veteran on the team and needs to provide Georgia with that calmness that veterans show in tough road environments. I am excited to see how this team looks on the road against a quality team. One of the most encouraging signs for this team recently has been the improvement they have shown shooting the 3 ball. They began the year really struggling but Georgia is now shooting 34.4% from 3 which is top half of the SEC.

This is a winnable road conference game for Georgia and I expect a great effort on the road. This should a great game to watch and I think it will be a very close game to the end.

Projected Starting Lineups