With Finals week wrapping up, the Tigers continue on their non-conference schedule.

It’s been a little while, but Mizzou men’s basketball is back in the national picture.

At 8-1 with back-to-back wins over California and Kansas, the Tigers just missed making the AP Poll for the first time since the end of the 2022-23 season. Now, after a historic day on Sunday that saw them topple a giant, Mizzou will host another middling mid-major when Long Island comes to Columbia.

Long Island @ Missouri

When | 12:00 p.m. CT

Where | Mizzou Arena; Columbia, Mo.

TV | SEC Network+ I ESPN+

Radio | Tiger Radio Network // Sirius/XM -119/199

Twitter | @MizzouHoops

ESPNBet Line | Mizzou -X.X, O/U XXX.X

ESPN win probability | 98.2% chance

The Sharks’ only game against a power conference team was a 30-point loss to Ole Miss in the season-opener. Mizzou has a great shot to win its ninth straight game on Saturday morning.

The Starters

Mizzou (8-1)

G: Anthony Robinson II (SO, 11.9 PPG)

G: Tamar Bates (SR, 14.1 PPG)

G: Tony Perkins (SR, 8.0 PPG)

F: Mark Mitchell (JR, 12.8 PPG)

C: Josh Gray (SR, 3.4 PPG)

Notable Sixth Man: Trent Pierce (SO, 6.5 PPG)

Long Island (4-8)

G: Malachi Davis (SR, 17.5 PPG)

G: Terrell Strickland (SR, 9.1 PPG)

G: Brent Davis (SR, 9.2 PPG)

F: Jamal Fuller (SR, 10.7 PPG)

F: Shadrak Lasu (FR, 5.7 PPG)

Notable Sixth Man: Jalen Lee (FR, 7.8 PPG)

Note: These starting lineups are projected.

Get to know Long Island: Sharks in strife

It wasn’t too long ago that the NEC was dominated by the boys from Brooklyn.

LIU (then the LIU Brooklyn Blackbirds) made three straight NCAA Tournaments from 2011-13 led primarily by players from Maryland and Texas. The Sharks gave North Carolina and Michigan State good fights in 2011 and 2012, respectively, before falling in the First Four to James Madison in 2013. Their only other NCAA Tournament appearance since then came in 2018, when they lost to Radford in the First Four.

In 2019, LIU Post, LIU Brooklyn’s Division II branch, moved up to Division I, and the two schools merged as part of the “One LIU” initiative program, becoming the LIU Sharks. Two years later, despite the Sharks finishing third in the NEC, head coach Derek Kellogg was let go, and the program brought in a local legend to replace him: Rod Strickland.

Strickland grew up in the Bronx, ultimately becoming one of the top high school players in the country. He would go onto play at DePaul for three seasons, making the NCAA Tournament in all three. He would eventually get taken by the New York Knicks in the first round of the 1998 NBA Draft. There, he would develop into one of the league’s craftiest playmakers throughout the 1990s, leading the league in assists 1997-98 with the Washington Bullets. His NBA career would span 17 seasons that saw him play for nine teams and finish a season with at least eight assists per game eight times.

After retiring in 2005, he became the director of basketball operations at Memphis. He served in an administrative role at Kentucky under coach John Calipari, which was followed by an assistant coaching gig at USF. In 2018, he became the director of the professional path program with G League Ignite and held that position until getting hired at LIU in June 2022.

Despite Strickland’s accomplished resume, he hasn’t found much success in his short time with the Sharks. They went 3-26 in 2022-23 and 7-22 the following season. LIU was picked to finish fifth out of nine teams in the NEC preseason poll and hasn’t exactly gotten off to a red-hot start. Two of its four victories have been over Division III squads, Pratt Institute and York (NY). Its other two wins were over teams ranked in the 200s in KenPom, Air Force and Charlotte.

There are worse teams in the NEC — Chicago State, for example, is 0-11 in its first season with the conference — but the Sharks have struggled so far, and it’ll be tough to change their fortunes when they visit Mizzou Arena on Saturday.

3 Keys to the Game

Make the freebies

Mizzou has been able to convert free throws better than any team in the country — its 22.8 made free throws per game No. 1 in the sport, and its 31.6 attempts per game is only bested by Winthrop (32.6). An increasingly aggressive offensive mindset, especially from guys like Mark Mitchell and Anthony Robinson II, have yielded positive results.

However, making a high percentage of those free throw attempts have been a slight issue for the Tigers. Their 72.2% clip from the charity stripe ranks in the middle of the pack nationally. Poor efficiency from the free throw line has only cost them in one game, which came in the season-opener against Memphis where they missed nine free throws in an eight-point loss.

Against LIU, getting to the free throw line shouldn’t be much of an issue for MU. The Sharks commit 22 personal fouls per game, a bottom-10 number in the nation, and their opponents shoot about 29 free throws per game, a bottom-five number in the nation.

Deny Davis

The Sharks have a clear top scorer in Malachi Davis, who’s made an immediate impact in his first season in Brooklyn since transferring from Arizona State.

The herky-jerky lefty combo guard is a natural bucket-getter. At Tallahassee State College two seasons ago, he averaged 17 points per game, including a 48-point explosion in an overtime win against Salt Lake in the NJCAA Division I Quarterfinals. This season, he’s quickly established himself as one of the top scorers in the NEC, with his season-high being a 31-point outing in a win over Charlotte on Nov. 23.

Should Mizzou be able to contain him, however, the Sharks will likely have a tough time scoring, although they do have solid ancillary scoring options in Fuller and Strickland.

Spread the minutes

Against Kansas, Mizzou relied on five guys most of the way — Robinson, Bates, Perkins, Mitchell and Gray each played at least 30 minutes. The only other Tiger to play double-digit minutes was Aidan Shaw, who played 11.

If Mizzou is able to race out to an early lead, there’s a good chance that Dennis Gates will go deep into the bench — a kind of game his team could use after the strain of Sunday.

Game Prediction

My prediction: Mizzou 94, Long Island 62

The list of famous basketball people from Brooklyn is quite long, from Red Auerbach to Carmelo Anthony to Marv Albert. However, those legendary spirits probably won’t be much help in mid-Missouri on Saturday.