COLUMBIA - Terrence Phillips stood on a chair in a corner of the University of Missouri's student center Wednesday and gave a yell.
Missouri's sophomore point guard was trying to get his fellow students' attention, to tell them they could win tickets for Missouri's game against No. 20 Arizona at 11 a.m. today at Mizzou Arena if they could answer a trivia question about the university.
Phillips and freshman forward Willie Jackson started with 20 student section tickets, but the two ended up buying more to distribute to students.
"So I don't know how many we bought, but we bought a good amount," Phillips said. "And it's all about getting in there and just seeing students in the student section, because I know when we go on the road and see student sections, it's a hostile environment, and with it being the week of finals for these students I ask for two hours out of their day to come support us."
The Missouri men's basketball team (5-3) has a crowd average of 4,166 in the 15,061-capacity Mizzou Arena. The people in the student section, outside of the cheering group The Antlers, has been scarce. Phillips and Jackson set out to change that.
"It would mean the world," Phillips said when asked about getting more fans at games. "We're here at 5-3, and our defense is unbelievable right now and obviously we're going to improve our offense but it would mean the world to have a crowd come out this Saturday, especially with a top 20 team coming in here. It's their first true road game of the year. We always call this the Zou, or Mizzou Arena and we want it to feel like the zoo in here. We want to make it a hostile place to play in."
Head coach Kim Anderson knows getting packed crowds means putting a better product on the floor. The Tigers have had some mixed results this season after going 19-44 in Anderson's first two seasons as head coach. Missouri pushed No. 10 Xavier into overtime Nov. 17 in an 83-82 loss, but the Tigers were also upset by North Carolina Central at home after the team shot 25 percent on field goals.
A win against Arizona (7-2) could be that signature win Anderson and the Tigers have struggled to achieve.
"Excited about Arizona, obviously a great basketball team one of the great basketball programs in the country," Anderson said Thursday. "Looking forward to them traveling here instead of us traveling there because it took forever to get there. We had our eight-hour layover in the Lubbock, Texas, airport where we practiced in the hangar next door."
The Wildcats beat the Tigers 88-52 in Tucson, Ariz., last season. New to Arizona this season is freshman Lauri Markkanen.
Markkanen is a 7-foot forward from Finland who leads the Wildcats with 17.8 points per game and is shooting 46.3 percent from beyond the 3-point line.
"He's a guy who can play the wing," Anderson said of Markkanen. "He shoots the ball. He's their best 3-point shooter so he's a really, really tough matchup for not only us but everybody that they play. That's going to be a big challenge. That's going to be a big challenge controlling him from a defensive standpoint, then obviously you've got the rebounding and he's a presence on the inside."
Arizona also has 7-foot center Dusan Ristic. Out for the Wildcats is junior point guard Parker Jackson-Cartwright with a high ankle sprain.
Missouri leads the nation in 3-point defense, with opponents shooting 23.7 percent against the Tigers. The 61.5 points per game given up by Missouri is 24th in the nation.
Both will be challenged by Markkanen and Arizona, especially with Missouri freshman forward Reed Nikko still out with a sprained ankle.
"I'm sure we'll try a lot of things, we may try to play bigger, we may try to play smaller," Anderson said. "But I think we have to play this game with a great deal of intensity. Loose balls, we got to get the 50/50 balls. We can't waste a lot of possessions because this is one of the best teams in the country."