Unstoppable MU offense vs. Mississippi’s immovable defense Sunday at 7:30 p.m.?

In my preseason picks I had MU cruising on offense to an easy 3-0 start, before a combination of being in the Virgin Islands and facing their first tough defense from Drake or Mississippi dropped them to 3-1. Obviously tomorrow I will be hoping I was wrong in the preseason.

Vander Blue’s explosion Friday night to hit his first 9 shots, including two treys, en route to a 95-73 win caps an incredible opening three games during which MU scored an average of 17 points per game MORE than predicted for an average 95-60 win on 76 trips per game down the court:

1st 3 games	MU	Opponents	Trips
Predicted	78	60	67
Actual	95	60	76

However, heading into Sunday’s clash, Mississippi’s defense has also been even better than expected, with the top shot-blocking duo in the country leading by far the best defense MU will have faced:

Defense Faced	Rank
Mount St. Mary’s	223rd
Norfolk State	246th
Winthrop	133rd
Mississippi (Sunday)	27th

MUs 99-point performance against Norfolk State did look even more impressive when Norfolk State shut out Drexel for more than six minutes Friday night en route to a huge upset that pits them against TCU in the other semifinal that will determine MUs opponent Monday night at 7:30 CST, should the Warriors win Sunday night.

But when you match up MU’s incredible offensive punch against Mississippi’s defense, you see this will be a real test position-by-position.

Position	MU offense	Mississippi Defense
PG	MU leads nation in assists behind Junior’s 20; D. Wilson’s 1 turnover in 48 minutes	NINE! Steals Friday between Nelson (6) and Aniefiok (3)
SG	DJO 20 ppg, 4 apg; Mayo 23 pts in last 33 minutes on 5 of 8 treys	Ex-MU recruit Nick Williams their one guard with size (6-4, 225) to rebound without fouling
SF	Vander 17 of 25 shooting (68%) but may need J. Jones & Anderson height vs. Miss	6-7 Holloway averaged 7.4 rebounds as soph before sitting out last year
PF	Crowder leads in rebounds (22), steals (8) & 2nd in scoring; J. Wilson may be key	At 6-9, Henry a matchup problem and one of top shot-blockers and rebounders (14 Reb. Friday)
C	Otule 9 ppg, 5 rpg; Gardner 8 of 10 from floor	Cox may start, but 6-8 Buckner 2nd best shot blocker in country behind James of Flo St.

Is MU so confident and on a roll that they can overcome Mississippi’s defense to set up a Monday night championship game against upset winners Norfolk State or TCU, or will Mississippi be able to frustrate MU and grind out the win?
Among players returning to a major conference, the following are the top shot-blockers based on the percentage of opponents’ two-points shots they block:

Rnk	Player	Team	Ht	%Blks
1	Bernard James	Florida St.	6-f-10	13.46
2	Reginald Buckner	Mississippi	6-f-8	13.07
3	Ty Walker	Wake Forest	7-f-0	12.71
4	John Henson	North Carolina	6-f-10	11.56
5	Festus Ezeli	Vanderbilt	6-f-11	10.59
6	Daniel Miller	Georgia Tech	6-f-11	9.78
7	Terrence Jennings	Louisville	6-f-9	9
8	Chris Otule	Marquette	6-f-11	8.87
9	Ralph Sampson	Minnesota	6-f-11	8.57
10	JaMychal Green	Alabama	6-f-8	8.24