COLUMBIA, Mo. — Since the day after Thanksgiving in 1986, when Lynn Hardy scored the first Mizzou basket not worth two points, a litany of little guys with high arcs and the big hearts have been hoisting 3s.
The likes of Jason Sutherland and Mark Atkins and Brian Grawer wore down the nets at the old Hearnes Center, and here in the new building, Thomas Gardner and Marcus Denmon and Kassius Robertson fired 3-balls with video-game flair (or flare?). But in all the Missouri games since Ronald Reagan’s second term, only twice had a Tiger ever made more 3s than Xavier Pinson did Saturday.