Classic title. The Tigers, who did not play a road game until December, began 9-0, facing mostly inferior opponents. However, MU did actually defeat two eventual NCAA tournament squads during this stretch. On November 19, the Tigers overcome a modest five-point deficit in the second half to defeat Davidson, a team that wound up with a 13-seed in March. Freshman Stephen Curry, a future First-Team All-American and NBA Draft pick in 2009, played for the Wildcats and scored 16 points. A few weeks later on November 30, Missouri routed the University of Arkansas 86-64 in a nationally televised game. The Razorbacks—the program that employed Anderson for 17 seasons as an assistant and later hired him as head coach in 2011—turned the ball over 24 times, giving Anderson's frenetic style of play a signature win for the first time in Columbia. Due to one of the more significant snowfalls in mid-Missouri history, only 5,428 fans attended the game. The athletic department allowed the fans to fill the lower bowl, though, to compensate for a storm that forced MU to cancel classes the next day. Missouri's undefeated start ended when it played its first true road game in West Lafayette, Indiana. A Carl Landry-led Purdue team broke away in the second half to win 79-62. Less than two weeks later, Missouri dropped its second game of the season, a 73-70 loss to rival Illinois in the Braggin' Rights series. The loss marked the seventh straight loss in the series for the Tigers. In a back-and-forth game, Illinois held on for the victory after junior guard Stefhon Hannah fumbled the ball on the final possession and failed to get off a potential game-tying three-pointer. The Tigers won their final two games of non-conference play, which included an 83-75 home win over Mississippi State. Ben Hansbrough, who later transferred to Notre Dame and earned Big East Player of the Year honors in 2011, scored eight points in that game for the Bulldogs. Conference play The momentum of MU's surprising 11-2 start faded immediately, as the Tigers began Big 12 play with four straight losses. In Anderson's Big 12 debut, Iowa State overcame a 16-point second-half deficit to win on a last-second tip-in by Wesley Johnson. Keeping with the trend of undiscovered stars, Johnson is yet another Missouri opponent during the 2006-07 season that eventually reached stardom—Johnson transferred to Syracuse and won Big East Player