COLUMBIA, MO. • With tickets scarce and anticipation high, Saturday night’s 37th installment of the Missouri-Illinois Braggin’ Rights Game figures to be a rebirth of one of college basketball’s storied rivalries. Scottrade Center was barely half full for last year’s edition of the annual holiday grudge match — the Fighting Illini won their fourth straight in the series in front of a sleepy crowd of just 12,409 — but new coaches and new players have sparked a revival at both programs.

There’s one certainty when the Tigers (10-2) and Illini (8-5) tip off at 7 p.m. on ESPN2: One player making his Braggin’ Rights debut will polarize both full-throated fan bases every time he touches the ball.

The Mizzou half will cheer freshman center Jeremiah Tilmon. The Illini will boo their lungs out.

“The Illinois crowd’s definitely going to be at his head,” Mizzou junior guard Jordan Barnett wisely predicted.

And everyone knows why. As a senior at East St. Louis High School, Tilmon ended a quiet and mysterious recruiting process when he signed with Illinois in November 2016. In March, both programs underwent head-coaching changes. John Groce was out at Illinois, replaced by Brad Underwood. Cuonzo Martin, an East St. Louis native, followed Kim Anderson at Missouri. Initially, Tilmon doubled down on his commitment to the Illini and planned to play for Underwood — until he changed his mind. In April, the four-star 6-10 post player asked out of his national letter of intent. In May, he signed with Mizzou. Naturally, Illini fans went berserk on social media, alleging that Martin surely tampered with the process.

NCAA rules prohibited Martin from contacting Tilmon while he was still signed to play at Illinois, but that didn’t stop others around Tilmon from encouraging him to consider the new Mizzou coach. “More than anything,” Martin said last week, “and I’m grateful for this fact, growing up in East St. Louis there were enough people around him that knew me to say this would be a good look (for him at Mizzou).”

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Knowing the Tigers would play Illinois every year and likely compete with Underwood for recruits didn’t temper Martin’s approach, he said.

“If he’s signed with them and committed, there’s nothing going on, period,” Martin added Thursday. “Now when he made (himself) available, we moved on from there. Then it’s just doing your job. I think you do it with integrity and leave it at that. I wasn’t really concerned with what was said or how it was said. I had to do my job.”

Underwood met with Tilmon before he chose Missouri and said this week that the player’s decision “doesn’t bother me a bit.”

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“I wish nothing but the best for Jeremiah,” Underwood said. “That’s a young man trying to reach and achieve his dreams and goals. It’s a common thing that happens all the time in basketball today. Kids feel more comfortable in certain situations when change happens.”

“He chose to go in a different direction,” Underwood added. “Winning is really, really hard. If he’s not both feet in committed to helping Illinois win, then he needs to go someplace else. I haven’t lost sleep over it.”

That’s not to say Underwood couldn’t have used a player the coach believes is gifted enough to enter the NBA draft next summer. Underwood compared the freshman to Los Angeles Clippers All-Star center DeAndre Jordan.

“He has elite hands,” Underwood said. “Literally catches everything. In the NBA, you have to do stuff that’s elite to make it at that level, to be a pro in that league. He does that. He’s an elite runner. He’s an elite catcher. He’s going to be an elite shot blocker. … He won’t be (at Missouri) very long. I think he’ll be a guy in the spring that has decisions to make that are pretty serious ones.”

For now, Tilmon is doing elite things by freshman standards. Through 12 games, he’s shooting 64.6 percent. No freshman in team history has shot 60 percent from the field. Steve Stipanovich came closest in 1980 at 59.8 percent. Tilmon comes into Saturday’s game averaging 9.8 points, despite playing less than 19 minutes per game. Only four Mizzou players 6-9 or taller have averaged double-digit points as a freshman: Stipanovich (14.4), Jevon Crudup (12.0), Nathan Buntin (11.8) and Doug Smith (11.3).

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Tilmon came to Mizzou this summer with the reputation as a brawler in the paint, a ferocious but raw inside scoring threat. He quickly surprised older teammates with nimble feet and a palette of slick post moves that usually end with the rim rattling from his dunk. According to the advanced metrics site Hoop-Math.com, 77 percent of Tilmon’s field goal attempts have come at the rim.

“He’s extremely skilled around the rim,” junior forward Kevin Puryear said. “He’s very good on his feet, very light on his toes. He’s very good at running (the floor) and getting buckets in transition. I’d say he’s pretty complete.”

Saturday’s crowd should get to see those skills on display — though only half will enjoy the show. Missouri didn’t make Tilmon available for interviews this week, but he’s known for months what to expect in his Braggin’ Rights debut.

“It’s going to be a lot of fans disagreeing with me being on the team,” he said earlier this summer, “but I’m just going to play the game and not worry about it all. And hopefully get the win.”