Season Preview: Games 6-10 – Mizzou Today: Missouri Tigers football and basketball recruiting

We looked back in the first five versions of this story and I saw the Tigers leading 4-1 against Memphis, Howard, Eastern Washington, Mississippi Valley State And Peaceful.

I had this one written and ready to post a few days before the KenPom rankings came out, but they’ve been added since I had a day. Missouri opens the season ranked 53rd.

Now let’s move on to the next five days of the calendar.

There are some very, very interesting games in this series of five. But first we need to get rid of two cupcakes.

Missouri opened the season last year by beating Arkansas-Pine Bluff 101-79, the Lions went 13-17 for the remainder of the season and 8-10 in Southwestern Athletic Conference play. Pine-Bluff was No. 354 of 364 in KenPom’s initial rankings.

The Lions were 0-4 against Power Conference opponents, adding one loss to Gonzaga and they average a 30-point margin of defeat against their five toughest opponents.

Arkansas-Pine Bluff had four players start 20 or more games last year, but none returned.

Solomon Bozeman who enters his fourth season at the helm of the program will have to replace a total of 144 starters among six deceased players. The four returned players totaled 11 starts.

Bozeman managed to obtain Quentin Bolton Since Caroline Weston, Kleman Vuga Since Monmouth, Christian Moore Since North Texas, Matthew Spears of Division II LeMoyne Owen And Dennis Asoro from the ranks of community colleges.

It’s a fairly rebuilt team that wasn’t very good to begin with. This should be another easy win for the Tigers.

Oh my God, I’m hosting Linden.

A team entering its third season in Division I. I think the goal of this game is to allow Lindenwood to fund its athletic department a little better, while still remaining in the state. Yet somehow a tougher opponent than Pine-Bluff according to KenPom as the Lions start at #345.

The Lions went 11-21 in their first Division I season and 9-22 last year.

Do you really want to know who plays for Lindenwood? I don’t think it’s worth it at the moment.

Another game where if the Tigers don’t win by 30+, there’s a problem.

Now we move on to interesting games. As we all know, California is a traditional SEC/ACC Challenge opponent. Ahh California, the team I most associate with the Atlantic coast.

Ok, I won’t continue to complain about the realignment of conferences that I don’t like (but come on. CALIFORNIA in the ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE is stupid).

Cal went 13-19 overall and 9-11 in the final year of the traditional Pac-12, dropping matchups against Peaceful And State of Montana at the start of a disappointing season.

The Golden Bears surprisingly improved in conference play last season, but still lost an 87-76 game to Stanford in overtime in the first round of the Pac-12 tournament finals.

There isn’t much crossover from last year’s team at Berkley, as no regular starters from last year’s team are back this year. But second year coach Marc Madsen managed to build the team from the transfer portal, starting with a 6-foot-7 sophomore guard Andrej Stojakovicwho made 10 starts for Stanford last year, averaging 7.8 points and 3.4 rebounds per game. The Golden Bears also added a 6-8 junior forward BJ Omot Since North Dakotajunior forward 6-7 Rytis Petraitis Since Aviationjunior forward 6-7 Joshua Ola-Joseph Since Minnesota6-3 senior guard Christian Tucker Since UTSAhigher education center 6-9 Mady Sissoko Since Michigan Statejunior forward 6-10 Lee Dort Since Vanderbilt and 6-2 junior guard DJ Campbell Since Western Carolina.

So a completely revamped roster for the team’s first season in the ACC and opens the season at No. 135 in the KenPom rankings.

It’s somewhat difficult to imagine that a team so completely constructed from the portal will have early season success against other power conference opponents, especially without attracting any of the top 100 recruits from the portal, but this will certainly be the toughest test for the Tigers since the match. 1.

Now the big one. Kansas returns to Mizzou Arena. Why this match takes place on a Sunday at noon, I don’t know. It’s not okay.

The first two games since the Border War returned in 2022 haven’t gone the way Missouri had hoped. Kansas has an average winning margin of 18.5 points, but the Tigers managed to keep it to single digits last year.

After reaching the Sweet 16 last year, Kansas enters the 2024-25 season as the favorite to win the expanded Big 12, as it has just about every year since forever. Last year marked only the fourth time in 21 years that the Jayhawks failed to win the Big 12 in the regular season.

Kansas lost three players to graduation and another to the draft, but Bill himself hit the transfer portal hard and ushered in one of the best portal classes in the country.

Rock Bridge Graduate and Graduate Guard Dajuan Harris Jr. returns for the Jayhawks alongside the Higher Learning Center Hunter Dickinson and senior forward KJ Adams Jr.

The trio averaged 39 points, 17.5 rebounds and 11.75 assists per game.

The other two starters will probably come from the group of AJ Storrtransfer of Wisconsin, Zeke Mayotransfer of South Dakota State, Rylen Griffentransfer of Alabama And David Coittransfer of Northern Illinois. Mayo was a five-star transfer ranked No. 4, Storr was a four-star transfer ranked No. 11, Griffen was a four-star transfer ranked No. 55, and Coit was a four-star ranked No. 121 in our system.

Kansas opens the season ranked 6th in the KenPom rankings.

Whatever happens on the field, expect multiple renditions of “Mr. Brightside,” whether requested by the AP or not. Or maybe it will just be alternate lyrics over and over again.

Well, we’re through the big games, back to a cupcake to end the streak.

Long Island was 7-22 last season with a 6-10 record in Northeast Conference games. The Sharks played three games against Power Conference opponents and lost by 20 to a bad one. UCLA team, 48 to a good Miami team and 22 to Rutgers.

Top scorer Tai Strickland returns as a graduate guard after averaging 14.2 points and 4.0 rebounds per game last season. Second year guard Eric Acker returns after scoring 12.7 points per game for second on the team, while junior guard/forward Tana Kopa is back after finishing third on the team with an average of 12.0 points per game. The Sharks therefore return more of their production than most teams at their level.

Long Island sits at No. 353 as the Tigers face their third team in the bottom 20 of the KenPom rankings in this group of five.

But that doesn’t mean it should be anything other than a big Tigers win.

I said Missouri would be 4-1 in those five games. And I think they’ll go 4-1 in this group again, so an 8-2 start to the season with the Christmas break looming on the horizon.

Head towards the Tiger Walk to discuss this story and much more.