We are counting down the days to the start of the college basketball season.
If you’re reading this on the day it was published, we have 47 days to the official start of College Basketball, and 36 days until we can see the team in action against K-State (presuming it’s televised).
The Full Non-Conference Schedule:
- October 23rd — at Kansas State (exhibition)
- October 29th — at UNLV (exhibition)
- November 3rd — vs Cleveland State
- November 6th — vs Saint Louis (in St. Louis)
- November 9th — vs SIU-Edwardsville
- November 15th — vs Marquette (in Chicago)
- November 18th — vs Alcorn State
- November 20th — vs Le Moyne
- November 24th — vs Evansville
- November 27th — vs Arkansas Pine Bluff
- December 1st — vs Pittsburgh (ACC-SEC Challenge)
- December 6th — vs Kansas (in Kansas City)
- December 12th — vs Nebraska (in Kansas City)
- December 18th — at Indiana
- December 20th — vs Illinois (in St. Louis)
- December 22nd — vs Chicago State
After the last few years of a poor lineup of Q4 games in the non-conference schedule, Missouri pulled a 180 and have schedule as well as anyone in the country. On top of playing Illinois and Kansas as previously scheduled, the Tigers are playing neutral court matchups against SLU, Marquette, Nebraska, and a road game at Indiana. There’s no question Dennis Gates stepped it up.
Let’s Meet: the Alcorn State Braves
Mizzou dips its toes back into the SWAC with the addition of Alcorn State. Located in Lorman, Mississippi, Alcorn State was founded in 1871 as the first all-black land grant university in the country. Founded during Reconstruction Era south, it took over three historic buildings of the defunct Oakland College and began educating black men.
The University added football in 1921, and are perhaps most well known for being the alma mater of former NFL Quarterback Steve “Air” McNair, as well as former Green Bay Packers WR Donald Driver.
The basketball side of things started up in 1944, and they joined up with the rest of the SWAC when the league transitioned to Division 1 in 1977. In 1978 they had their best season when they went undefeated in the regular season, but didn’t receiving an invite to the NCAA Tournament because they were still in a transition period. Instead they went to the NIT where they lost in Assembly Hall to Indiana, by just 4 points.
Since the late 70s, Alcorn State has played six times in the NCAA Tournament, and they’ve won three games. But of course none of those have been 1984, and the school hasn’t made a Tournament since 2002. Since then, the program has been up and down. But mostly down. So a few years ago they turned to a new coach.
Head Coach | Jake Morton | 2nd Season 9-23
After Landon Bussie left Alcorn State for the Chicago State job, the Braves turned to Jake Morton, a longtime college assistant who played his college ball at Miami in the late 80s and early 90s. After a few other stops, he landed back at Miami during Frank Haith’s tenure. And then most recently he was on the bench during Leonard Hamilton’s last year.
He’s been on the sidelines coaching since 1999, and this is his first head coaching job. He’s worked for Ray Harper twice, but Haith and Hamilton are the most well-known names. And after one year where the Braves went 9-23, it’s hard to gauge how Morton’s time is going to go.
Like some other SWAC schools, Morton lined up eight high majors for road non-conference games last year, and they went 0-8. They lost by 20 to Maryland, 19 to Oklahoma, and 26 to LSU. Everything else was much worse. They went 1-11 in the non-conference, but then they went a respectable 7-11 during SWAC play. 11 of the 12 teams, however, finished with a record at least that good. The Braves lost to eventual NCAA Tournament team Prairie View A&M in the first round of the SWAC Tournament.
Morton recently lined up former NBA player Monta Ellis to help about as a General Manager.
Series History | Missouri leads 2-0
It’s been a minute since Mizzou has played Alcorn State.
The Tigers won 91-54 in November of 2012, led by 21 points from Phil Pressey. In that game four players hit double figures, Stefan Jankovic dunked on a guy, and after some early offensive struggles (they only led 25-23 late in the first half) the Tigers won by a lot.
There was also an 82-51 win in 1981 but details on that game are more scarce. That roster included Jon Sundvold and Steve Stepanovich, along with leading scorer Rickey Frazier, Marvin “Moon” McCrary, and Prince Bridges. They went 27-4 and finished 1st in the Big 8. So Alcorn State likely never had a shot.
Missouri has played 37 games against the SWAC in its history and they’re 36-1. That one loss was a few years ago to Jackson State. In 1993 they beat Jackson State by four, and last year they beat Alabama State by eight points. Every other game against a SWAC team was by double digits, and 27 of them were by 20 or more. They have 12 wins by 40 and eight wins by 50.
What about the team now?
Similar to a Leonard Hamilton team, Alcorn State was a deep squad last season, when healthy. They had 10 players average more than 10 minutes a game, but only five players saw action in all 32 games.
And only two of those players return, Mike Jones and William Henderson. They combined to appear in 24 games, for a combined 304 minutes and 74 points.
While the online roster isn’t yet available (as of this writing in late August), but tracking has Alcorn State with 13 players, including Henderson and Jones.
They added Stetson starting point guard Calvin Sirmans, as well as Indiana State wing Jayan Walker.
A wildcard is Seton Hall guard Jahseem Felton, who was in the rotation for the Pirates as a freshman and sophomore before tearing his ACL early last season. If he’s ready to go health wise, he should make an immediate impact.
Alcorn should be plucky, for a SWAC team. But Missouri should win this one without too much work.