We are counting down the days to the start of the college basketball season.
If you’re reading this on the day is 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: Cleveland State
Since we previewed Cleveland State last year, there isn’t much to meet, so I’ll do some copy-pasta:
Established in 1964 and opened for classes in 1965, Cleveland State is the same age as the Voting Rights Act signed into law in 1965. The campus currently exists on the former campus of Fenn College, and the basketball team plays its games at the Wolstein Center in downtown Cleveland.
The program at CSU absorbed Fenn College in more ways than one, the Fenn Foxes just became the Cleveland State Vikings, and then joined Division 1 basketball as an independent in 1972, then became a member of the Mid-Continent Conference (now called the Summit League) in 1982. In 1994 the program switched to the Midwestern Collegiate Conference, which is now called the Horizon League.
We’re most familiar with Cleveland State because that’s where Dennis Gates comes from, and he imported a not-so-insignificant portion of his first roster from CSU. Gates is also responsible for one of just three NCAA Tournament appearances in the 54 year history of the program. He’s also responsible for one of the conference tournament championships and two of the six regular season conference championships.
After Gates left for Missouri, the program hired Daniyal Robinson who won 20 games in each of three seasons, before he too left for North Texas. CSU then turned to a familiar face.
Head Coach | Rob Summers | 2nd Season 11-22
Rob Summers is a former Penn State and West Virginia big man who went into coaching once his playing days were over. In 2019 he landed on Dennis Gates’ first staff at Cleveland State, spent a few years at Miami (OH) before joining back up with Gates at Missouri. Then last offseason he was hired away to take over the reigns at Cleveland.
Season one didn’t quite go as planned for Summers as he won just 11 games, the lowest figure since Gates first season. Some of that can be attributed to the Vikings playing their final 6 games without their best player, Dayan Nessah. A skilled combo forward who averaged over 15 points per game.
But Summers faces an uphill battle as more money pours into the upper conferences and places like the Horizon League fight to keep their best players with the portal. But he’s got former Mizzou staffers Dalon King and Tre Gomillion there to help him out.
Series History | Missouri leads 1-0
That’s the gist. Mizzou has played Cleveland State one time and it was last season when the Tigers won by 27.
The Tigers were able to crush the glass and in turn hold off the Vikings for the duration of the game, after opening the game on a 23-0 run.
Since 2000 Cleveland State has won 34 non-conference road games, their best win was in 2011 when they opened the season at Vanderbilt and won by 13 against a team who would end up a 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament. They also beat a Syracuse team who would wind up a 3 seed in the 2009 NCAA Tournament. Both wins came under Gary Waters, who retired in 2017. So road success isn’t unfamiliar to the program, but it is exceedingly rare, and hasn’t reoccurred in 15 years.
What about the team now?
Well there are 14 players on the online roster, and do you want to know how many played for the Vikings last season?
Zero.
So it’s anyone’s guess what kind of team they’ve put together. Here’s a few of who they’ve signed:
- Derek Vorst: a 6’10 senior post from Indiana State who averaged 7.9 points and 3.9 rebounds in 20.3 minutes per game.
- Rayvon Griffith: a 6’7 junior wing from Kent State who averaged 4.0 points and 3.0 rebounds in 13.8 minutes. Griffith started his career at Cincinnati.
- Jordan Lowery: a 6’1 poing guard who spent his freshman season at UT-Arlington, playing 15.6 minutes per game and scoring 4.6 points and 1.2 assists per game.
- Curtis Stinson, Jr: if the name sounds familiar you might remember his father from the mid 2000s Iowa State team, the younger began his career at North Texas and only played about 8.8 minutes per game.
- Obie Bronston: Mizzou saw Bronson last season when he played 25 minutes and scored 17 points on 16 shots for the South Carolina State Bulldogs. The Ohio native averaged 10.3 points and played 21 minutes per game.
They also added former Texas A&M center Brandon White, and former Kent State forward Dre Jones. Plus a handful of freshmen and a few JUCO transfers.
Summers is hoping this is the team to get the program to bounce back. But it should be tough sledding for them to open the season at Missouri.