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 SIU-Edwardsville Cougars
Founded in 1957, SIU-Edwardsville was an extension of the Southern Illinois-Carbondale campus. The Carbondale campus has since dropped the town name from its official name and just calls itself SIU, but Edwardsville is stuck with the E.
In 1967 they added athletics, and in 2007 the school moved from Division II to Division I.
The basketball team plays at the Vadabalene Center, a multi-purpose athletics building on campus that seats a little more than 4,000.
Since moving to D1, SIUE has made one NCAA Tournament and that was in 2025, under the current coach. But the success has been fleeting. At least up until the 2022-23 season when they won more than 12 games in a season for the first time as a D1 school. Things were pretty bad up until recently.
Head Coach | Brian Barone | 8th Season 105-116
Enter Brian Barone. A Chicago native, Barone is the son of former Texas A&M head coach Tony Barone. After playing in College at Texas A&M and Marquette, the younger Barone went right into coaching, eventually landing at Illinois State under Porter Moser, and then at Green Bay under Brian Wardle. After a short stint at Butler Community College in Kansas, he accepted the associate head coaching job at SIUE under former Cuonzo Martin assistant coach, Jon Harris.
Barone was installed as the head coach, after Harris was fired. Barone took over in 2019 and spent the first few years building. They went 28-61 in his first three seasons, before winning 19 in year 4. It was proof on concept and after a slight step back the following season, Barone has won 22 and 19 games the last two seasons.
Making the NCAA Tournament should solidify Barone as the guy in Edwardsville for as long as he wants.
Series History | Missouri leads 4-0
The last time these two teams played was during the 2023-24 season when Mizzou fans still had hope for a good season! The Tigers were coming off their first loss of the season and methodically beat the Cougars by 18 points. John Tonje even played in that game, but there will be two players from that game who will play in this matchup: Trent Pierce (who played just two minutes) and SIUE senior Jordan Pickett, the younger brother of former Mizzou wing Jevon Pickett. Little Pickett played 11 minutes that night, and has taken on a larger role each season. As has Trent Pierce.
The two teams played the season before and Mizzou won by 25 when D’Moi Hodge scored 30 points.
There’s also a 50-point win in 2008 when 6 Tigers scored in double figures, led by DeMarre Carroll’s 21. And then a 14-point win in 2012, with 20 points from Laurence Bowers and 19 from Phil Pressey.
What about the team now?
If you think the transfer portal has wreaked havoc at the high major level, try following a mid to low major team like SIUE. Last year the Cougars kept their head above water by defending. They really struggled to score the ball, so much so that they only had two players who averaged double digits in Ring Malith (sounds like a fantasy character’s name) and Myles Thompson. Malith played 14 games and averaged 17 points, and Thompson averaged 10.8 points in just 8 games.
Malith has since transferred to Belmont, and Thompson transferred to South Dakota State.
But third leading scorer Tyler King is back! In fact, SIUE returns six players off their roster from last season, but only three averaged more than 10 minutes a game. King, along with Pickett and Darrion Baker are the three rotational players coming back.
Barone also signed three freshmen and a JUCO forward in David Wilson. They’ve also added Northern Illinois transfer Gianni Cobb, who will likely start at point guard, and Jacob Martin, a former Alabama walk-on who could start at center. They also brought in Gestin Liberis from Saint Francis in Pennsylvania, as a 3-year player there he averaged 7.3 points and 5.2 rebounds last year.
So I’m not sure they solved their scoring issues, but I expect them to be plucky again defensively. SIUE also has four St. Louis area players, including two from Vashon High School.