Indiana’s nonconference picture is still coming together, but one piece is now close to falling into place. College Hoops Today’s Jon Rothstein reported Wednesday that the Hoosiers and Missouri are set to finalize an agreement for a Dec. 18 meeting in Bloomington.
If it gets locked in, the game would land at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall and give Indiana another notable name on a schedule that already includes reported matchups with Kentucky and Syracuse. It would also be the sixth reported game on the Hoosiers’ nonconference slate.
There would not be a return trip to Columbia, Missouri, according to Rothstein.
Indiana fans are set to get their first live look at next season’s group a week from now, when the Hoosiers host Canadian school Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf in an exhibition on July 15 at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
The Indiana-Missouri series has been around for a long time, even if the teams have not seen each other lately. They have met 18 times overall and are dead even at nine wins apiece. Their last matchup came in the 2004-05 season, and Missouri has taken the last three meetings, including two at Assembly Hall.
Indiana’s most recent win over the Tigers came in the 1999-2000 season, a 73-68 result in Columbia. The Hoosiers have never beaten Missouri in Assembly Hall, with the last home win in the series coming back in 1968, when games were played in Gladstein Fieldhouse.
Missouri is coming off a 20-13 season and a 10-8 record in Southeastern Conference play. The Tigers reached the NCAA tournament as a 10-seed before falling 80-66 to Miami in the opening round.
The roster has been reshaped again, and 247 Sports gave Missouri the 14th-best transfer portal class in the country and the fifth-best in the SEC. Among the additions, forwards Bryson Tiller from Kansas, Kennard Davis Jr. from BYU and Jamier Jones from Providence were each rated as four-star transfer portal recruits.
Dennis Gates enters his fourth season as Missouri’s head coach. The Tigers also lost two major scorers from last season: senior guard and forward Mark Mitchell, who led the team with 18.3 points per game, and graduate student guard Jayden Stone, who was second on the team at 13.5 points per game.
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Along with the international stage, Indiana is bringing special USA-themed uniforms built around red, white and blue, a fitting touch for a team trying to establish an identity quickly. The trip also gives DeVries and a largely rebuilt roster time to start building chemistry, with only one returning player from last season, and the matchups against Canada, Argentina, Brazil and Peru should provide an early test of how far that process has come. [Read more 🡒]
Indiana Just Landed A December Test That Could Matter In March
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For Indiana, the appeal is obvious under Darian DeVries after last season ended without a postseason bid. Games like this can help shape an NCAA Tournament rsum, especially when the opponent is willing to challenge itself the way Missouri has under Dennis Gates, with a nonconference slate built to be demanding from top to bottom. [Read more 🡒]
Indiana Just Lost A Major 4-Star Battle That Really Stings
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Indiana still has a respectable foundation in place with 16 commits and several blue-chip names already in the mix, but the margin for error gets thinner when elite targets start choosing elsewhere. The Hoosiers are also still waiting on a major decision at receiver, and how that unfolds will say plenty about whether this class can still land a headline addition after missing on a linebacker it badly wanted. [Read more 🡒]