For the first time in 25 years, Missouri and Saint Louis are set to share a court again, and the matchup comes with plenty of intrigue on both sides.
The Tigers head into Friday’s game at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis riding high after opening the season with a 61-point win over Cleveland State.
Missouri’s nonconference schedule gets serious quickly from here, and this in-state meeting with the Billikens is next on the list. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m., with the game airing on ESPNU.
Saint Louis arrives at 1-0 as well, and the Billikens have a roster that still carries plenty of weight from last season’s NCAA Tournament run. Josh Schertz’s team beat Georgia in the first round before falling to eventual national champion Michigan, and several important pieces from that group are back.
The biggest question hanging over the game is Robbie Avila. The standout forward had a hearing Wednesday for a preliminary injunction against the NCAA, and he needs that court order to be eligible this season.
Avila was the leading scorer for last year’s SLU team, which won 29 games, captured the Atlantic-10 regular season title and reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament. He averaged 12.8 points and 4.1 assists per game while shooting 41.0% from 3-point range.
Saint Louis coach Josh Schertz said that if the ruling goes in Avila’s favor, he will play against Missouri.
Another name to keep an eye on is Kellen Thames, the son of former Mizzou star Kelly Thames. The fifth-year guard is listed at 6-6 and made a strong first impression in Saint Louis’ season-opening win over Lehigh, going 6-of-6 from the field for 15 points and adding six rebounds. He was especially effective in transition and going downhill, and he should be a major part of the Billikens’ interior pressure.
Saint Louis put up 50 points in the paint against Lehigh, so Missouri is going to get tested inside. Thames is central to that attack, and his background makes the matchup even more notable. His father played 128 games for Missouri from 1993-98 under Norm Stewart, averaged 17.6 points and 8.2 rebounds, and ranks eighth on MU’s all-time scoring list with 1,689 points.
The other player Missouri has to account for is Trey Green. At 6-foot and 165 pounds, he gives Saint Louis a different kind of problem: a smaller guard who can score from multiple spots.
Green took nine shots in 25 minutes against Lehigh, with five attempts from 3-point range and the other four at the rim, according to CBB Analytics. He was also highly productive from deep last season, shooting 44.2% on 208 attempts, or 6.1 per game.
That makes Green a useful early measuring stick for Missouri’s defense. The Tigers will have a size edge against him, but that doesn’t automatically solve the problem. Cleveland State didn’t really challenge Missouri in the paint or from long range, and Green is the kind of guard who can do both.
This one has the feel of a real test early in the season, and the prediction leans slightly toward Missouri: 83, Saint Louis 78. The Tigers have elite freshmen talent, and that could be the difference in a game that should be competitive from start to finish.
In Other News...
Missouris Bowl Outlook Is Taking Shape With Bigger Questions Still Ahead
The bowl picture around the SEC is starting to come into focus, and Missouri is part of the conversation as ESPNs Kyle Bonagura and Mark Schlabach mapped out projected College Football Playoff matchups and postseason pairings for 14 league teams based on the current standings. Eight SEC teams have already locked up bowl eligibility with six wins, while South Carolina and Florida are still in position to punch their tickets with a win in the near future.
For Missouri, the projection is a useful snapshot of where things stand, but it also underscores how much can still change before the postseason field is finalized. The analysts left Arkansas and Vanderbilt out of their bowl projections entirely, a reminder that the SECs lower tier is still sorting itself out and that the final order could shift again before the matchups are set. [Read more 🡒]
Eli Drinkwitz Is Pushing A CFP Change Missouri Fans Will Notice
The first College Football Playoff poll for the 2026 season had Missouri sitting at No. 18, a spot that keeps the Tigers in the national conversation but still leaves plenty of room for debate about how teams are judged. Eli Drinkwitz used the moment to make a familiar argument, backing a move to a 24-team playoff and saying the sport should lean more toward automatic bids for conferences and play-in games instead of leaving so much to committee selection.
For Missouri fans, it is the kind of change that could reshape how a season like this one is viewed, especially for teams hovering on the edge of the bracket picture. There is already a tentative agreement to expand the playoff to 24 teams after 2032, but the formal details are still being worked out, and Drinkwitzs push suggests the discussion is far from finished. [Read more 🡒]
Mizzous Shot At A Statement Win May Depend On Texas Saturday
Missouris injury report stayed steady heading into Saturday, with Malae Fonoti, Josh Atkins and Gavin Hoffman still ruled out. That leaves the Tigers in a familiar spot physically as they prepare for one of the biggest games on their schedule, and the matchup now feels even more intriguing because Texas is carrying a much longer list of concerns into the weekend.
The Longhorns have five starters listed as questionable, with Colin Simmons, Ryan Wingo, Cam Coleman, Kade Phillips and Graceson Littleton all in the mix as game-time decisions. Texas is also already without running back Hollywood Smothers and tight end Nick Townsend, while Trevor Goosby is out for the season, so the availability report could shape just how much of a statement opportunity Missouri really has when the game arrives. [Read more 🡒]