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Mizzou men's basketball schedule preview: Games 9-10

Kyle McAreavyby: Kyle McAreavy6 hours agoKyle_mcareavy
NCAA Basketball: NCAA Tournament First Round-Drake at Missouri
Mar 20, 2025; Wichita, KS, USA; Missouri Tigers guard T.O. Barrett (5) reacts in the second half of a first round men’s NCAA Tournament game against the Drake Bulldogs at Intrust Bank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Nick Tre. Smith-Imagn Images

Football is on a bye, so let’s try to run through a good bit of the Mizzou men’s basketball schedule during the break. First up, we’ve hit two of the three fun non-conference matchups.

Through eight games, I have the Tigers undefeated.

Here is a look at Notre Dame for Game 9 and Kansas for Game 10.

Game 9: At Notre Dame on Dec. 2 for SEC/ACC Challenge. Tipoff at 8 p.m.

For the first time in more than a decade, the Tigers are set to take on the Fighting Irish. The programs’ last matchup was in November, 2012, when Mizzou walked away with an 87-58 win. There were yearly matchups between the teams from 1990-95, helping build a nine-game series that Mizzou leads 7-2 all time.

Notre Dame is coming off a 15-18 season with an 8-12 record in ACC play. The Irish won their first game in the ACC Tournament, beating Pitt, but got crushed by North Carolina in the second round to end the season.

In last year’s SEC/ACC Challenge, the Irish lost 69-48 to Georgia in Athens.

Notre Dame averaged 72.6 points per game and allowed 72.5. The Irish shot 45.1 percent from the field, 35.5 percent from 3 and 74 percent from the free-throw line. Coach Micah Shrewsberry is going into his third season.

Returning from last year’s roster are:

  • Leading scorer Markus Burton (a 6-foot-0, 190-pound junior guard). While starting 25-of-26 games he played in last year, Burton averaged 21.3 points and 3.6 rebounds per game. He was the ACC’s leading scorer per game. He also led the Irish with 79 total assists for an average of 3.04 per game, and led the team with 44 steals, more than double anyone else on roster.
  • Third-leading scorer Braeden Shrewsberry (a 6-4, 205-pound junior guard and yes, coach’s kid). The younger Shrewsberry started all 26 games he played in and averaged 14.0 points and 3.0 rebounds per game.
  • Fifth-leading scorer Kebba Njie (a 6-10, 255-pound senior forward). Njie started 30-of-31 games last season and averaged 6.1 points and a team-high 5.9 rebounds per game. He led the team with 18 blocks.
  • Seventh-leading scorer Sir Mohammed (a 6-6, 215-pound sophomore guard). Mohammed made eight starts and appeared in 23 games, scoring 3.1 points and bringing down 1.9 rebounds per game. He was not a threat from the field, shooting 382 percent overall, 17.2 percent from 3 and 40 percent from the free-throw line.
  • Cole Certa (a 6-5, 205-pound sophomore guard). Certa appeared in 18 games off the bench and averaged 8.0 minutes per game.
  • Garrett Sundra (a 6-11, 230-pound sophomore forward). Sundra appeared in 21 games off the bench, playing 9.3 minutes per game. He averaged 2.3 points and 1.5 rebounds per game.
  • Logan Imes (a 6-4, 205-pound junior guard) appeared in 26 games and started two, averaging 9.2 minutes per game. He averaged 1.9 points and 1.0 rebounds per game.

Gone from last year’s roster are:

But those losses have been replaced by two transfers and four freshmen.

  • Matthew MacLellan, a 6-9, 240-pound graduate forward. MacLellan joins Notre Dame after playing parts of five seasons at Madonna. Last season, he averaged 14.5 points per game and shot 57.3 percent from the floor. He also shot 32.1 percent from 3, brought down 4.5 rebounds per game and dished out 2.8 assists per contest.
  • Carson Towt, a 6-8, 250-pound graduate forward. Towt joins the Irish after four seasons at Northern Arizona where he averaged 9.7 points and 8.8 boards across his career. He was second-team All-Big Sky last year and was a unanimous Big Sky All-Defensive Team member. His 12.4 rebounds per game last season led the country.
  • Four-star small forward Jalen Haralson (6-7, 220), the No. 20 player in the class of 2025. Haralson was the No. 6 small forward in the class.
  • Four-star small forward Ryder Frost (6-7, 215), the No. 79 overall player in the class of 2025. Frost was the No. 19 small forward in the class.
  • Four-star power forward Brady Koehler (6-10, 205), the No. 78 overall player in the class of 2025. Koehler was the No. 15 power forward in the class.
  • Three-star center Tommy Ahneman (6-10, 250), the No. 160 player in the class of 2025. Ahneman was the No. 19 center in the class.

That’s a pretty impressive group of additions in the front court. And paired with a couple of key pieces in the back court, the Irish should be have an interesting mix of talent.

But Notre Dame wasn’t able to put much together in a generally weak season of ACC basketball last year and struggled to handle other power-conference teams in non-conference play.

The loss of Davis is a major one, so the Irish will likely lean on Haralson and Frost to try to make an impact immediately.

Notre Dame will likely be coming in off a rough stretch at the Players Era Men’s Championship and a non-conference game against Ohio State. Last year, the Irish went 0-3 in the Players Era Festival, then immediately lost to Georgia.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this year looks similar for Notre Dame.

Give another win to the Tigers.

Game 10: The Border War at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City. Dec. 7

Here’s the biggest matchup of the non-conference schedule and one of, if not the, biggest of the season.

The Border War heads to Kansas City as the Tigers look to win two consecutive games in the series for the first time since winning in March in 2005 and January of 2006.

Kansas is coming off a disappointing year at 21-13 overall and 11-9 in Big 12 play. A second-round loss in the Big 12 Tournament led to a No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament and a first-round loss to No. 10 Arkansas.

Kansas scored 76.1 points per game and allowed 69.6, but mightily struggled away from home, going just 7-10 away from Allen Fieldhouse.

It was the worst season under Bill Self, but going into 2025-26, he’ll have an almost entirely new team.

Kansas has just five returning players and three didn’t do much last year:

  • Sophomore forward Flory Bidunga (6-10, 235) was the first big off the bench last season and averaged 5.9 points and 5.4 rebounds per game. He also had 54 blocks.
  • Redshirt sophomore guard Elmarko Jackson (6-3, 195) took a medical redshirt last season and missed the full year.
  • Sophomore guard Will Thengvall (6-4, 190) played in three games for a total of 6 minutes.
  • Redshirt senior forward Justin Cross (6-8, 200) played four games last season for a total of 9 minutes.
  • Redshirt sophomore guard Jamari McDowell (6-5, 200) played in 31 games as a freshman in 2023-24, but took a redshirt for the 2024-25 season.

So that means the additions are going to be the keys for Kansas this year since only Bidunga is expected to be a serious part of the rotation.

Kansas made some good additions in the portal, but ended with just the 63rd-ranked class because of what it lost. It added:

  • Four-star shooting guard Melvin Council. The 6-4, 180-pound senior joined Kansas from St. Bonaventure, where he spent one season after starting his career with two years at Monroe College and another at Wagner. Last season, Council averaged 14.6 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 2.1 steals per game.
  • Four-star small forward Tre White. White, who stands at 6-7 and 215 pounds, is at his fourth school in four years after playing at USC (2022-23), Louisville (2023-24) and Illinois (2024-25). Last season, he started 31-of-32 games he played in and averaged 10.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game. White shot 50.7 percent from the field. He scored 13 points and brought down eight rebounds in the Tigers’ rivalry on the other side of the state last season.
  • Four-star point guard Jayden Dawson. Dawson, who stands at 6-5 and 205 pounds, joins Kansas after three seasons at Loyola-Chicago. He started 32 games last year and had a team-leading 13.9 points per game while shooting 41 percent from the field and 36.3 percent from 3.
  • Graduate Nginyu Ngala. Ngala, a 5-10, 175-pound guard joins Kansas from Canada, where he spent three years at Dalhousie University and one at Laurentian University.

It lost:

Kansas also lost guard Zeke Mayo, forward Hunter Dickinson, forward KJ Adams, guard Dajuan Harris all to eligibility.

But Kansas turned to the high school ranks for six players and did well in recruiting, notching the No. 25 class in the country. Kansas pulled in:

  • Five-star-plus combo guard Darryn Peterson. Peterson was the No. 2 overall player in the class of 2025 and the No. 1 shooting guard in the country. The 6-6, 205-pound 18-year old is an expected one-and-done guy who will be a key player this season.
  • Four-star power forward Bryson Tiller. The No. 76 overall recruit and No. 11 power forward in the class.
  • Three-star shooting guard Kohl Rosario. The No. 129 overall player and the No. 35 shooting guard in the class of 2025.
  • Three-star power forward Samis Calderon. The No. 153 player in the class of 2025 and the No. 33 power forward.
  • Three-star shooting guard Corbin Allen from Kansas City. The No. 317 overall player and No. 81 shooting guard in the class.
  • Center Paul Mbiya from the Republic of Congo. His 7-0 frame and 7-8 wingspan makes him a dangerous player in the post.

That’s a huge roster change, especially for a team that felt like it was run by Dickinson, Adams and Harris for a decade. But the additions bring in a lot of new talent.

The era of Self might be nearing an end, but it’s not completely over yet if he’s able to pull in this many quality players.

I hate to say it, but the Tigers haven’t won a game away from Columbia in this series since 2003 and I think this is where Mizzou drops its first game of the season.

That’s 9-1 for Mizzou through 10 games.

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