Hey, guess what?
It’s time to start talking basketball. Well, it’s never NOT been time to talk about basketball, because that time is all the time for me. But we are getting closer to the basketball season, and I’ve already started prepping for the SEC Conference Previews. That means it’s also time to look at the non-conference schedule.
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Unlike years past — when we’ve had to wait throughout the summer to get a non-con schedule — Missouri released their non-conference slate early.
The Full Non-Conference Schedule:
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October 24th — vs. Kansas State (exhibition)
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November 3rd — at Howard Bison | Preview
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November 7th — vs. Southeast Missouri
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November 12th — vs Minnesota
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November 17th — vs Prairie View A&M
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November 20th — vs South Dakota
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November 25th — vs South Carolina State
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November 28th — vs Cleveland State
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December 2nd — at Notre Dame
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December 7th — vs Kansas (in Kansas City, MO)
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December 11th — vs Alabama State
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December 14th — vs Bethune-Cookman
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December 22nd — vs Illinois (in St. Louis, MO)
These previews aren’t here to re-hash the argument over whether Dennis Gates put together a good schedule or not. It’s simply to talk about the opponents, and what can be expected. We’re also not going to use these to preview Kansas State since it’s an exhibition. We’ll do a quick K-State preview before the game, but for now we’re going to focus on the games that matter.
Let’s Meet: the SEMO Redhawks
I’m actually pro-playing more regional games. Even if it’s sending a check to SEMO on a semi-regular basis to come in, provided they do what’s expected and take a loss at Mizzou Arena. It’s never a good thing to play a team like SEMO and lose to them. But if you aren’t familiar with our brethren from the southeastern portion of the state, let’s cover the basics.
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Based in Cape Girardeau, the Redhawks have been playing Division I basketball since 1991 and have done so in the Ohio Valley Conference the entire time. It’s not an illustrious historical record, but their school mascot was the Indians until changing to the Redhawks in 2005, for obvious reasons. Prior to the name change, SEMO had just one NCAA Tournament appearance under their belt, that came in 2000 under Gary Garner. But success was fleeting and Garner was fired 6 seasons later. In 2009, a few coaches later, the school hired Dickey Nutt to be their coach and Nutt did pretty well. He never got them over the hump so the school tried Rick Ray who did about as well as he did at Mississippi State.
Enter Brad Korn.
Head Coach | Brad Korn | 6th Season 74-85
I have a lot of respect for coaches who take hard jobs. This line is what started the section on the last coach, but I’m leaving it in because it applies here. SEMO is a hard job. Even moreso with the new rules in place with the transfer portal and NIL and revenue sharing. But Brad Korn has done a really good job at SEMO despite some ups and downs.
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Korn played at Southern Illinois Carbondale under Bruce Weber and Matt Painter. He coached under Weber at Kansas State and took the job in Cape back in 2020… you know a good time to take a new job!
It took a few years but Korn was patiently building his roster with local kids and overlooked regional recruits. In 2022-23 he had his best team including former Vashon guard Phillip Russell, that team gave Dennis Gates’ first team fits in route to a 96-89 loss at Mizzou Arena. Later that season SEMO won their conference tournament and went to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in school history.
But the portal is unfair to successful low major teams and the next season was a rough one for Korn’s squad as they only won 9 games. But using the same recipe, he was able to spin the roster into a conference champion the very next season. So Korn knows what he’s doing and a smart program with better resources should come knocking soon enough. In the meantime, SEMO has a good smart basketball coach on their sideline.
Series History | Missouri leads 9-0
Missouri has played SEMO 9 times and won all 9. They’ve won by a lot (+37 in 1995-96) and by a little (+1 in 1997-98). Bad memories might come up like a Kim Anderson led Missouri team needing to hold on late against a bad SEMO squad in 2014. The 2022 game had a close final score but the Tigers never dropped below a 95% chance to win.
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There are a lot of reasons why the Redhawks come into the gym ready for a fight, so Mizzou better be ready. But most of the wins have been comfortable.
What about the team now?
Gone are leading scorers Rob Martin (14.8 ppg) and Tedrick Washington (13.9 ppg), but their next four top scorers all return. Which, considering today’s landscape, is pretty good. Washington graduated, and Martin transferred to High Point.
Back is senior forward Brendan Terry, the only double digit scorer returning at 11.2 ppg, he’s a bull of a 6’7 combo forward. B.J. Ward, a 6’0 combo guard, was on the floor a lot and chipped in 8.4 ppg to go with 37.6% shooting from outside. Braxton Stacker began his career at Murray State, but as a St. Louis area native — he played at Cardinal Ritter — and a young player who was offered by Cuonzo Martin’s Mizzou staff, Stacker made his way back closer to home to make an impact. He averaged 8.9 ppg, but the impressive part is he improved his shooting from 29.3% as a sophomore to 44% as a junior. Then there’s Trey Cole, a 6’5 senior who averaged 5.8 points in 48% of the minutes as a part time starter.
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There is a good amount of returning production.
In addition to a few freshman signees, Korn added Landren Blocker as a transfer from Louisiana Tech. Blocker’s brother Layden played at Arkansas as a freshman and transferred to DePaul. The lineage there is solid for Blocker to become a good rotational piece. Also Blaize Sagna transferred after being a solid contributor at Stetson, including 7 starts. Also shooter Luke Almodovar from NAIA St. Francis made nearly half of his three point attempts, and could be a factor.
This is still a game Mizzou should win handily. But if you’re not ready to play from the tip, I would imagine the Redhawks will be ready to go.
