The State of Missouri Basketball -- The Good (SLU), The Bad (Mo State), The Meh (Mizzou) -- and Everything in Between

We're over a month into the College Basketball Season -- and as you continue seeing clips from our Four Corners Show on the Bean's Blog page, you'll see plenty of talk about my UNC Tar Heels, Ben's Duke Blue Devils, Mitch's Auburn Tigers, and whatever else we cook up each week during our calls. But I wanted to do a pulse check for the State of Missouri's basketball teams since they've been unrepresented thus far on Four Corners -- the Good, the Bad, the Meh, and everything in between.

For the interest of time -- mine researching and yours reading -- we're going to limit this to D1 Basketball teams across the state. When you're from Missouri, it's inherit to have ties to the different schools across MO. Odds are you have a family member or friend that went to one of these schools, and it's fun to keep tabs on who's doing well and has a shot at March Madness.

The Bad

Missouri State (5-5)

We'll kick things off with my alma mater -- even though we're already having a rough week after football coach Ryan Beard left us for Coastal Carolina. And in a time where we should be able to shift focus to hoops -- who have been, for the most part, very competitive for several years -- doing so just disappoints us even more.

Cuonzo Martin was head coach of the Bears back in 2008-2011, and he came back last year after a disappointing run at Mizzou. He had some success in his first go-round in Springfield, nearly leading the Bears to the NCAAT in 2011, but came up short. And although it's just Year 2, we haven't seen much to inspire hope of Mo State's first return to the NCAAT since 1999.

Last season in year one of Cuonzo 2.0 -- the Bears were a despicable 9-23 and 2-18 in the Mo Valley, finishing last. This season, in their first year in Conference USA, we're off to a 4-5 start with losses @ Home to Arkansas St, Xavier by 18, Tulsa by 24, Long Island @ Home by 14, and UT Arlington by 18. They have 1 win against a D1 team -- the other 3 came against D2/D3/NAIA.

While they have some decent players -- notably Keith Palek, a 6'9 forward leading the team in Points (17.4), Rebounds (7.2), and Assists (3.7) and had a game-winning putback in a win over Oral Roberts this week. The makeup of this team was never going to work at the D1 level. Our starting center is 6'4 -- and while he puts up good numbers (Michael Osei-Bonsu, 13.7/7.1), he's a career 45% FT shooter. We have a great prospect forward in Darius Sutton, but Cuonzo inexplicably plays him 19 minutes a game. The starting 5 doesn't have a single player shooting better that 33% from 3. I want to give Cuonzo grace and time to get his players into the program -- but in the NIL era, it's a short leash. And his gets shorter every loss.

UMKC (2-10)

For each of these categories -- there's the Big 3 of more notable MO teams (MSU, SLU, MIZ) and there's 3 less notable ones (UMKC, L-Wood, SEMO) -- aka the 3 teams I don't watch as frequently as the prior 3. UMKC isn't a team I'm seeking out every week in any year, but 2025 especially I am not. Sitting at 2-9 and without a D1 win on the season -- the outlook isn't great for the Roos.

The problems I see with UMKC is predominantly the depth -- their starting 5 carries the load most night's for this team, and the guys that do get run off the bench just aren't providing much spark. They have some solid players -- Jayson Petty (12/4.5/2) is their minutes leader, Jerome Palm (9.4/7.2) holds down the middle, CJ Evans (12.5/2.5/3.5) is their leading scorer. They've shown the ability to hang with good teams, but they have shown no ability to win close games, and looked outclasses many nights. And they have OU Tuesday (lost by 22) and Oklahoma State upcoming -- could get worse before it gets better.

The Meh

SEMO (5-6)

SEMO is probably closer to the Bad than the Good -- but in the interest of evening this list out, they find themselves in the Meh. Mostly because, despite a 5-6 record that isn't sexy, SEMO has played some really good competition (even if they aren't beating that good competition).

3 of SEMO's 5 wins have come against non-D1-opponents, and those 2 D1 wins are by 4 over Chattanooga and 16 over Cal Poly. Their losses have come against quality teams -- SLU, Mizzou, Iowa, Northern Arizona, St. Thomas MN, and Lipscomb. They played Mizzou really tight. Much like any smaller D1 school out there, an issue they've faced is not having much size. The biggest player in the main rotation is 6'7, and they have a group of wings/guards ranging from 6'3-6'5. No one averages more than 5 rebounds a night, and the 3's haven't been falling at a high rate so far.

I do think this is a team with talented scorers at guard/on the wings -- like Braxton Stacker (14 ppg), Luke Almodovar (13.5 ppg), BJ Ward (10 ppg), Marqueas Bell (10 ppg). And while they lost some talent in the portal this offseason -- this is still a team that won the Ohio Valley Last year and won 20+ games. Good Coaching staff, good system -- will see if they can straighten the ship.

Mizzou (10-2)

Now you might be thinking to yourself -- a 10-2 record and only in the Meh category? And if you're thinking that -- you aren't a Mizzou fan -- because any fan that's been watching this team would agree that the Tigers have been far short of Good thus far.

And that's not to say this can't be a good team -- they have all the pieces in my mind to be competitive in the SEC. But their schedule to this point has been extremely soft, and the two times they have played a good team (and that might be generous to Notre Dame) -- they've gotten beat. With one more chance at a Q1 win in the non-con against Illinois next Monday -- we can see what this team's really made of.

Mizzou was a 22 win team last season, and they'll need to replicate their 10-8 SEC record in order to reach the 20-win threshold again in 2025-2026. The catalyst thus far has been Mark Mitchell -- leading scorer at 18.6 ppg, 6 rpg, 3 apg. Has five 20+ point outings despite not being able to shoot the 3-ball worth a lick. Jacob Crews is also really emerging this season, especially as of late. Scored 20 or more in 4 of his last 5 games, 21 made 3's at a 54% clip in that span, picking up the slack in the scoring department. The return of Jayden Stone would alleviate some of that slack as well -- the Detroit Mercy Transfer was off to an excellent start before a hand injury put him on the sidelines.

The biggest disappointment to me when I watch Mizzou is Anthony Robinson. This is a guy Tigers fans expected to take a big jump into the lead guard role this season who has been pretty underwhelming. 11/4/4 (rounding up) isn't bad, and maybe my expectations were too lofty, but I thought this could be a go-to scoring option for Mizzou, and he hasn't been that at all. Sebastian Mack from UCLA and Jevon Porter from LMU are 2 transfers that haven't fully found their footing, while I'm waiting to see more from the big-man rotation of Shawn Phillips and Luke Northweather.

The Good

Lindenwood (6-4)

Don't look now, but the Lindenwood Lions of Saint Charles Missouri are in 1st place in the Ohio Valley Conference. Now they might be the only team besides Eastern Illinois who has played a conference game when the Lions beat them a couple weeks ago -- but that's just semantics.

Lindenwood hasn't been around D1 basketball as long as the other schools from Missouri, but they've improved over the last 3 years, and figure to be a legit Top 4-6 team in the OVC this season. They're off to a strong 6-4 start -- losses coming to 3 very good teams in Texas Tech, Indiana, and SLU, and one trip-up against Alabama A&M. They've beaten UMKC already, and will play Mo State next week in a game they could push the Bears.

The Lions have had a balanced attack with 5 guys scoring 10+ a game, led by New Madrid native Jadis Jones who's been terrific -- 16 ppg, 8.2 rpg, and 3 apg from the 6'5 sophomore. Anias Futrell (13 ppg) and Dontrez Williams (13 ppg) are two Missouri-natives that have been strong as well. 6'10 Center Milos Nenadic has given them a strong post presence (11.5/7), as has Robert Lewis. Clayton Jackson can play (10 ppg), Mekhi Cooper can score, just needs to be more consistent.

Lindenwood has plenty of scorers, and if the guys around Jones can knock down 3's at a better rate (32% as a team -- Futrell and Williams are both 37%+ though) -- the Lions could make a push in a gettable OVC. I'm not 100% sure if they're the better team than SEMO, but we're going to find out on 1/15.

Saint Louis U (10-1)

And finally, we close things out with a team I've already written at length about (and will link that blog below here if you missed it) earlier in the year -- the SLU Billikens. It feels like it's been a few years since I could say confidently I think the Bills are the best team in Missouri -- and while Mizzou fans still may not agree -- I'm taking this team over anyone from MO.

The Billikens haven't exactly played a gauntlet of a non-con schedule -- the 3 big Missouri Schools all follow suit in that sense -- but they've had the most success with their non-con schedule. Their lone loss came on a buzzer-beater in a Holiday tournament to Stanford, but aside from that slip, they've been pretty dominant. Beat a very good Santa Clara team on the road in a clutch 1-point win, drubbed LMU by 20+ on the road, beat Grand Canyon and San Francisco handily at home. They’ve got what should be 2 more easy ones at home to close out the non-con before A-10 play.

And for SLU, after a year in Schertz's debut season relying so heavily on Robbie Avila and Isaiah Swope, it's been all about BALANCE and PACE. They have 7 guys averaging between 8.6-12.6 points per game and 4 averaging 12+, they're playing at a blistering pace up and down the floor, and they're limiting those turnovers as of late that were hurting them in the early part of the season.

Dion Brown has been one of their strongest contributors -- 12.6 ppg, leading rebounder at 7.1, over 65% from the field. Robbie Avila's still doing his thing, just not at the huge averages we saw last year -- 12.1/4.6/3.4 on 44% 3-pt shooting. Amari McCottry is up-and-down scoring-wise (if the FT's aren't falling), but is a consistent rebounder and playmaker for this team. Trey Green has had spark games where he's shot the lights out and carried the team. Quentin Jones is really coming along, Ishan Sharma is dangerous from deep, and Kellen Thames is the ultimate know-your-role/glue-guy.

It would've been huge for SLU's chances of an at-large bid if they could've gotten a P4 win over Stanford and gone through the non-con perfect -- but they were always going to need to have a very strong showing in the A-10 to have a shot at the NCAAT. As it sits, they very likely will need to win the A-10 Tournament to make it to March Madness -- but the conference is very strong this year, so you never know. But if they can continue limiting turnovers, playing with pace, and keeping a scoring balance -- I like their chances as much as anyone.

Give one of my College Basketball Blogs below a read -- a full SLU breakdown, "Faces in New Places" covering the top transfers and Freshman in College Hoops, and the "All-Name Team" of the best names in the sport.