Missouri basketball will play Temple this year to replace schedule void left by Utah

Missouri will play host to Temple as part of its non-conference men’s basketball schedule this season, Tigers coach Cuonzo Martin told reporters on Tuesday.

The Owls replace Utah as one of the marquee games on Missouri’s schedule after the Utes pushed the return game of a home-and-home series back a year because of logistical reasons.

Longtime Owls coach Fran Dunphy is in his last year of coaching after announcing in April that the upcoming season will be his last. Dunphy has coached Temple since 2006 and returns a core of young talent in Trey Lowe and Nate Pierre-Louis, who appeared in the NIT last season.

The Tigers haven’t faced Temple since the first round of the 1993 NCAA Tournament. The No. 7 seeded Owls beat Missouri 75-61 in Salt Lake City as part of the program’s run to the Elite Eight that year. Missouri is 2-1 against Temple all-time.

Aside from Temple, Missouri also plays Iowa State, Central Florida, Oral Roberts, Xavier and Illinois in the annual Braggin’ Rights game. Martin said Missouri could add one more non-conference game, but otherwise the schedule is set.

Notes on Pinson, MU roster

• Freshman point guard Xavier Pinson has been absent from the program for parts of the summer, as posted on his Instagram account. Martin said Pinson is home in Chicago dealing with a personal matter and that it’s “nothing to be alarmed about.” Martin expects Pinson back with the program soon.
  
  
• Junior college transfer K.J. Santos, who hasn’t appeared in a college basketball game in over a year, declined his invitation to play with the Puerto Rican national team, according to Martin. Santos told The Star in May that he had planned to play with the team in a July tournament.
• Senior guard Cullen VanLeer is still rehabbing the knee injury he sustained in the regular-season finale against Arkansas and was lifting weights on Tuesday. Martin has said before that VanLeer could potentially medically retire but that decision hasn’t come up lately.

Martin on AAU proposals

Martin didn’t fully elaborate on the proposed changes to AAU basketball that could prevent college coaches from attending events like the Peach Jam, but said he thinks the changes are trying to improve the game for both parties.

He added that he will always be in favor of summer basketball.

Should college coaches be taken off the road in the summer, Martin thinks the cost of evaluating players will rise.

“It means I have to take more trips to high schools,” he said. “I take two to three trips to a high school, now I have to take seven. And I can go to a summer event and watch 500 kids over three to four days. You’re talking about spending a lot of money just to evaluate talent.”