Missouri releases 2015-16 men’s basketball schedule after SEC announces games

Missouri dodged a home-and-home series against three men’s basketball teams expected to be among the Southeastern Conference’s best — Kentucky, LSU and Vanderbilt — for the 2015-16 regular season.

That’s potentially good news for the Tigers under second-year coach Kim Anderson, who hopes to direct a rebound from last year’s 9-23 debacle.

The bad news, which MU learned when the SEC schedule was released Wednesday night, is that Missouri plays the Wildcats (Jan. 27), LSU (March 1) and Vanderbilt (Feb. 10) on the road.

The Tigers open SEC play Jan. 6 at Georgia, a 6 p.m. tipoff on SEC Network, before returning to Mizzou Arena for back-to-back games against Auburn on Jan. 9 and Arkansas on Jan. 12.

Sixteen of Missouri’s 18 conference games will air on the SEC Network. The Auburn home game, which will air on ESPN2, and the Feb. 27 home game against Texas A&M, which is slated for ESPNU, are the exceptions.

“We once again have an exciting and challenging SEC schedule,” Anderson said in a release from MU athletics. “Our first order of business is to continue to grow and develop in the non-conference portion of the schedule, and then carry that over to an always-tough SEC slate. We are looking forward to getting started next week as school begins on Monday.”

When Anderson was hired, Ben Howland and Mike White also were finalists for the Tigers’ job and both were hired by SEC programs during the offseason, accounting for two of the conference’s four new coaches.

Missouri battles Howland’s Mississippi State squad Jan. 30 at Mizzou Arena and wraps up the regular season March 5 at home against White’s Florida squad. Those are the only two meetings between the programs this season.

The Tigers tangle with Alabama and first-year coach Avery Johnson on Feb. 6 in Tuscaloosa and host Tennessee under first-year coach Rick Barnes on Feb. 13 at Mizzou Arena.

Missouri is grouped with Arkansas, Texas A&M and Mississippi as permanent home-and-away rivals.

The Tigers are at Texas A&M on Jan. 23 and at Arkansas on Feb. 20. MU hosts the Rebels on Feb. 3 and plays in Feb. 23 in Oxford, Miss.

Missouri’s other home-and-home series for the upcoming season are against Georgia, which plays Jan. 20 at Mizzou Arena, and against South Carolina.

The Gamecocks host the Tigers on Jan. 16 and play Feb. 16 at Mizzou Arena.

Five of Missouri’s home conference games are slated for Saturday.

The SEC Tournament is March 9-13 at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.

The Tigers’ nonconference schedule — which includes four CBE Classic games, road games at Xavier and Arizona, a home battle with North Carolina State and the annual Braggin’ Rights Game against Illinois — was released two weeks ago.

2015-16 Missouri men’s basketball schedule

*CBE Classic at Sprint Center

**at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis

This story was originally published August 19, 2015 at 6:23 PM with the headline "Missouri releases 2015-16 men’s basketball schedule after SEC announces games."