Missouri Tigers men’s basketball head coach Dennis Gates will coach against his alma matter, California, Tuesday, December 3.
Missouri’s matchup with California will take place on the first of two days for the SEC/ACC Men’s Challenge. The Women’s Challenge will take place from Wednesday, December 4, to Thursday, December 5. Both Challenges will include games broadcasted on the ESPN network, including ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SEC Network and ACC Network.
Opponents for both Missouri’s teams — California for Men’s, SMU for Women’s — were announced in June. The dates, times and broadcasting information was revealed Monday.
The Men’s team will tip off with California at 6 p.m. CT on December 3. The game will be broadcasted on the SEC Network.
This will mark just the eighth matchup between Missouri and California and the first since 2008. Missouri currently leads the series 5-2.
Both the Tigers and the California Golden Bears will be looking to improve from their 2023-’24 seasons. Missouri finished 8-24, failing to capture a single conference win for the first time since the 1907-’08 season. California finished the season 9-11, with a 13-9 record in the PAC 12.
Missouri’s women’s team will face off against SMU on Thursday, December 5 at 8 p.m. CT on SEC Network.
Just like the men, Missouri’s women’s team is coming off a rough season, finishing 11-19 overall and just 2-14 in SEC play.
SMU finished 14-16 in the 2023-’24 season, including a 8-10 record in AAC play.
For both the men’s and women’s teams, this will be their first games of the season against Power 4 opponents. Both Missouri’s men’s and women’s teams will begin the season on Friday, November 4 with the men playing at Memphis and the women at Vermont.