To no one’s surprise, Missouri men’s basketball didn’t make an appearance in the preseason AP poll after its 8-24 record (0-18 in the Southeastern Conference) last season.
The Tigers will have a long way to work themselves up to getting a spot back in the top 25, and they’ll have plenty of opportunity to accomplish that in a brutal SEC schedule. They’ll face off against 10 teams that made the list, with the only exception from the conference being No. 1 Kansas.
Even beyond the top 25, Missouri will also have to go up against No. 26 Illinois ahead of conference play, just barely missing the cut. It’ll barely get any breaks in the schedule past December, and that’ll be a challenge for coach Dennis Gates and his roster to overcome.
The SEC making up 36% of the top 25 says a lot about how talented the conference is — enhanced with the additions of No. 19 Texas this year. The Tigers have been selected as the No. 13 team in the conference by SEC media, only ahead of LSU, Oklahoma and Vanderbilt.
With a strong freshman and transfer class, Missouri does have a chance to make a significant jump from a season ago, even if the outlook from the outside isn’t high.
“Our goal is to compete for a conference championship,” Gates said at Media Day. “It’s not going to be easy, but what we’re doing now is building sort of like the infrastructure to build upon what our expectations, what our goals are.”
This is the first step of Missouri getting back to championship contention, but it won’t have an easy path to get there on the 2024-25 calendar.
2024-25 Preseason AP Top 25 Poll
Rank, Team, Points, First-Place Votes in Parentheses, Mizzou Opponents Bolded
- Kansas, 1449 (30)
- Alabama, 1428 (14)
- UConn, 1345 (11)
- Houston, 1343 (4)
- Iowa State, 1177
- Gonzaga, 1157 (1)
- Duke, 1154
- Baylor, 1109
- North Carolina, 1037
- Arizona, 905
- Auburn, 901
- Tennessee, 775
- Texas A&M, 737
- Purdue, 678
- Creighton, 631
- Arkansas, 625
- Indiana, 492
- Marquette, 484
- Texas, 332
- Cincinnati, 271
- Florida, 249
- UCLA, 210
- Kentucky, 191
- Ole Miss, 132
- Rutgers, 102
Other Receiving Votes: Illinois 92, St. John’s 91, Xavier 73, Texas Tech 58, Wake Forest 37, Kansas St 30, Michigan St. 29, Ohio St. 29, Michigan 19, BYU 14, Oregon 12, McNeese St. 11, Miami 11, Boise St. 9, Saint Louis 9, Clemson 9, Providence 9, Mississippi St. 6, VCU 6, Wisconsin 5, Saint Mary’s 5, Louisville 4, UAB 4, Ark Little Rock 3, Grand Canyon 3, Arizona St 2, San Diego St. 2, Princeton 2, High Point 1, Maryland 1.
