Wichita State basketball has agreed to add another SEC team to the 2020-21 schedule
For the first time in nearly 70 years, the Wichita State and Missouri men’s basketball teams will play each other in the 2020-21 season.
The Springfield News-Leader reported Sunday that Missouri head coach Cuonzo Martin said the Tigers would be playing Wichita State this upcoming season. On Monday, sources with knowledge of the situation at WSU said a contract has yet to be signed but confirmed that the two programs have agreed to a “multi-year” series played at Koch Arena and Mizzou Arena.
According to a source with knowledge of the agreement, the series will begin with Missouri traveling to Wichita to play the Shockers at Koch Arena for a non-conference game in the 2020-21 season with the Shockers planning on a return trip to Columbia the following season.
It would be the first appearance by Missouri in Wichita, as the two teams have played just three times and not since the Tigers won a 46-38 game in Columbia on November 17, 1951.
Shockers fans should remember Martin from the Missouri Valley days when he was the head coach at Missouri State from 2008-11. Marshall’s Shocker squads won five of eight battles against Martin’s Bears.
Missouri would be the second SEC team on WSU’s non-conference schedule for the upcoming season, as the Shockers also have a return trip to Oxford to take on Mississippi scheduled for January 2, 2020 as part of the AAC-SEC alliance.
The Tigers are still trying to gain traction under Martin, who has compiled a 50-46 record in three seasons at Missouri. But next season figures to be the strongest Missouri team under Martin, as the Tigers should have almost all of its production returning from a team that finished last season with a 15-16 record.
The Missouri series adds to what is shaping up to be an extremely challenging non-conference slate for WSU in 2020-21, as the Shockers will play six games against power-six conference opponents. On top of the dates with Missouri and Ole Miss, WSU will host Oklahoma State at Koch Arena on December 12 and also play three games in the Bahamas with a Battle 4 Atlantis field that includes Creighton, Duke, Memphis, Ohio State, Texas A&M, Utah and West Virginia.
The known buy-games for WSU so far are Sam Houston State (November 22), North Texas (December 2), Oral Roberts (December 15) and Western Kentucky (December 22).
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