The last non-conference matchup is a SWAC team! Only this one should be decent.

Missouri announced their entire schedule on Tuesday August 20th. And if you’ve read this blog in the past, you know SEC previews are coming, but first we wanted to spend a little time looking at the non-conference slate. So here is the announced non-con schedule:

• Nov 4 – Road at Memphis
• Nov 8 – Home vs Howard
• Nov 11 – Home vs Eastern Washington
• Nov 14 – Home vs. Miss. Valley State
• Nov 22 – Home vs Pacific
• Nov 24 – Home vs Arkansas Pine Bluff
• Nov 27 – Home vs Lindenwood
• Dec 3 – Home vs Cal (ACC-SEC Challenge)
• Dec 8 – Home vs kansas
• Dec 14 – LIU
• Dec 17 – Jacksonville State
• Dec 22 – Neutral vs. Illinois
• Dec 30 – Home vs Alabama State

In the past I’ve gone a bit deeper on these previews than I will here. Think of this series more of a quick-cap than a full-on preview. As the season nears, we’ll have deeper previews, and it’s also easier to preview a team when some games have been played.

With Memphis, Howard, Eastern Washington, Mississippi Valley State, Pacific, Arkansas Pine Bluff, Lindenwood, California, kansas, LIU, Jacksonville State and the Fighting Illini all done we’re at the end. The last team in the non-conference slate, the Alabama State Hornets.

In the past, Missouri teams have used this game as a forgettable getaway game. Last year it was Central Arkansas, a few years back it was Chicago State, I remember Kim Anderson’s last team beating Arkansas Pine Bluff 78-25 on December 29th. I don’t think Alabama State will be that bad, but they won’t be that good either.

Alabama State Hornets

Welcome to another episode of Life in the SWAC! As the day turns, Alabama State has scheduled UNLV, LSU, Cincinnati, SMU and Missouri for this upcoming schedule. Their full schedule isn’t updated on their homepage as I’m writing this (which is well before it’s being published), but last year they faced Ole Miss, Iowa, Memphis, LSU, USC, Auburn and South Florida. So I guess there’s room for a few more high majors!

As I’ve said before, you have to give some credit to these teams who schedule this way because it does help them fund their program. Taking checks from high majors and only super rarely pulling off a win. In the history of KenPom, Alabama State has exactly two top 100 wins. In 2005 they beat South Alabama (85th), and in 2015 they beat Virginia Tech (63rd). So roughly once every 10 years. Each of those wins were early in the season, so the 2015-16 season, meaning ASU is due… next year. Take it easy, guys.

Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

Head Coach | Tony Madlock | 3rd Season 21-42

A well-travelled coach isn’t necessarily a bad thing! Tony Madlock is an experienced bench coach with a long history of being an assistant in the SEC. Madlock was a multi-year starter for Memphis (then Memphis State) in the late 80s and early 90s. His senior year he started in the backcourt with Penny Hardaway as those Tigers finished 23-11 and captured a #6 seed in the NCAA Tournament, taking down Arkansas on their way to an Elite 8.

He quickly stepped into coaching, going back to his high school alma mater in 1995, before making the jump to Arkansas State to coach with… did you guess it? Dickey Nutt! That’s right the current Missouri assistant was the head coach at Arkansas State in 1997 when he hired Madlock as an assistant, giving Tony his break into D1 coaching.

In 2006 he left ASU for UTEP under Tony Barbee, who took Madlock with him when Barbee got the job at Auburn. When Barbee was fired at Auburn, Madlock hooked on at Ole Miss under Andy Kennedy (#AKHive) and then went back to Memphis to work with Penny the first few years before taking the head coaching job at South Carolina State and then Alabama State.

Things aren’t easy at Alabama State, but Madlock is in a familiar area, the SEC recruiting footprint, and he’s largely done a solid job of keeping his team competitive within the conference.

What about the team now?

The online roster isn’t up to date, so here’s the investigation.

Last year the leading scorer was Madlock’s son T.J. Madlock, who averaged 15.8 ppg as a junior. It looks like he’ll be back, which has to be a big upset for basically every team on Mizzou’s schedule, retaining their leading scorer is rare!

Second leading scorer, C.J. Hines was also a junior last year, and he is ALSO still enrolled! At least from what I can tell. Two for two! They even have Amarr Knox coming back as a junior. So three of their top four scorers are coming back.

It does look like ASU saw six players enter the transfer portal according to EvanMiya.com, but only one of them found a home on his site with Sean Smith going to Western Illinois. Micah Octave is missing from any rosters that I can find. Tadarius Jacobs ended up at Arkansas-Monticello. D’Ante Bass transferred in from Georgetown, played in two games, averaged 16 ppg and then seems to have disappeared off the planet. You see how hard this is to track some of these rosters?

Fortunately, when it comes to additions, ASU issued a press release touting 8 new additions:

• 6’2 Micah Simpson from Walters State CC
• 6’6 Jalen Keago from Pensacola State
• 6’7 Mario Andrews from Snead State CC
• 6’11 Jordan Marshall from Southern Union State CC
• 6’8 Kevin Alabi from Skyline Prep in Toronto
• 6’9 Jerquarius Stanback from Asheboro (NC) HS
• 6’6 Tyler Mack from MD-Eastern Shore
• 6’0 Shawn Fulcher from Buffalo

That’s 4 from JUCO, two prep schoolers, and two transfers. The ever-present BartTorvik.com projects both Madlock and Hines as double figure scorers, along with Knox at 10.6 ppg. Then Fulcher, the Buffalo transfer, just under double digits. Fulcher averaged 8.4 ppg for the Bulls last year. If all those things happen it’s easy to see how ASU could crack into the top of the SWAC this year.

Missouri is still favored by 18.6 points before the season. Remember, the Hornets once in a decade upset of a top 100 KenPom team has to wait until next season.