Well, it appears Mizzou’s non-conference hoops schedule for next year is coming together awfully quickly. Last week, we learned about the Paradise Jam draw. And yesterday, we found out that one of last year’s No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tourney will be coming to Mizzou Arena this December.

Mizzou Men’s Basketball will square off with Big East power Xavier next season at Mizzou Arena on Dec. 18, 2018, as announced by the programs on Thursday. The Tigers are scheduled to travel to Cincinnati, Ohio, in a return trip on Nov. 12, 2019.

The two schools will meet for the eighth and ninth teams in their program histories. Mizzou and Xavier faced each other three times in three seasons from 2014-16, including a home-and-home series in 2014 and 2015 and most recently, an overtime thriller in the opening round of the 2016 Puerto Rico Tip-Off. [...]

Xavier leads the all-time series 5-2, but the Tigers are 1-1 against the Musketeers at Mizzou Arena. Four of the seven meetings in the all-time series have been decided by single digits, including the last two.

Xavier went 29-6 last season, falling to Florida State — which had just beaten Missouri — in the second round of the NCAAs. The Musketeers are dealing with quite a bit of turnover at the moment, though: not only do they have to replace seniors Trevon Bluiett, J.P. Macura, and Kerem Kanter on the court, they also have to replace head coach Chris Mack, who left for Louisville. They replaced him with longtime assistant Travis Steele.

That means we now know about half of Mizzou’s non-conference slate.

In terms of last year’s KenPom ratings, this list includes three top-70 teams: Xavier, Utah (No. 58), and likely Old Dominion (No. 64). It also includes teams like Iowa State, UCF, and Illinois, which all finished just outside the top 100 and should improve this coming year. Not a killer slate, but one that has some challenges. We’ll see who else gets added to it.

Yesterday at Rock M

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• Both Mizzou and Tennessee had opportunities to score runs and seize game one of the most important baseball series of the season. In the end, Alex Samples was the hero. He delivered a two-out single in the bottom of the 12th to score Matt Berler and give the Tigers a 3-2 win. Now Mizzou must win one of the next two games (this evening’s game starts at 6:30 pm CT) to clinch a spot in the SEC Tournament and, in all likelihood, the NCAA Tournament.

• Man, Steeeeeeeeeeeeeeve Moore has had some ups and downs since leaving Mizzou. PowerMizzou caught up with him recently.
• Well, we know where one recently-transferred Tiger has ended up: TJ Warren is now a Murray State Racer.

• Damn.

• I’m not sure I’ve ever seen this: Mizzou Wrestler Grant Leeth, who missed portions of both the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons to injury, has been granted two extra years of eligibility. So he’ll be entering his fourth year on campus as, like, a double-redshirt sophomore. Weird, but whatever — also awesome.

• Mizzou golfer Jessica Yuen is starting her NCAA Regional run today in Stillwater.
• Mizzou Track & Field has qualified 13 athletes — seven men, six women (including, yes, Karissa Schweizer) — for next week’s NCAA preliminaries in Sacramento.