Missouri vs Cleveland State
Where | Mizzou Arena; Columbia, MO
Radio | Tiger Radio Network
ESPN win probability | 98.8% chance
G: Anthony Robinson II (JR, 11.6 PPG)
G: Sebastian Mack (JR, 10.7 PPG)
F: Jevon Porter (SR, 7.9 PPG)
F: Mark Mitchell (SR, 18.1 PPG)
C: Shawn Phillips, Jr. (SR, 8.8 PPG)
Notable Sixth Man: Jacob Crews (SR, 12.1 PPG)
F: Dayan Nessah (SO, 15.5 PPG)
F: Preist Ryan (JR, 7.6 PPG)
G: Jaidon Lipscomb (SR, 5.1 PPG)
G: Foster Wonders (SR, 6.3 PPG)
G: Chevalier Emery (JR, 9.9 PPG)
Notable Sixth Man: Holden Pierre-Louis (SO, 3.0 PPG)
Note: these starting lineups are projected.
Get to know the Cleveland State Vikings
Thank you for Dennis Gates, Cleveland State.
From Sam Snelling’s preseason preview:
[Gates] was the eighth coach in program history and just the third to take them to an NCAA Tournament, earning a 15 seed in 2021.
After Gates’ successful three year run, they hired Daniyal Robinson, who continued the momentum Gates had built. The Vikings have won 20 games or more in four straight seasons. So when Robinson left for the North Texas job at the end of last season, they turned to a familiar face to keep things going.
Rob Summers has a storied history alongside Dennis Gates. He joined Gates first staff at Cleveland State before joining him in Missouri last season. Before rejoining Gates, Summers was an associate head coach at Miami of Ohio.
After last season, Summers took the head coaching job with Cleveland State. It is his first D1 head coaching gig.
There are 15 players on the 2025-26 online roster and 0 played minutes at Cleveland State last season. There is one freshman signee, one international signee, and then 13 transfers.
Practically the entire starting lineup for the Vikings this season are transfers.
Tre Beard, who is currently dealing with a knee contusion, hails from Shawnee State, Chevalier “Ice” Emery comes from Western Carolina, Foster Wonders from Green Bay, and Jaidon Lipscomb from Florida International. Additionally, Josiah Harris, who was noted to be dealing with an undisclosed injury, joins the Vikings from Akron.
Two other starters Dayan Nessah and Preist Ryan, both sophomores, also transferred onto Summers squad.
Similar to their last opponent, the Tigers will be facing a team trying to build their identity with a boatload of new talent.
This season, the Vikings have won a total of there games so far. These victories came against Capital University, Radford and Waynesburg. Two of these games were decided by only a few points; however, the team exploded for a triple digit performance against Waynesburg.
The Vikings have played tight competition in all of the games this season except for a loss in Gates’ hometown of Chicago against Northwestern.
Cleveland State will enter Mizzou Arena ready to cause chaos. The Vikings are hunting for a vengeance. In the teams first ever meeting, they will look to show Gates the new identity of the team. Coach Summers will also look to use what he learned from Gates to bring his team to victory.
Due to this desire to beat the Tigers, Cleveland State will look to start fast. The Vikings could thrive under the chaos if they don’t allow Mizzou to settle into the game comfortably. If the Tigers can drive the lane while taking optimal shots outside the arc, they’ll be able to stretch the Cleveland State defense and pull away early.
Mizzou has failed to become a strong rebounding team over the last few years. When teams can find ways to exploit this, it gets quite tricky for the Tigers on the court. Cleveland State is a team that loves to push the paint and work the glass.
In the two most recent games the Vikings won, they had strong rebounding numbers. Harris, one of Cleveland State’s top players recently had 15 rebounds in one single game. However, he’s predicted to miss another game with an undisclosed injury. It’s key to take advantage of the missing big guy to win the game on the glass.
Mizzou loves to take advantage of second point chances and fast break chances. The starters, as well as the bench, will look to explode with the opportunity presented to them. The Vikings average 14.9 turnovers per game, a key mark Mizzou will look to force them to.
The Vikings also average about 16 points a game off of turnovers. Gates has mentioned in a few press conferences that turnovers are something the team wants to put under control. Ample opportunity here.
After checking Annor Boateng off the injury report, we can also mark off Trent Burns. The seven-footer made his debut with the Tigers on Tuesday afternoon. The sophomore played only eleven minutes but dropped seven points, collected three rebounds and contributed with a block.
Word on Trent Pierce is still unknown. Pierce was practicing with the team recently; however, Gates has kept him out of the action all season so far, nor has he provided a practice update. The details of his injury have still not been revealed.
Like the saying ‘one step forward, two steps back’, the Tigers can never catch a break with the injuries. Just as the group were reunited with Burns, devastating news regarding Jayden Stone. The graduate student injured his non-shooting hand in practice and will be out approximately 3-4 weeks.
In a Mizzou Hoops post on Twitter, it notes “He will be reevaluated in three weeks with an approximate timeline to return to the court of four weeks.”
A sixth man of the squad, Stone is the second-highest scorer on the team so far this season.
“After missing last season with an injury, it was great to see him back to being himself and such a strong contributor to our early-season success,” said Gates. “This is just a small bump in the road, though, and we look forward to him getting back on the court before SEC play begins.”
My prediction: Mizzou 91, Cleveland State 71
The Tigers should take care of this game in the end, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be flare ups of a close game. This Vikings squad is full of new recruits and transfers, but still has a load of talent, even if they’re still working how to put it all together in a game scenario. I think Gates will have his team ready to go and take care of business handily.
