Coach Dennis Gates enters his fourth season at Missouri, looking to build off a successful 2024-25 campaign that featured 22 wins and an NCAA Tournament appearance, albeit a first-round loss.

The journey will start Monday in an unlikely place: Burr Gymnasium in Washington, D.C., as Missouri travels to face Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference power Howard.

"That's against a coach (Kenneth Blakeney) that I highly respect," Gates told the Columbia Tribune. "I also believe you know the character of your team by how they treat opponents on the road, and being able to get that at the very beginning, I think, can help us in a tremendous way."

Missouri prepared for its opener by posting a 100-91 exhibition victory over Kansas State at home on Oct. 24 as junior guard Anthony Robinson II, an SEC all-

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