The date and location for next season’s 44th annual Braggin’ Right basketball game between the Missouri Tigers and Illinois Fighting Illini are officially set, according to Jon Rothstein of KeynoteUSA Sports.
“Sources: Next season’s game between Illinois and Missouri will be Sunday, December 22 at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis,” Rothstein wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Wednesday.
The non-conference rivalry began in St. Louis in 1980 and, other than 2020 (COVID-19 restrictions), has been played there ever since. Illinois has a 27-16 lead in the McBride Homes Braggin’ Rights game. The two schools faced each other several times before the rivalry became a neutral site matchup, as Illinois leads the all-time series 34-20 with the first matchup taking place on December 20, 1932.
Illinois won last season’s matchup 97-73. Just hours before that game, the schools agreed to an extension of the series through 2029. It was also agreed that the city of St. Louis, Missouri, would continue to host the Braggin’ Rights game during that span.
“The Braggin’ Rights Game is a staple on the Mizzou schedule each season and a historic rivalry that matters to our fans,” then-Missouri athletics director Desiree Reed-Francois said in the extension news release. of the series. “We take advantage of our opportunities to host events in St. Louis. That’s why it’s important to extend the series with Illinois at the Enterprise Center so our fans can continue to enjoy one of the most electric atmospheres in all of college basketball.”
“The St. Louis region has produced outstanding Illini student-athletes for many years, and with thousands of alumni living in the Gateway City, we are pleased to extend Braggin’ Rights and continue the tradition of Christmas basketball,” said Director of Athletics from Illinois, Josh. Whitman said in the same statement. “The competitive rivalry we enjoy with Missouri has become one of the biggest annual games on the college basketball calendar, and we are thrilled to partner with our friends at the Enterprise Center and keep this series in St. Louis through 2029.”
The Missouri men’s basketball team is aiming for a significantly better season in 2024-25, as they finished last season with an 8-24 record, including an 0-18 winless streak against SEC opponents. The Tigers were also eliminated in the first round of the SEC Tournament against Georgia.
Illinois, on the other hand, finished with a 29-9 regular season record and went on to be crowned Big Ten Tournament champions. The Fighting Illini’s postseason ended with a loss to eventual national champion UConn in the Elite Eight round of the NCAA Tournament. They landed at No. 6 in the final KeynoteUSA poll.
However, Mizzou’s 2024 recruiting class is ranked well above Illinois’. When the Tigers announced the sites for the 2024-25 SEC games on May 13, they also included that they owned the No. 5 freshman class in the nation, while adding the current No. 12 transfer class under the coach in third-year boss Dennis Gates.
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