Sept. 6, 2002
2002-2003 Schedule
COLUMBIA, Mo. - A total of nine teams that advanced to the NCAA Tournament last year, including 2002 Final Four participant Oklahoma, are on the University of Missouri's 2002-03 women's basketball schedule, released today by Head Coach Cindy Stein.
Under the traditional Big 12 Conference scheduling format, Missouri will play each of the North Division teams - including NCAA Tournament participants Colorado, Iowa State and Kansas State - twice in a home-and-home format, and will play the South Division teams once, either home or away. Missouri will host Texas, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M from the South Division, and will play at Baylor, Texas Tech, and Oklahoma. The Longhorns, Lady Bears and Lady Raiders joined the Sooners to represent the Big 12 South in last year's NCAA field.
After a pair of exhibition games (Sunday, Nov. 10, vs. Basketball Travelers, and Friday, Nov. 15, vs. Truman State), the Tigers begin their fifth campaign under Stein's guidance with a trip to Southwest Missouri State on Saturday, Nov. 23. Mizzou beat the Lady Bears, who were coming off a trip to the 2001 Final Four, by a 61-57 count in Columbia last season.
Missouri's home opener is set for Tuesday, Nov. 26, against Bradley, and after a pair of games Thanksgiving weekend at the Islander Classic in Corpus Christi, Texas, the Tigers will host the Unilever Tiger Classic on Friday and Saturday, Dec. 6-7. The field for the tournament, which marks its silver anniversary this season, will pit defending Ohio Valley Conference Tournament Champion Austin Peay against UMKC, while the Tigers will host McNeese State in the other semifinal.
The last two games of December finds Mizzou playing Big 10 members Illinois (in St. Louis' Savvis Center for the traditional Braggin' Rights Game on Saturday, Dec. 21) and at Iowa, which advanced to the second round of last year's NCAA Tournament.
Highlighting the Big 12 schedule are home games with Texas (Saturday, Jan. 11) and a Colorado contest that will be televised live by FOX Sports Net on Sunday, Feb. 2. The Tigers have one other regular-season game that will be shown by FSN, when Missouri plays at Kansas on Saturday, Feb. 15. Three additional games will be televised on the Mizzou Sports Network; those games will be announced at a later date.
"We have a good mix of games in the non-conference season that will allow us to prepare for play in the toughest conference in the country," said Stein, who returns four starters from last year's team that advanced to the Women's NIT to mark Mizzou's third straight post-season appearance.
For ticket information, call 1-800-CAT-PAWS or 884-PAWS in the Columbia area.