Through the first 10 games, I have the Tigers at 8-2 with the only real opponents they play by this point being Memphis, California and Kansas.

I’ve been going five games at a time through the first two versions of this story, but I’ve been planning on cutting that to three once the conference schedule begins and there’s only three non-conference games left, so I guess we’re going to start shortening it up here instead.

So let’s take a look at games 11-through-13.

Hey look, another opponent coming in lower than No. 200 in the KenPom rankings.

The Tigers did a pretty good job setting themselves up to get a double-digit number in the win column before conference play begins.

Jacksonville State enters the season at No. 221, which credit where it’s due is much higher than the three cupcakes in the last group of games which were all ranked past 300. So we’re getting a bit tougher competition here.

The Gamecocks went 14-18 overall and 6-10 in Conference USA play last season, ending the season on a four-game losing streak and dropping eight of their last 11.

Jacksonville State played West Virginia (70-57 loss) and Wisconsin (75-60 loss) for their two power-conference opponents last season.

The Gamecocks lost their top three scorers from last season in Kyky Tandy, Juwan Perdue and Quincy Clark, but they do return regular starters in senior forward Marcellus Brigham Jr. (6-foot, 7-inches, 210 pounds) and redshirt junior center Mason Nicholson (6-10, 280 pounds).

Brigham Jr. averaged 7.7 points and 4.5 rebounds per game, while Nicholson scored 6.5 points and brought down 5.4 rebounds per game.

The Gamecocks also get guard redshirt senior Jason Pierre Jr. (6-5, 188 pounds) who sat out last season as a redshirt year after playing one year for Wichita State and two years for Southern Mississippi. In his year at Wichita State, Pierre Jr. averaged 10.6 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.2 assists per game.

Jacksonville State was predicted to finish eighth out of 10 teams in CUSA’s preseason coaches poll.

Should be an easy win for Missouri.

Another weird noon start time on a Sunday for a rivalry game. I don’t really understand these scheduling decisions.

Illinois enters the season as the No. 23 team in the KenPom rankings after going 29-9 last season and finishing the year with a loss in Elite Eight.

Illinois won big in last year’s Braggin’ Rights game on the back of Terrance Shannon Jr., who is now on the Minnesota Timberwolves preseason roster.

The Illini also lost almost the rest of last year’s starting five in second-leading scorer Marcus Domask, third-leading scorer Coleman Hawkins and fourth-leading scorer Quincy Guerrier.

Ty Rodgers, last year’s fifth-leading scorer, is the highest-scoring returner on a roster that lost 11 players from last year’s team.

Eighth-year coach Brad Underwood rebuilt the roster with five transfers and four freshmen.

Junior Kylan Boswell (6-2, 200), the No. 74-ranked transfer recruit in Rivals’ class ranking this year, comes in as a four-star point guard coming from Arizona. Boswell scored 9.6 points per game for Arizona last year, starting in 35-of-36 games played.

The Illini also added junior Tre White (6-7, 205 pounds), a four-star small forward ranked No. 198 in our system this year. White scored 12.3 points a game last year for Louisville and brought down 5.9 rebounds per game.

Illinois also brought in Carey Booth, a 6-10 four-star transfer sophomore power forward from Notre Dame, Ben Humrichoun, a 6-9 fifth-year power forward from Evansville and Jake Davis a 6-6 sophomore power forward from Mercer.

In the freshman class, Illinois brought in five-star forward Will Riley from Pennsylvania and four-star forward Morez Johnson from Chicago.

As always, Braggin’ Rights will be a tough matchup for the Tigers, but I do like the roster construction a bit better and both the freshman class and transfer class of incoming help will be better for Missouri.

So I’m going to give this one to Mizzou and say Tiger fans get a Merry Christmas break.

And we’re back to the bottom of the KenPom rankings.

Alabama State comes in ranked No. 282 after going 13-19 overall and 8-10 in Southwest Athletic Conference play.

The Hornets played a good amount of power-conference opponents last season, matching up with Ole Miss, Iowa, LSU, USC and Auburn. Add in that they played Memphis and that’s a pretty tough nonconference schedule.

After a 10-point loss to Ole Miss, they lost the rest of those games by at least 17.

Leading scorer D’Ante Bass, a 6-6, 205-pound junior forward, is back after averaging 16.0 points and 8.0 rebounds per game last season. Senior TJ Madlock, a 6-3, 190-pound guard, is also back after averaging 15.8 points and 4.9 rebounds and 2.25 assists per game.

The Hornets also return senior CJ Hines, a 6-2, 185-pound guard, so they will only have to replace two starters this season.

There’s a reason this is the matchup for the day before New Years Eve when the stadium will most likely be empty and there might be about two other journalists at the game with me. Very easy Tiger win.

Wow, I picked them to go undefeated in this stretch. Which would mean the Tigers are headed into conference play with an 11-2 record and already have more wins than last season’s total.

Head on over to the Tiger Walk to discuss the coming season and so much more.