Through 16 games, I have the Tigers at 13-3 and already significantly more successful than last season. First, the non-conference schedule is pretty simple and I think last year was more of an aberration than what to expect from the team moving forward.

So let’s keep it going and see how I feel about matchups with Florida, Arkansas and Texas.

I find it hard to believe the conference wanted this game to start at 9 p.m. local time, that’s going to suck for anyone covering it in person.

No. 21 Florida is coming off a season it went 24-12 overall and 11-7 in conference play. The Gators enter the season at No. 26 in the KenPom rankings.

Florida beat Georgia, Alabama and Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament, then lost to Auburn in the championship game.

The Gators were a 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament and lost 102-100 to No. 10 Colorado in the first round.

Florida beat Missouri 79-67 on Jan. 20 and 83-74 on Feb. 28 in the teams’ two matchups last season.

This will be the lone regular-season matchup between the programs.

Florida will have a lot of production to replace after losing starting point guard Zyon Pullin and big man Tyrese Samuel to graduation and sophomore Riley Kugel to the portal. That’s three of the Gators’ top five scorers and two full-time starters from last year.

But they do return leading scorer Walter Clayton Jr., a senior guard standing at 6-foot, 3-inches and 195 pounds. Last year was Clayton’s first in Gainesville after playing his first two seasons at Iona. He jumped right in and averaged 17.6 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.58 assists per game.

The Gators also return starting senior guard Will Richard (6-4, 206) who averaged 11.4 points and 3.9 rebounds per game.

Junior center Micah Handlogten (7-1, 235) is also back after starting 32-of-33 games he played in and averaging 6.9 rebounds per contest.

To try to replace some of that outgoing production, the Gators brought in three four-star transfers. The top of the list in Rivals’ rankings is Sam Alexis (6-8, 240) a junior forward from Chattanooga. Alexis was the No. 59-ranked portal recruit.

Alexis scored 10.8 points and brought down 9.1 rebounds per game, while blocking 2.1 shots per contest. He shot 55 percent from the field and recorded nine double-doubles.

Next in the rankings was Alijah Martin (6-2, 210) a graduate guard from Florida Atlantic. Martin was the No. 88-ranked portal recruit.

Martin spent all of his first four seasons at Florida Atlantic and averaged 13.1 point and 5.9 rebounds per game last year while earning second-team All-American Conference honors.

Last in the rankings was Rueben Chinyelu (6-10, 255) a sophomore center from Washington State. Guess he didn’t want to play in the Pac-2. He was the No. 206-ranked portal recruit this offseason.

In his first season of college ball, Chinyelu scored 4.7 points, brought down 5.0 rebounds and blocked 1.3 shots per game, while shooting 61.7 percent from the field. He started 12 games and played in 35.

Florida had the No. 64-ranked freshman recruiting class in the country, bringing in four-star guard Isaiah Brown (6-5, 185) and three-star center Olivier Rioux (7-6, 290).

Florida will open the season playing South Florida in Jacksonville at 8:30 p.m. Monday and wont leave the state of Florida until Dec. 14 when it plays Arizona State in Atlanta for Holiday Hoopsgiving.

The Gators’ most challenging non-conference games will be Florida State (Nov. 15), Wake Forest (Nov. 28), Virginia (Dec. 4), the matchup with Arizona State and then North Carolina (Dec. 17).

I think this is a close game, but Florida comes out on top.

Arkansas enters the season following a year it went 16-17 overall and 6-12 in conference play. The Razorbacks start the year at No. 25 in the KenPom rankings.

I guess KenPom really believes in John Calipari’s ability to get the program back to winning after it suffered its first sub-.500 season since 2009-10.

The belief largely comes from a top-tier transfer portal group made up of five, four-star recruits, including three who followed Calipari from Kentucky.

First off was the No. 28 recruit in Rivals’ portal rankings, Jonas Aidoo. Aidoo, a 6-11, 240-pound graduate forward from Tennessee, played his first three seasons with the Volunteers was was first-team All-SEC according to the AP and second-team All-SEC according to the coaches last season. He was also on the SEC All-Defensive team.

He started all 36 Tennessee games and averaged 11.4 points and 7.3 rebounds per game, which was fourth in the SEC in rebounding.

The Razorbacks also brought in Johnell Davis, a 6-4, 210-pound graduate guard from Florida International who ranked No. 39 in Rivals’ portal recruit rankings.

Davis was a top-10 finalist for the Jerry West Award (shooting guard of the year) and was top-20 for the Wooden Award (most outstanding player). He averaged 18.2 points per game and brought down 6.3 rebounds per contest, while shooting 48.3 percent from the field and 41.4 percent from 3. He scored 30 or more points three times.

The come the three who followed Calipari. D.J. Wagner (No. 70), Zvonimir Ivisic (No. 163) and Adou Thiero (No. 216).

Wagner, a 6-4, 195-pound sophomore guard was a five-star recruit Rivals ranked as the No. 6 player in the country coming out of high school. In his lone season at Kentucky, he was an All-SEC Freshman Team player, started 28-of-29 games he played in and recorded 13 double-digit scoring games. He averaged 9.9 points per game and dished out 3.31 assists per contest.

Ivisic, a 7-2, 245-pound sophomore forward from Croatia made only 15 appearances in his freshman season because he was ineligible through the team’s first 16 games.

But when he returned, he averaged 11 minutes a game and scored 5.5 points to go with 3.3 rebounds per contest.

Thiero, a 6-8, 220-pound junior forward, started 19 games for Kentucky last year and played in 25. His 1.08 blocks per game was 12th in the SEC and he had at least three blocks in four games. He scored 7.2 points and brought down 4.96 rebounds per game.

The Razorbacks also brought in five-star freshman guard Boogie Fland, and four-star forwards Billy Richmond and Karter Knox.

Calipari brought a lot of talent to Fayetteville in his first season.

Arkansas was a senior-loaded team for much of last season and beat Missouri 91-84 on Jan. 31 and 88-73 on Feb. 24. After this matchup, they will also face off on Feb. 22 in Fayetteville.

The Razorbacks return a face familiar to Missouri fans in Trevon Brazile after he both declared for the draft and entered the transfer portal.

Arkansas played and crushed No. 1 Kansas in an exhibition last Friday, 85-69, led by Wagner with 24 points and Fland with 22, while Ivisic added 18. The starting five in that game was Fland, Thiero, Knox, Wagner and Ivisic.

The Razorbacks have another exhibition against TCU, both exhibitions have been charity events, and will open the season Wednesday when they host Lipscomb.

Arkansas will play Baylor, Illinois, Miami and Michigan for tough non-conference games.

I’m very impressed with the group Calipari brought in in his first year. I think Arkansas is going to be very good this year and beats Mizzou here.

Oh boy the SEC is even tougher with the additions of No. 19 Texas and Oklahoma.

The Longhorns enter the SEC after a season they went 21-13 overall and 9-9 in Big 12 play. I’ll say, playing in the Big 12 versus the SEC is a big disparity for football, that’s quite a step up. The Big 12 is arguably the toughest basketball conference, though, so that 9-9 record isn’t quite as bad as it looks. Texas went into conference play last season at 12-2 with the two losses coming against UConn and Marquette.

The Longhorns lost to Kansas State in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament, but entered the NCAA Tournament as a seven seed and beat Colorado State 56-44 in the first round before losing to second-seed Tennessee 62-58 in the second round.

Missouri leads the all-time series with Texas 14-12 and is on a three-game winning streak against the Longhorns, but the teams haven’t matched up since Missouri left the Big 12. The Tigers beat the Longhorns three times in 2012 and have won six of the past seven matchups dating to 2008.

This will be the only time the programs match up in the regular season this year.

Graduate forward Kadin Shedrick (6-11, 231) is the highest-returning scorer on the roster after averaging 7.7 points and 3.0 rebounds per game, while starting 11 games and playing in 32.

None of the Longhorn players who started more than 20 games last year is back on roster this season.

But the Longhorns brought in a haul of four-star portal recruits, all ranked in Rivals’ top-90.

Jordan Pope from Oregon State leads the way at No. 23, then Tramon Mark from Arkansas is No. 27 and Jayson Kent from Indiana State was No. 29. Add on Arthur Kaluma from Kansas State at No. 52 and Julian Larry from Indiana State at No. 90 and that’s a pretty incredible transfer class.

Pope, a 6-2, 175-pound junior guard, apparently also wanted out of the Pac-2. He started all 32 games for Oregon State last year and led the team in scoring (17.6 points per game) and assists (3.4 per game) wile shooting 45.1 percent from the field and 37.1 percent from 3. He had 12 20-point games and two 30-point games.

Mark, a 6-5, 200-pound graduate guard spent his first three seasons at Houston before playing at Arkansas last year. Last season, Mark played in 31 games and started 28 while leading the Razorbacks in scoring at 16.2 points per game and brought down 4.3 rebounds per contest.

He brings some deep NCAA Tournament experience to the Longhorns after reaching the Final Four in 2021 and the Sweet 16 in 2023.

Kent, 1 6-8, 215-pound graduate forward, started his career with two seasons at Bradley before spending the past two at Indiana State. Last year, he made the All-MVC second team and All-Defensive Team, while starting in 37-of-38 games he played in. He led the Sycamores with 8.1 rebounds per game and recorded 20 bocks, while scoring 13.5 points per contest. He shot 63.9 percent from the floor and 36.6 percent from 3.

Kaluma, a 6-7, 225-pound senior forward started his career with two years at Creighton before going to Kansas State last year.

He was an All-Big 12 Honorable Mention last year and played in 33 games, while starting 32. He recorded a team-high 7.0 rebounds per game to go with 14.4 points per contest. He recorded five double-doubles and reached double-figures in scoring in 28 games.

Finally, Larry, a 6-3, 185-pound graduate guard, spent all of the past four seasons at Indiana State and made the All-MVC Third Team and MVC All-Defensive Team last season. Larry started 38-of-39 games and led the Sycamores with 4.8 assists and 1.5 steals per game, while scoring 11.0 points per contest. He shot 52.5 percent from the floor and 46.2 percent from 3.

Wow, that's a lot of talent from the portal.

Add in that the Longhorns brought in five-star freshman Tre Johnson, a 6-6, 180-pound guard from Branson, and four-star Nicolas Codie, a 6-8, 200-pound forward, and this Texas team is loaded with talent.

Texas opens the season with a matchup against Ohio State in Las Vegas on Monday, then will play Syracuse, North Carolina State and UConn during the non-conference schedule.

I’m going to say Missouri takes this one in a close game to welcome the Longhorns to the SEC.

I think it would be pretty easy to pick Missouri with any record in these three games. I could see them losing all three or winning all three. But I ended up with a 1-2 record for the Tigers in this stretch.

So that brings them to 14-5 overall and 3-3 in conference in my predictions as February approaches.

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