Utes will play Missouri Valley's best next year.

Earlier this month, Utah director of basketball operations Jon Dykema said he knew who the Utes would be playing in the inaugural Mountain West Conference-Missouri Valley Conference Challenge Series. He said he couldn’t tell us who it was, but said it was a team that was doing very well this season.
At the time, Illinois State was undefeated and it turns out that will be Utah’s opponent next Dec. 19 at the Huntsman Center. The Redbirds still have the MVC’s best overall record at 14-2, despite losing their last two games on the road.
The Utes already had an MVC Challenge of their own with games against Missouri State the past two years with the Utes winning in Salt Lake last year 66-54 and in Springfield this year 71-58.
Utah has road games against LSU and Michigan next year, a home game against Oklahoma State and two games against Illinois, Oklahoma State or Xavier in the Las Vegas Invitational in later November.