Okay, so our pal Psi suggests that the “ unrequited” description falls a bit short of the target.
Whatever.
Despite your tutorial, Psi, I assure you we Missourians managed to assimilate Wag’s gist.
But to assuage your sensibilities, perhaps the topic should’ve been labeled “Pure Hatred”.
Because I assure you that those people hate us as every bit as much as we hate them.
And with all due respect to our east-side brethren…
You people really don’t get this rivalry. And if you did, then you would understand the west-side push-back to leaving the XII.
Oh, sure, you guys have grown up with an inherent hatred of Kansas…
But you don’t live it.
As we do.
Every. Single. Fucking. Day.
Border War is a Way of Life.
And we hate their guts.
Kansas is Soviet Russia. Hitler's Nazis. The Taliban. Al Quaida. Pick your enemy. Doesn’t matter. They are fucking terrorists.
That’s who those people are.
Do you have any idea what a Mizzou victory brings Saturday, besides a Conference Championship?
At least a million people no less than eight miles away from my house will wake up Sunday morning positively miserable. Not to mention the crow of eternal scoreboard heard ‘round the office..
And our local blowtorches will be treated to a full month of calls questioning Bill Self’s coaching, the Jayhawks inability to close, and the refereeing. Especially the refereeing. You’ve never heard people bitch about officiating like Chickenhawk fans do. Kansas doesn't lose; the refs just suck.
We’re gonna win.
We’re gonna rain threes, steal balls, and frustrate the KU inside game.
And we’re gonna take our ball and go to the SEC. With a revenue sweep of all that is Kansas.
Fuck Bill Self. Fuck Tyshon Taylor. Fuck Thomas Robinson. Fuck Jeff Withy.
And Fuck Kansas.
79-74, Mizzou.
Journalism Scholar Emeritus Screw_Marcus wrote:Oh OK, so what's legal and what's not determines if something is right or not?
MU will never beat the refs in the last 5 minutes at AFH. very few do. and after beating the Hawks already, you won't get the sweep in the series finale. much as i'd like to see it.
live on Border War....it was good while I knew it.
""On a lonely planet spinning its way toward damnation amid the fear and despair of a broken human race, who is left to fight for all that is good and pure and gets you smashed for under a fiver? Yes, it's the surprising adventures of me, Sir Digby Chicken-Caesar!"
"
I'm sure the hatred is a bit more intense from the Mizzou side of things. Typically those with little brother syndrome have the greater amount of hate. As a fan of college hoops I love the intensity of the rivalry and it always makes for good viewing. But so do the Illinois/Missouri games for me. Kansas (speaking hoops only) has made the Big 12 it's beeyotch and has achieved on a national level an exponential amount of greater success. As the football economics ruin more and more of college athletics the KU/MU Border War is simply one of a long line of casualties.
High probability of a rubber match meeting in the conference tournament, but if today ends up being the final game between the two rivals Kansas not only gets the most laughs but gets the last laugh as well.
Kansas- 78
Missouri- 70
"Our staff is going to ensure that anyone who attends this University and wears the Indiana uniform will make this privilege among their highest priorities and not treat the opportunity as an entitlement,'' Crean said in a statement. "We fully expect our student-athletes to accept the responsibilities academically, athletically and socially that come with representing one of the top programs in college basketball history."
I'm pulling for Mizzou. Fun team to watch. Always kinda liked them for some reason, and have an aunt that did her undergrad there. KU's 87 names for their basketball court is kind of annoying, plus that ridiculously over-sized squab at half court. Though I guess that's kind of a Big 12 thing.
I hate blaming the refs and realize that without a few homer calls in Columbia we don't win that game... but the foul disparity in that 2nd half today was ridiculous. kU was in the bonus before Mizzou had one go their way. They absolutely hammer Dixon, Denmon, and Pressey and they don't call shit, we breathe on them and they light us up.
And despite that, they still should've won that fucking game. What a damned shame...
But I'm proud of this team going into AFH and playing the way they did against all odds.
Marcus Denmon is the most clutch shooter to ever put on a Mizzou jersey.
great game to watch. got to close that big lead door at AFH, MU.
don't know where the conf tournament is this year, but someone tell me it's KC and we get to do this again.
""On a lonely planet spinning its way toward damnation amid the fear and despair of a broken human race, who is left to fight for all that is good and pure and gets you smashed for under a fiver? Yes, it's the surprising adventures of me, Sir Digby Chicken-Caesar!"
"
MU will never beat the refs in the last 5 minutes at AFH.
"Yo, Barkeep!
See that scholarly-lookin’ fella at the end of the bar in the tweed coat and OU tee-shirt? Next round’s on me." *Raises glass, toasts King Crimson*
"Well, said, Sir. Well said."
The Terrorists have won.
Not gonna bitch about the officiating. That’s what HackFan does. And if you actually saw the game… Well, then you know I don’t need to. But I’m of the mind that if Greg Church had mauled Tyus Edney on his infamous trip to the basket nearly as badly Thomas Robinson buried Phil Pressey in the closing seconds of today’s game, UCLA might just be light one national championship.
Score more points.
I suppose it’s only fitting that the home-and-home ends in overtime. Denmon’s half-way-down-the-cylinder three falls near the end of regulation, and I post an entirely different take. The kids played their guts out and came up just a bit short. Still, a 19-point blow-out to close-out Allen woulda been sweet. Sure as hell can’t fault the effort… And I gotta feeling we might just get to see the rubber game between these two at the Sprint Center in a couple of weeks… Or maybe even the Superdome.
Oh, and, Shine:
The VERY next time you take a notion to post a take on the Border War, don’t. Just don’t. Your ignorance is breathtaking. You don’t live here and you don’t know.
And just who the fuck is this “little brother” you speak of?
Illinois? Don’t make me laugh. You have absolutely zero sense of history for our rivalry with Kansas, or the antipathy and hatred each side holds for the other. A 150 years ago, they burned us out of our homes and murdered our people. We replied in kind.
Well, they don’t let us shoot at each other anymore.
Today’s game was simply the medium for renewing hostilities. It doesn’t matter in which sport we compete - Football, hockey, lacrosse - Doesn’t matter. Hell, I hope Mizzou softball mercy rules the Chickenhawks when they square off this spring…
We could give a rat’s ass how many March banners hang in their gym. What we care about is beating those fuckers. In anything. And until you get that concept through your flat-line, hoosier dome, stay the fuck out of my thread.
Journalism Scholar Emeritus Screw_Marcus wrote:Oh OK, so what's legal and what's not determines if something is right or not?
Truman wrote: I’m of the mind that if Greg Church Derek Grimm had mauled Tyus Edney on his infamous trip to the basket...
fixed.
but that wasn't the only mauling today, I'm surprised they didn't let them swing hockey sticks. Might as well have.
for some reason though, I'm not insanely pissed off at what I saw transpire. Maybe it's maturity, or maybe it's because I know who has the better team and will go deeper in the tourney come March madness.
Special to the Star, indeed. Man, I miss Joe. This belongs here.
____________________
Joe Posnanski | We won’t see a rivalry like this again
By JOE POSNANSKI
Special to the Star
There were a lot of signs at Saturday’s Kansas-Missouri basketball game, of course, but one sign in particular stood out. A college kid was holding it above his head throughout the game. I kept looking over at him. There was something that I really wanted to tell him.
But, of course, I didn’t get to tell him anything. There was no telling anybody anything after this game … this crazy, magical, spectacular, infuriating and altogether wonderful game. In the moments after Kansas beat Missouri 87-86, Allen Fieldhouse was chaos, bedlam, a mess of hugs and tears and screams. Missouri fans were crisscrossing the state with blistering tweets and instant messages and outraged phone calls — from St. Joe to Cape Girardeau, Joplin to Hannibal.
To sum up: Missouri took a 19-point lead. Kansas came all the way back and tied it. Missouri’s Phil Pressey beat his man to the basket and took the potential game-winning shot. Kansas fans (and the officials) will say his final shot was blocked clean by Thomas Robinson. Missouri fans (and various replay angles) will say that Robinson fouled Pressey on the block follow-through. The game went into overtime. Robinson and Tyshawn Taylor pulled Kansas ahead. Missouri’s Marcus Denmon made huge shots that were like noise-canceling headphones to Allen Fieldhouse. Tyshawn Taylor made two free throws with 8 seconds left. Missouri couldn’t get off a shot before the buzzer. Anyway, that’s how the ending seemed. Nobody heard the buzzer because Allen Fieldhouse exploded into a million tiny pieces.
Only in the exhale did realization hit: The best rivalry in college basketball is over. The best. Oh sure, people will talk about how Missouri and Kansas could play each other in the Big 12 tournament … so what? Maybe, at times, the slot machines will spin 7s and Missouri and Kansas will play each other in the NCAA Tournament — that will be nice. And yes, maybe someday Missouri and Kansas will work out some arrangement to play each other once a year in some nonconference carnival. But that won’t be the same.
Missouri and Kansas have played blood basketball for more than 100 years. That’s over now.
But, wow, what a way for it to end.
The first Missouri-Kansas basketball game I ever wrote about for The Kansas City Star happened 15 years ago in Columbia. I won’t lie: I was pretty arrogant about college basketball then. I had lived in North Carolina when Dean Smith reigned in Chapel Hill, when Jim Valvano raged on the sidelines for N.C. State, when Mike Krzyzewski was young and Duke was ascending. I felt pretty sure that was real college basketball and the rest of the country played a perfectly fine but inferior brand.
Here it is, all these years later, and I’ve been to North Carolina-Duke, I was courtside for Kentucky-Louisville, I’ve watched basketball in Pauley Pavilion and the Palestra and Assembly Hall, and was surrounded by orange in Stillwater and Syracuse. Those places are great. But I have never seen a college basketball game quite like that first Missouri-Kansas game. Until Saturday.
The first time was 1997 — Kansas was undefeated and seemingly untouchable. Four starters on that team had lengthy NBA careers, led by Paul Pierce, who will someday go to the Hall of Fame. That Jayhawks team could beat you any way you chose to be beaten — fast or plodding, offense or defense, rebounding or hustle, it didn’t matter.
And Missouri — well, it wasn’t one of Norm Stewart’s better teams, but it was certainly a Norm Stewart team. Those Tigers were intense and physical and had a bit of a mean streak. Jason Sutherland, who I have always thought was the prototypical Norm Stewart player, led that team. And man did they despise Kansas.
I don’t remember too many details of the game itself — I vaguely remember that Missouri made a bunch of free throws, that Kansas was without its center, Scot Pollard, that the game went into double overtime — but I clearly remember the way the air in the old Hearnes Center felt soaked with tension. Every possession felt like the most important thing in the world. I remember the heat of the celebration in Columbia. I remember the “Black Tuesday” headline in the Kansas student paper the next day.
It was simply a different kind of basketball than I had seen in North Carolina or Kentucky or Indiana or anywhere else. I know that everybody believes their personal rivalry is fiercer and tougher and more intense than any other. But when I saw Kansas play Missouri that day in 1997, I was convinced. This was the best college basketball rivalry going.
And every year, I would watch Kansas and Missouri play and feel the same way. The games weren’t always close. In Lawrence, to be honest, they were almost never close. Kansas won by 32 in 2002, by 33 in 2006, by double digits 12 times since 1995. It was usually more entertaining and tense in Columbia. But this was what made this rivalry so different — none of that really mattered. When I was in high school in North Carolina, nobody cared about Duke-North Carolina … because Duke wasn’t any good (North Carolina-N.C. State was the big rivalry then). Kentucky-Louisville is spectacular, but it has nothing at all at stake except for fan pride. The other great rivalries ebb and flow based on the quality of the teams and the significance of the game.
But this Missouri-Kansas thing — as everyone around here knows — goes back to bloodshed, to war, to hard feelings that certainly soften but never quite go away. Those feelings spill out on the hardwood, no matter the situation, no matter how many games one team has won or how many the other has lost. Missouri fans love beating Kansas. And Kansas fans love beating Missouri. And vice versa. Every year.
Well, every year until now.
But, wow, what a way for it to end.
“We were awful,” Kansas coach Bill Self said of Kansas in the first half Saturday, and that was about right. Kansas had done just about everything it could to remind everybody just how big this game was — including sending Scot Pollard out to warm up the crowd before the game (“This goes back to bloodshed!” he said). They showed on the videoboard the scene in “The Outlaw Josey Wales” where the woman reminds everyone, “We’re from Kansas, Jayhawkers and proud of it.” They also showed the scene from the Simpsons where Grandpa explains why his flag only had 49 stars on it. “I’ll be deep in the cold, cold ground before I recognize Missourah,” he said.
The noise meter on the scoreboard suggested the decibel level of the crowd was at 121 — just four decibels short of where pain begins.
It would get louder.
All of it seemed to intimidate the Kansas players. Well, who could blame them? Missouri had already beaten Kansas in Columbia — came back from eight points down in the final minutes — and if the Tigers won this game too, well, it would forever leave a mark on Kansas basketball fans not unlike the lightning scar on Harry Potter’s forehead.
“Missouri was playing with house money,” Self said. Kansas players, meanwhile, seemed to be playing with houses on their backs. The Jayhawks missed eight of 15 free throws, had as many turnovers as assists and trailed by 12. This should not take away just how well Missouri was playing, though. Those three guards — Denmon, Pressey and Michael Dixon — were pretty much unstoppable, and Ricardo Ratliffe dominated inside. That seems like a team that can beat anyone in March. When the second half began, Missouri kept dominating, and Missouri led by 19.
Kansas’ comeback moved in slow motion. There really wasn’t any one play that turned things around. Kansas just started chipping away a bit. Elijah Johnson made a couple of three-pointers. Conner Teahan made a couple of three-pointers. And with about 10 minutes left — with Missouri still up 11 — everyone in Allen Fieldhouse all at once seemed to realize that Kansas still had a chance to win this game. And that’s when the noise turned up. I’ve seen probably 75 or 100 games in Allen Fieldhouse over the years. Those last 15 minutes, well, I never heard it that loud.
(Interlude: I just got an email from the magnificent baseball writer Bill James. “It said this: (1) That was possibly the greatest live sporting event I’ve ever seen. (2) A phrase for your article: Hugging strangers. By the end of the game we were hugging strangers.”)
And those last 15 minutes — you know that great dream you have when you know you are dreaming and you’re just trying to stay asleep. It was something like that. Kansas played furious basketball in its comeback — especially defense — but you knew that. The amazing part was Missouri players, even with the roar of the crowd making it feel as though the floor was vibrating, making huge plays. Denmon — what a player — drove to the basket and gave Missouri a three-point lead. Ratliffe made two free throws with the students behind the glass bouncing like popcorn, giving Missouri another three-point lead.
Then Robinson drove hard to the basket, made his shot, and the referee called a foul. Missouri coach Frank Haith suspected it wasn’t a foul. In the last second, Pressey drove to the basket and Robinson blocked the shot — no foul was called. Missouri coach Frank Haith suspected that was a foul. Well, what would this wonderful game be without some controversy?
The overtime was even better, with the players pushing each other higher. “We played our hearts out,” Kim English said. “They played their hearts out.” And if this was any other game, you could leave it right there with that quote.
But this wasn’t any other game. This was the last time. Unlike many, I don’t really blame anyone for this ending. These are the times we live in. You can’t really blame Missouri for jumping into a great conference like the SEC. You can’t really blame Kansas for feeling a bit betrayed and for not wanting to play Missouri anymore (“We’re in Missouri’s past,” Self said. “They have to look to the future and so do we.”). You can’t stop progress or time. What is that line from the play “Inherit the Wind” about airplanes? “Mister you can conquer the air, but the birds will lose their wonder and the clouds will smell of gasoline.”
Mister, you can make college sports bigger and bigger, make more and more money, reach larger and larger audiences … but the conferences will look like gibberish and Kansas won’t play basketball against Missouri anymore.
When it ended, sure, there was some emptiness. Which takes us back to that kid holding the sign. He was across the court, so it was difficult for me to see him, but from what I can tell he looked to be maybe 18 or 19, and he was decked out in Kansas colors. His sign said: “KU Won’t MIZZ-you.”
And you know, it was relatively clever, as far as signs go. But something about it bothered me. I did want to walk over to him and whisper in his ear: “Yeah, you will, kid. You will miss Missouri. You will miss all this more than you can ever know
Truman wrote:
And just who the fuck is this “little brother” you speak of?
That would be YOU Mizzou. You know the weaker sibling, the one who no matter how hard they try just can't measure up to their hated rival. Despite all your bravado the fact remains they (Kansas) are the far superior entity (again speaking hoops only).
Truman wrote:
We could give a rat’s ass how many March banners hang in their gym. What we care about is beating those fuckers. In anything. And until you get that concept through your flat-line, hoosier dome, stay the fuck out of my thread.
Nice try, but you know the banners they hang in their gym for achievements your squad can only dream about chaps your ass. Even if we cut you some serious slack and pretend their level of success which far exceeds yours doesn't bother you we'll move on to the head versus head thing. Seeing how they hold a 172-95 advantage there I guess the little brother syndrome is once again in full effect.
"Our staff is going to ensure that anyone who attends this University and wears the Indiana uniform will make this privilege among their highest priorities and not treat the opportunity as an entitlement,'' Crean said in a statement. "We fully expect our student-athletes to accept the responsibilities academically, athletically and socially that come with representing one of the top programs in college basketball history."
Joe Posnanski wrote:But this Missouri-Kansas thing — as everyone around here knows — goes back to bloodshed, to war, to hard feelings that certainly soften but never quite go away.
Truman wrote:What we care about is beating those fuckers. In anything.
Poor, Shine. Caught talking out of his ass again and validating his stupidity for all to see in just two straight posts.
Do us a favor, Spanky, and drop your keys off with Mgo or Scott on your way out of this thread. Maybe we can get somebody up in here with a CBB IQ over room temperature to run this bitch. TIA.
Shine wrote:you know the banners they hang in their gym for achievements your squad can only dream about chaps your ass.
I am not trying to win a fight on the interwebs in saying this... but that doesn't phase me a bit. 100% serious. KU is a great hoops program. Top 5. Maybe Top 3. That doesn't even come to mind when I think about the program. I just see a KU jersey and I want it set on fire. Immediate response.
It is illogical. I don't know the origins of this feeling. And I even like the town of Lawrence, and drove the three hours from Columbia to Lawrence many times for concerts. But the Mizzou/ KU game exists outside of conference play and conference tournaments and the field of 65. The standings don't matter. If they were #1 or #150, I want to see their team disgraced and defeated.
Bill Quantrill burned Lawrence to the ground. the whole town he set on fire. that's deeper than little bro stuff. there's some real scoreboard there.
sorry Shine. MU/KU is 365 hate.
it's like OU/Texas. even when there's less at stake, it matters on both sides.
""On a lonely planet spinning its way toward damnation amid the fear and despair of a broken human race, who is left to fight for all that is good and pure and gets you smashed for under a fiver? Yes, it's the surprising adventures of me, Sir Digby Chicken-Caesar!"
"
Shine wrote:you know the banners they hang in their gym for achievements your squad can only dream about chaps your ass.
I am not trying to win a fight on the interwebs in saying this... but that doesn't phase me a bit. 100% serious. KU is a great hoops program. Top 5. Maybe Top 3. That doesn't even come to mind when I think about the program. I just see a KU jersey and I want it set on fire. Immediate response.
It is illogical. I don't know the origins of this feeling. And I even like the town of Lawrence, and drove the three hours from Columbia to Lawrence many times for concerts. But the Mizzou/ KU game exists outside of conference play and conference tournaments and the field of 65. The standings don't matter. If they were #1 or #150, I want to see their team disgraced and defeated.
You are incorrect, Shine.
Christ. You guys really DO get it.
Mea Culpa, Bace. Beer's on me if you ever come west. Hell, beer's on me if I ever go east. Friggin' rack.
King Crimson wrote:Bill Quantrill burned Lawrence to the ground. the whole town he set on fire. that's deeper than little bro stuff. there's some real scoreboard there.
sorry Shine. MU/KU is 365 hate.
it's like OU/Texas. even when there's less at stake, it matters on both sides.
The government seat of a west-central Missouri county was burned flat by the Jayhawkers in 1861. That town was Osceola. Only three buildings survived. A mural of that massacre is depicted to this day on the north wall of the cafe/bus station on the square. And the front entrance of the rebuilt St. Clair County courthouse now faces south in defiance of the Union.
Three of the nine folks executed by James Lane and his murderous band of Red-Leggers were kin, and are buried in the town's cemetary. Quantrill's raid on Lawrence was merely a response-in-kind to Osceola. And we got 160 of them. Scoreboard Missouri.
Journalism Scholar Emeritus Screw_Marcus wrote:Oh OK, so what's legal and what's not determines if something is right or not?
Bizzarofelice wrote:I just see a KU jersey and I want it set on fire.
Bace, despite our political/social/cultural disagreements... the words above are that of a True Son. I echo my brother Truman in declaring that your money would be no good in KC or STL should we ever meet.
I have no particular affection for the KC retards/MU fans that post here, but Mizzou got screwed by the refs. I’m still looking for the foul they called on Pressey at the end.
Joe in PB wrote:
Yeah I'm the dumbass
schmick, speaking about Larry Nassar's pubescent and prepubescent victims wrote:
They couldn't even kick that doctors ass
Seems they rather just lay there, get fucked and play victim
""On a lonely planet spinning its way toward damnation amid the fear and despair of a broken human race, who is left to fight for all that is good and pure and gets you smashed for under a fiver? Yes, it's the surprising adventures of me, Sir Digby Chicken-Caesar!"
"
C’mon, Goobs, it was a make-up non-call for the ghost foul they tagged on Dixon with Robinson’s drive to the rim at the other end.
Er, wait…
Losers bitch. Score more points. Nobody made Dixon fire up rushed threes early in the shot clock on three consecutive possessions during the Kansas run, or Pressey to miss both freebies from the line after a shooting foul on Taylor late in the game. And IF Denmon’s bomb had fallen near the end of regulation, we woulda had an entirely different outcome anyway.
Which of course does nothing to lessen the Devastation.
The Basketball Gods giveth; and they most certainly, sure-as-hell taketh away. Fickle fucks. Gimme back my heart you ripped out, you bastards…
You could add Joe 6pack to your list too, KC. Good cats all (for Beakers). Woulda made all this shit that much more fun this season.
