Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.LAWRENCE, Kan. — At 5:30 Saturday afternoon, Allen Fieldhouse rumbled loud enough to roust John Brown from his tomb.
A Kansas player jumped on a table and swung his arms toward 16,300 screaming fans. A Missouri player curled on the floor, hands over his eyes.
The "Border War," the greatest college basketball rivalry west of the Mississippi, ended the way it should. A classic on Naismith Drive.
Kansas 87, Missouri 86. Overtime.
These old antagonists will duel again one day. Maybe even this year in the Big 12 tournament or the Final Four. But Saturday was the final scheduled installment. Missouri is leaving for the SEC. Kansas is staying in the Big 12.
This thriller was not the end of an era. It ended a way of life. For decades, Missouri fans have hated Kansas. And Kansas fans have loathed Missouri. Now they represent the latest — and saddest — wreckage of conference realignment.
Three hours after the final horn, the Phog had cleared out. The only sound inside this athletic cathedral came from a few custodians gathering trash from the upper bleachers — confetti and plastic bottles and homemade signs. But the lights in the rafters still shined.
On the south basket, where Thomas Robinson saved the game in regulation with an emphatic blocked shot, ensuring that a 19-point second-half rally didn't go to waste.
On the north basket, where Tyshawn Taylor hit two free throws with 8 seconds left in overtime, the final points.
Around here, they'll be replaying those moments for decades.
"It's as good a game as we've ever played," KU fan Mike Treanor said. "We'll remember it the rest of our lives."
It wasn't just coming back from 19 down in the final 17 minutes. It wasn't just that both teams were at the top of their game — KU and Mizzou had met as top-5 peers just twice before. It wasn't just clinching a share of KU's eighth straight conference crown.
It was the weight of tradition. History made Saturday one of the best days ever to be a Jayhawk. And one of the worst to be a Tiger.
Kansas and Missouri first met on a basketball court in 1907, 16 years after James Naismith invented the sport. They've played 266 times since, with KU winning 64 percent.
But their connection goes back further. Before the Civil War, when slavery sparked border skirmishes. Abolitionist John Brown fought alongside Kansans, which explains the KU fan who showed up for Saturday's showdown dressed as an 1850s warrior.
Just before tip-off, a clip from "The Outlaw Josey Wales" appeared on the video screen above mid-court. Granny Hawkins said, "Nothing nice comes from Missouri...We're from Kansas. Jayhawkers, and proud of it."
The cheers nearly lifted the roof. I've been inside loud arenas. Never anything close to Allen Fieldhouse Saturday.
The Tigers came in with the better record. They had beaten KU a month ago in Columbia — rallying from eight down in the final four minutes. But almost nobody picked them to win again. Allen Fieldhouse was too loud. And Kansas was too strong inside.
But in the first 25 minutes, Mizzou's band of jump shooters nearly buried KU.
With 17:03 left, Marcus Denmon hit a 3 and Missouri was ahead 58-39. For a moment, the few hundred Missouri fans in Allen Fieldhouse were louder than the 16,000 Jayhawkers.
"We were just getting our butts handed to us," KU coach Bill Self said. "I knew something had to happen real fast or it was going to end sad."
KU started chipping away. The Tigers got in foul trouble. Robinson started taking over.
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| Thomas Robinson finished with 28 points and 12 rebounds for KU. |
Self has never heard a louder home crowd than the last 5 or 10 minutes of regulation and overtime.
Mizzou fans would reference another factor in KU's rally.
"Some bang-bang plays didn't go our way," Missouri coach Frank Haith said.
That's a diplomatic way of saying officials helped the Jayhawks at key moments. Like when KU, down three points, fed Robinson in the final 20 seconds left of regulation.
He scored, officials blew the whistle and Robinson tied the game at the free-throw line.
Mizzou still had a chance when Phil Pressey drove into the paint with 5 seconds left. But Robinson swatted his shot away. Officials could've called foul — "It was a lot of contact," Haith said. They did not.
Overtime.
"We had the game in our hands," Tiger forward Kim English said. "We gave them a gift."
The Tigers came back from four down in overtime to take the lead. But Taylor's two free throws were the difference. On the final possession, Missouri couldn't get a shot off.
Afterward, Self pumped his fists to the crowd as he left the floor. His fans didn't want to leave.
Conference realignment has ended rivalries across the country. But nowhere more than the Great Plains.
The Big Eight cracked when Nebraska and Oklahoma stopped playing football every year. But with the conclusion of Kansas-Missouri in basketball, the demise of Big Eight tradition is complete.
Why give it up? Because Missouri didn't trust Texas and Oklahoma to stay in the Big 12. And long-term security trumps a home-and-home with Kansas.
I'm not sure it should.
Saturday was the essence of college athletics. Fighting like heck to beat an opponent you know as well as you know yourself.
Winning was only part of the motivation. Delivering defeat to the opponent was just as enticing. Those aren't the same things.
Greg Rothers, a KU grad of 1989, would like to see his alma mater play the Tigers eventually. But not now.
"I'm a little (ticked) at Missouri."
For leaving?
"For everything. They're Missouri," Rothers said.
KU and Mizzou are divided even in regard to the future. Haith would like to come back to the Phog.
"It's too good of a game, too good of a rivalry," he said.
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| KU and Mizzou could be assigned to Omaha for the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament. |
Self is adamantly opposed. The next Kansas president or athletic director might mandate he schedule Missouri, Self said, but it wouldn't be the same.
"They've got to market their future," Self said. "We're their past. And we gotta do the same thing ...
"It's a shame that it's gonna end. But it's definitely gonna end. Playing them once a year with nothing on the line doesn't carry the same value as playing twice a year with a championship on the line."
The next potential meeting is in Kansas City for the Big 12 tournament championship. And after that?
Two weeks from today is Selection Sunday. That afternoon, there's a good chance KU and Mizzou will be assigned to Omaha for the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament.
Their fans may converge on 10th Street. They may bicker in the Old Market. They may yell at each other in the CenturyLink Center.
One thing they won't do is face each other on the court. At least not in Omaha.
Which means our streets might host the first shots of a different kind of war between Kansas and Missouri.
A cold war.
Contact the writer:
402-649-1461, dirk.chatelain@owh.com
twitter.com/dirkchatelain
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