Mizzou Basketball

[Saul Good]

MIZ-ZOU

[beer bacon]

Originally Posted by Trevo_410

what'd he say this time?

He said Tyshawn Taylor is the best PG in college basketball due to not being to hit his free throws.

[KcMizzou]

As Elijah Johnson's three went wide and the final buzzer sounded, I had two thoughts. They came in this order:

1. Oh my goodness, they're not rushing the court.

2. How do I write a story about a game that words can't describe?

Missouri and Kansas have now played 266 times.

There have been big games. The number one ranking has been at stake before. So has the Big Eight title and league tournament championships.

There have been game-winning shots. Lee Coward and Corey Tate and Zaire Taylor and David Padgett and Aaron Miles and Kirk Hinrich.

There have been classic games.

There has never-ever-been anything quite like Saturday night.

The day started with ESPN College GameDay on campus, with Digger Phelps pandering to the crowd, telling five thousand Tiger fans (and a handful of those brave enough to wear Kansas gear), "You will beat Kansas tonight."

Excruciatingly, the day rolled on. Games played out across the country, whetting appetites for an 8 o'clock main course. Missouri-Kansas. No. 4 versus No. 8. Big 12-SEC.

Missouri and Kansas traded punches for 20 minutes. The Tigers used an 11-0 run to take a five-point halftime lead. Bill Self said afterwards he felt like his team controlled the opening half except for those three minutes.

Kansas fought back. Thomas Robinson did everything a coach could ask a player to do.

"Thomas played his butt off," Self said.

He scored 19 of his 25 points in the first 16 minutes of the second half. He ended up with 13 rebounds. His name was ready to be etched on the Big 12-if not the national-Player of the Year trophy. He drove Kansas to an eight-point lead, its largest of the game, with 3:25 to play.

And then Kim English told his team "We're gonna win this game."

Maybe some of them believed him. Marcus Denmon did. He may have been the only one.

Denmon hit a layup and a free throw. Steve Moore took a charge. Denmon made an off-balance three. Kansas turned it over. Denmon made another three. Kansas missed two free throws and Missouri missed the front end of a one-and-one. Michael Dixon Jr. took a charge and hit two free throws. Elijah Johnson missed and Missouri won.

The Tigers tied Kansas and Baylor for the Big 12 lead, though they have the advantage of having already beaten both teams. The crowd chanted "S-E-C" at full throat. Self said he doesn't know what will happen three years or five years down the road, but the Tigers and the Jayhawks wouldn't be playing in the immediate future.

But nobody could take the time to analyze what this game meant in the grand scheme of the conference standings, or whether it was the Jayhawks' final trip to Columbia. All of the background storylines faded away. After this one, they didn't matter.

This game was just too good. All those other things were secondary. Two of America's best teams played their "A" games for most of the night. Each had lapses, but each answered every single punch the other could throw. Self said he was disappointed he was leaving with a loss, but knew he was leaving with a good team. Missouri erased the last doubt anyone in America may have about these short on size, but long on heart and guts Tigers.

So often, these games don't live up to the hype. How can they?

But on the rare occasions they do, well, it's beyond words.

http://missouri.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1327832

[ThatRaceCardGuy]

If the rivalry has to end ..wow, that was a great last game in Columbia. Congrats to MU and see you in Lawrence.

[Priest31kc]

Originally Posted by KcMizzou

I don't even know why I'm doing this, but I'll explain.

One (Mizzou fan) poster on this board, doesn't care about basketball. ONE. That's it. To most of us, football comes first... but basketball matters. Not only matters, but it's a big ****ing deal.

I love Mizzou BB and follow every game even through the rough patches.

This.

[KcMizzou]

MizzouMonster12 Marcus Denmon
Hard faught win tonight proud of my guys, crowd was cracking!!

[DJ's left nut]

Wow - KU fans are killing the officiating in this game?

When we were down 7 at the 3 minute mark, I was at the bar with friends of mine and they were griping about the refs. We kinda kicked it around a bit and ultimately decided that the refs were pretty even-handed. There were some questionable calls against Mizzou, but there were just as many questionable calls against Kansas. On balance, the officials were pretty much a non-factor, IMO. For every bad call/missed call for MU, there was another for KU.

KU, OTOH, played spectacularly on a hostile court. I just do not see them playing a hell of a lot better than that. Those role players like Wesley and Relaford that I thought were dogshit played incredibly well. And Taylor/Robinson are probably the best 1/2 punch in the nation.

That said - we had 3 players that played well today in English, Denmon and Dixon. The Pressey's could've been wearing Crimson and Red and I wouldn't have known any different, especially Matt. Ratliff was just a non-factor. Moore played some nice D, but it didn't really matter because of how locked in Robinson was, and offensively Moore essentially had us playing 5 on 4.

KU is legit and gave us an incredible test. That game is what amateur athletics is all about.

If the Beakers want to bitch about officiating instead of enjoying that game for what it was - whatever, I'll live. But that game was just 2 damn good basketball teams going blow for blow, with homecourt eventually deciding it.

Now we need to hold serve so the game in Lawrence means something.

[petegz28]

Originally Posted by KcMizzou

http://missouri.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1327832

Excellent article.

[ThatRaceCardGuy]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Wow - KU fans are killing the officiating in this game?

When we were down 7 at the 3 minute mark, I was at the bar with friends of mine and they were griping about the refs. We kinda kicked it around a bit and ultimately decided that the refs were pretty even-handed. There were some questionable calls against Mizzou, but there were just as many questionable calls against Kansas. On balance, the officials were pretty much a non-factor, IMO. For every bad call/missed call for MU, there was another for KU.

KU, OTOH, played spectacularly on a hostile court. I just do not see them playing a hell of a lot better than that. Those role players like Wesley and Relaford that I thought were dogshit played incredibly well. And Taylor/Robinson are probably the best 1/2 punch in the nation.

That said - we had 3 players that played well today in English, Denmon and Dixon. The Pressey's could've been wearing Crimson and Red and I wouldn't have known any different, especially Matt. Ratliff was just a non-factor. Moore played some nice D, but it didn't really matter because of how locked in Robinson was, and offensively Moore essentially had us playing 5 on 4.

KU is legit and gave us an incredible test. That game is what amateur athletics is all about.

If the Beakers want to bitch about officiating instead of enjoying that game for what it was - whatever, I'll live. But that game was just 2 damn good basketball teams going blow for blow, with homecourt eventually deciding it.

Now we need to hold serve so the game in Lawrence means something.

Mu fans bitch just as much as KU fans...congrats on the win

[Mizzou_8541]

I love how butthurt OU, among numerous other teams, is about Mizzou to the SEC.

[KcMizzou]

Originally Posted by Mizzou_8541

I love how butthurt OU, among numerous other teams, is about Mizzou to the SEC.

**** 'em.

[ThatRaceCardGuy]

Originally Posted by Mizzou_8541

I love how butthurt OU, among numerous other teams, is about Mizzou to the SEC.

Personally I would of liked MU to stay because of the rivalry, but you didn't. Good luck in the SEC .

[Mr. Flopnuts]

Kansas: 0-3 when playing Missouri when both teams are in the top 10.

[KcMizzou]

Border War actually lived up to the hype, and more

This game actually lives up to all the hype

By SAM MELLINGER

The Kansas City Star

C There is no good way to do this justice. However loud you think it can be in an arena with 15,061 fans and two basketball teams that don’t particularly like each other, well, it can be just a little louder than that.

Allen Fieldhouse may get this loud in three weeks when Kansas and Missouri play again. That old barn may get this crazy. But it won’t be louder. Won’t be crazier.

Can’t be.

No. 4 Missouri beat No. 8 Kansas 74-71 in a head-throbbing, sometimes angry, often joyous, down-to-the-last-second and ultimately insane Mizzou Arena on Saturday that pulled off perhaps the rarest feat in sports:

It lived up to a hyperbolic wave of hype of that included some fans swearing off lifelong friendships (at least for a night), others wondering how much more of this they can take, and tickets to a regular-season college basketball game that people wouldn’t sell for $400.

There is almost no way for these things to be as good as we expect. This one was better.

“So much has been made about the hatred,” KU coach Bill Self says. “This is hard for me to say to Mizzou people, but I thought tonight, that was as good and classy an atmosphere as there is.”

You could remember this as The Marcus Denmon Game. He scored 29 points and hit the two biggest shots, including the go-ahead three-pointer with 56 seconds left as MU finished with an 11-0 run.

Or maybe you’d call this The Michael Dixon Game. He made the biggest play of the game, taking a charge against Tyshawn Taylor — a call that Kansas fans are cussing at this very moment — and then hit both free throws to make the final score.

Fitting that it was two Kansas City kids making the biggest plays in our city’s biggest rivalry.

“Where we come from,” Dixon says, “Kansas fans everywhere, Missouri fans everywhere, you can’t just sit here and say it’s an ordinary game because it’s not.”

But, really, this should go down as The Vomit Game. Kim English deepened his cult following by throwing up at halftime and then scoring MU’s first five points of the second half.

It was English, too, who his teammates remember reassuring them — We’re gonna win this game! — in the huddle when Mizzou trailed by eight with less than three minutes left.

So here’s hoping that’s the one that sticks: The Vomit Game.

“I vomited a lot,” he says. “I don’t know who catered the pregame meal … I had to do it during the game. But that would’ve been embarrassing.”

If this is indeed the end of the Border War — Self stopped short of saying anything definitive beyond “the immediate future” — it is going out the way one of the country’s great college basketball rivalries should.

The first pregame fireworks anyone around here can remember left smoke hanging over the entire first half and even into the second. People who’ve watched Missouri basketball for decades can’t remember a game in Columbia ever being louder, and afterward, some of the players said the crowd made them better.

Even in a loss, Thomas Robinson scored 25 points with 13 rebounds on 11-of-16 shooting, the kind of thing talking heads like to point to when justifying who should be the national player of the year.

Tyshawn Taylor was mostly terrific, too, 21 points and defense that kept Mizzou point guard Phil Pressey to two points. Afterward, Self sat in a steaming hot room packed with reporters and called Taylor “damn good,” even after missing two late free throws that could’ve changed the finish.

Self called this “about as good as we can play,” save a three-minute stretch of each half, so Missouri took KU’s best shot and still came away with a second win over a top 10 team this season.

This is getting real, the Border War’s supposed last year coming with these teams both controlling the league race — they’re now tied with Baylor for first at 8-2 — and holding legitimate Final Four aspirations.

These teams play again on Feb. 25 in what is sure to be a rocking Allen Fieldhouse with everyone understanding that the rest of the league is entirely uncomfortable with the idea of Mizzou winning the last Big 12 title it will ever play for.

The Jayhawks, even today, are the ones who can stop it from happening. One of the country’s greatest rivalries is playing out one more time with something that sure feels bigger than just a game at stake and that’s the best part of this.

More is on the way, and it’s coming fast.

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/02/04...ved-up-to.html

[Trevo_410]

True Son:

jmac_18 Jeremy Maclin
Living in the past gets u nowhere lol RT @RyanMoulder1: @jmac_18 MU has never won anything. KU has national championships and a BCS game

[KC_Connection]

Originally Posted by Trevo_410

what'd he say this time?

He said the outcome of the game might have been different had the refs made the correct calls at the end. Real inflammatory stuff.