Will Mizzou and Ku Play Again
(Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, circulate, rewritten or redistributed.)
Fifty.One thousand. Patterson/AP
Missouri'south Keith Ramsey, left, and Kansas'south Cole Aldrich, right, boxing for a rebound during the second one-half of an NCAA college basketball game game Saturday, March 6, 2010, in Columbia, Mo. Kansas won the game 77-56.
KANSAS Urban center, Mo. — He's non sure exactly what year it happened. He can't fifty-fifty remember whose jersey it was.
All Scot Pollard remembers is exiting the University of Kansas men's basketball team's bus for a game at the Hearnes Center in Columbia against their bitter rival, the University of Missouri-Columbia.
A Tigers fan had hung a Jayhawks jersey from a noose. As KU's players stepped off the bus, he lit the jersey on fire.
That's how Pollard, who played at KU from 1993-97, remembers the Border State of war rivalry, which volition be renewed after a 10-year hiatus from competitive games at 2:fifteen p.grand. Sabbatum at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence.
"That's different," Pollard said. "That's not what you expect when you pull up to the opposing arena."
Shane Keyser/Associated Printing
Pollard remembered unruly fans throwing things at Jayhawks players at Kansas Country — "in our other home arena, because I never lost there," he said with a wry smile — and in one case at Oklahoma.
It all paled in comparison to the vitriol spewed during games against the Tigers.
"Did batteries go thrown at us at every arena we went to? No, information technology was a fiddling different at Hearnes," Pollard said. "When they had the Antlers that actually hurled racial insults at players — yeah, that was really different than going to other buildings. Information technology was much different when it was Missouri and information technology was much unlike back and then."
The Edge State of war battles with Mizzou tend to blur together for Pollard, merely he remembers the force per unit area of walking in the Hearnes Center with its high walls and rowdy fans seemingly correct on acme of the court.
"There were so many great (moments) and then many great games in my 4 years there, both during the flavor and during that tournament, that fabricated that rivalry and then special and made it easy to play," Pollard said. "You didn't demand any motivation other than, 'Information technology'southward Missouri. We've got to go beat out these guys.'"
He said former KU coach Roy Williams and his foil at Mizzou, Norm Stewart, played up the rivalry. He suspects they were actually friends away from the court.
"But as far as we knew as players, they hated each other with a passion," Pollard said. "There was nothing they wouldn't do to beat out the other guy up, like physically they wanted to assault each other. That was the message we got."
Charlie Riedel/AP
Missouri's relative success — nobody has won more than games than the Tigers against the Jayhawks, who own a 172-95 record in the serial entering Sabbatum — helped fan the flames.
"It was always the biggest game because they actually beat out the states every once in a while," Pollard said.
An education major at Kansas, Pollard studied history in college — including the Civil War tension between Kansas, a gratuitous state, and Missouri, a slave state. And then, he was intimately familiar with the roots of the rivalry beyond the basketball court.
"The fact that this rivalry began with actual bloodshed does make it, in my stance, the greatest rivalry that does be," Pollard said.
But after Mizzou'southward motility to the Southeastern Briefing in 2012, which ground the rivalry to a halt bated from an exhibition game in 2017 for hurricane relief, Pollard doesn't believe the Border War volition ever return to its former fist-fighting heyday.
In fact, he thinks information technology was a mistake for the Jayhawks to restart the rivalry with a Tigers programme that has struggled since leaving the Large 12.
"Nosotros beat Missouri in basketball now? Large deal," he said. "Information technology'due south not a conference game. It doesn't really matter much. But if they beat u.s.a.? Human being, that's a great win for Missouri'south basketball program. No criminal offense, but that's just the fashion information technology is. Information technology's a huge win for Missouri to beat Kansas in basketball game correct now the way information technology stands, but it doesn't do Kansas whatever proficient to beat Missouri. Information technology's just a game that we should win."
Former Tigers forward Kevin Puryear, a Blue Springs native who grew up despising the Jayhawks, doesn't see it that way.
Butch Dill/AP
"I grew upwardly in an anti-Kansas household, and so I'1000 always pulling for the Tigers," he said. "Win or lose, I'm a die-difficult."
Every bit a young basketball game fan, he lived for the Edge State of war games.
"It was a to-practice every year," Puryear said. "It was must-run into Television set. I would say my favorite retentivity would probably be '09 when Zaire (Taylor) hit that last-2nd shot, that terminal-second pull-upward jumper. Then, when Marcus Denmon just went completely unconscious in 2012, that was incredible, too."
50.M. Patterson/AP
Puryear played at Missouri from 2015-19, then he took part in the exhibition game — scoring four points with five rebounds in 22 minutes — but he missed out on games that mattered against Kansas. That makes him amped for the Border State of war's render.
"That'due south ane affair that I wish really would have continued when Mizzou fabricated the transition to the SEC," Puryear said. "Nonetheless, I recall it'southward great at present that we take the 6-twelvemonth contract because it's skillful for the fans, it's great for the players [and] coaches. Even when it transitions to the Kansas Urban center area, I call up Kansas City pretty much is split downwardly the middle when it comes to Mizzou and KU fans, and so I think that will be an environment that people will really relish."
He understands that a new generation of players oasis't seen the teams play a meaningful game since Feb. 25, 2012, when Thomas Robinson blocked Phil Pressey at the rim and crushed Mizzou'southward hopes for a briefing title — "clearly a foul, by the manner," Puryear said.
But while today'south players may non be familiar with the rivalry, he expects the fans to provide enough of energy and inject life into the Border War again.
"After looking at the Instagram posts and tweets over the last couple of days, I recollect it'south very much withal alive," Puryear said. "The main difference now is you lot're non really competing for the top spot in the Large 12. That'southward actually the only dynamic that's inverse, but I firmly believe that the rivalry is all the same there."
L.G. Patterson/AP
Pollard isn't and then sure. A loss to Missouri would look terrible in Kansas' postseason resume, merely that'due south all that he sees at stake other than braggin' rights, which MU at present plays for against then University of Arkansas in football each year.
Make no mistake, the eighth-ranked Jayhawks are eyeing some other Large 12 crown and a national title, while the Tigers may struggle to cease .500 this season.
"To me, this is a game that has taken all of the luster out of what was one time the greatest rivalry in sports," Pollard said. "... I hope that these guys get fired upwards and take intendance of business, but none of them could take whatsoever real frame of reference that's going to make information technology any more meaningful for them than whatsoever other game on the preseason schedule."
Nonetheless, Pollard volition tune in and he expects his antagonism to be rekindled fairly rapidly. In one case a Jayhawk, always a Jayhawk.
"This history is e'er going to exist there, and it'due south never going to change," Pollard said. "Practice I want to win this game? Of course. We should win this game. I always want to beat Missouri. That's never going to go away. In that respect, it is special, considering it is a game that doesn't need any extra hype."
Copyright 2021 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Source: https://www.kshb.com/sports/college-sports/ku/will-mizzou-ku-rivalry-have-same-spark-as-border-war-resumes
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