While Kansas celebrated a huge win, Dixon and the Tigers were down and out. (AP)
LAWRENCE, Kan. ? Nobody seemed willing to admit that this was the last game. No, people kept saying, Missouri and Kansas will probably play each other in the Big 12 tournament, and that?s in just a couple weeks. Hey, they said, Kansas and Missouri could meet in the NCAA tournament. Don?t worry, they said, in the years ahead Missouri and Kansas will probably renew the rivalry in some sort of annual game played in Kansas City.
And nobody seemed willing to admit ? or accept ? that this was it. The last time. The Big 12 tournament? People care about that for roughly 20 minutes, right until the instant that the NCAA tournament seedings are announced. The NCAA tournament? You?re really going to count on that mathematical improbability? An annual game? Even if that should happen ? and Kansas coach Bill Self is forcefully against it ? a non-conference annual game between these teams would be a gimmick with nothing at stake.
No, it can?t ever be the same. This was the end, the last time Kansas and Missouri will play each other in the rivalry game that has fueled winters in the Midwest for more than 100 years.
And the fact that on Saturday, No. 4 Kansas and No. 3 Missouri played a game for the ages ? an overtime thriller that pushed both teams to heights that they might not have imagined ? only made it more bittersweet. How could this really be the last time that they?re going to play? Did you SEE that game? Well, did you?
Missouri led by 19 points early in the second half. The Tigers seem to me exactly the sort of team that can make a long tournament run. They have three dazzling guards ? Marcus Denmon, Phil Pressey and Michael Dixon ? and their inside presence, Ricardo Ratliffe, is hitting 71% of his shots. I have no idea how you match up with them. And, for the first 30 minutes of the game, Kansas clearly had no particularly good ideas, either.
Missouri was incredible in those first 30 minutes. But Kansas? players also seemed lost in the haze. This game meant a lot for both teams ? the winner would have the inside lane to the Big 12 regular-season championship ? but it obviously meant a lot more to Kansas. You have to understand a little something about this rivalry between the two states. It didn?t start with sports. It goes back to the fury over slavery, with Missouri a slave state, and Kansas a free state. It goes back to Quantrill?s Raid. It goes back to John Brown?s Holy War. It goes back to the Civil War.
And even though folks from Missouri and Kansas never struggle for things to argue about, they dump most of their emotions into a men?s basketball game. Sure, there?s some animosity over football, but having lived off a street called State Line ? with Missouri on one side and Kansas on the other ? I can tell you that the football rivalry isn?t the same. Missouri fans don?t really acknowledge that Kansas is GOOD ENOUGH in football to be a true rival. Anyway, Kansas fans only tinker with football; they breathe basketball.
So those Kansas players knew full well that they HAD to win this game. They had already lost the game in Columbia, Mo. ? let it slip away in the final seconds ? and that was barely tolerable. To lose at home in the last real Missouri-Kansas game ever, well, no, that would not be tolerable. That would go on their permanent record. And they knew it. And for the first 30 minutes, they played like they were tight-roping over Times Square. They looked scared. They missed free throws. They ran a raggedy offense. Mostly, they seemed dizzy from the Missouri speed and will. When they trailed by 19, it seemed like they might as well be trailing by 100. A comeback looked beyond unlikely, because Kansas just didn?t seem good enough.
But then, the Jayhawks hit a couple of shots. And Missouri missed a couple. And the crowd started to warm up. Before this game, Allen Fieldhouse was ludicrously loud. The place is built for sound, anyway, with the bleachers beginning so close to the court and then climbing high to the rafters, with the echoes and ghosts and ?Rock Chalk, Jayhawk? chant and all that. But this one mattered more, and everybody knew it. So at the start, it sounded like the inside of a Metallica speaker. Then the sound faded as Missouri built the big lead.
And then, as Kansas started a flickering little comeback, the sound returned. Only it was louder. Missouri?s Kim English would say, with an edge in his voice, that the atmosphere had nothing to do with Kansas? comeback. But I suspect that was just hurt pride talking. I?ve been in Allen Fieldhouse many times, and I?ve never heard it that loud. The sound infected everything. It inspired Kansas? players to lift their games higher than they have all year. It deadened Missouri?s players enough that ? even though the Tigers made some big plays ? they lost their edge. And it might have affected the officiating, too. Missouri coach Frank Haith, when it was all over, hinted that he was unhappy with some calls at the end. Missouri fans did more than hint.
It all led to this ? Kansas? remarkable Thomas Robinson, who might just be the best player in the country, scored on a three-point play with 16 seconds left to tie the game.* Immediately after that, Missouri?s Pressey beat his man off the dribble and seemed to have an open lane for a game-winning shot, but Robinson roamed over and blocked the shot**. That led to overtime.
*Haith wasn?t sure that was a foul. He wanted to see it again on film.
**Haith was pretty sure that WAS a foul. He wanted to see it again on film.
And the overtime was every bit as thrilling as the rest of it ? Kansas took the lead, Missouri came back, Kansas retook the lead, the crowd noise was insane. Kansas? Tyshawn Taylor, who had missed two free throws in Columbia as part of that heartbreaking loss, made two free throws here with eight seconds left. Missouri at that point seemed to be drowning in the moment (?We didn?t execute,? was the way Denmon explained it) and did not get off a final shot. Kansas won 87-86.
Jayhawks coach Bill Self celebrated wildly ? he showed much more emotion after this win than after Kansas? national championship victory over Memphis. Believe it or not, I think this one meant more to him. He would say that it meant a lot to him because it clinched at least a tie for the Big 12 championship ? this is Kansas? eighth straight conference title ? and because so few people (including him) had expected such greatness out of this team.
I?m sure that?s true. But I?m also sure that his joy came from beating Missouri one last time.
Remember the scene at the end of The Princess Bride, when (spoiler alert) Inigo kills Count Rugen, and he finds himself feeling a bit lost. ?It?s very strange,? he said. ?I have been in the revenge business for so long ? now that it?s over, I don?t know what to do with the rest of my life.?
Kansas-Missouri basketball games have brightened the gray winters around here for so long, that I?m not sure what everyone will do now that it?s over. What games will they circle on the schedule? What will they argue about with their neighbors? What will they talk about over Winstead?s hamburgers and Gates? short ends? Well, Inigo became the Dred Pirate Roberts. I?m sure that folks around Kansas and Missouri will find something to fill the void. I have to admit, though, I?m not sure what.
Source: http://joeposnanski.si.com/2012/02/25/the-last-missouri-kansas-game/?xid=si_topstories
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