The Final Border War

It's Monday. The last thing I wanted to do was work out. Despite the fact that my gym is right in my building I needed some extra motivation. Most normal people will whip out Spotify and play their favorite pump up song. Perhaps Till I Collapse by the great Eminem or some music by the late DMX. Today I wasn't feeling normal. Out of nowhere I pull up Youtube and find a 15 minute long video from the final Border War Showdown in basketball between The University of Kansas and neighboring University of Missouri. Call me crazy but this is arguably the biggest regular season game in Kansas history given the circumstances. This was all the motivation I needed to get a sweat in. Let's take a look at the rivalry.

The Rivalry History

The actual rivalry between the two states of Kansas and Missouri goes way beyond sporting events. You know what they say....a good blog is nothing without a quick history lesson. Guerilla Warfare broke out between the two bordering states during the Civil War. The fight was regarding the Slave State of Missouri and the proposed ruling to make Kansas a free state. This was in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. The series of battles was known as Bleeding Kansas. I hope you didn't fall asleep or stop reading after that. Beyond that, the campuses are only separated by about 170 miles and you have a massive alumni network from both schools in the Metro Kansas City area, a city that of course covers both Kansas and Missouri. On to the sports aspect. Despite KU's pitiful run as a football program over the last few years the last time they played Mizzou was in 2011 so the head to head record is closer than you'd imagine with Missouri leading 57-54-9. Basketball is a different story unsurprisingly. On the hardwood KU leads Mizzou all time 172-95.

The Final Border War Game

It's worth our time to stick to basketball tonight, promise you. A rivalry this good should never have a final game but Missouri decided it was in their best interest to move to the SEC following the 2012 basketball season. A head scratcher for sure and it still leaves a sour taste in Bill Self's mouth to this day. Some would call this a bush league move. Anyways, this set up an epic final matchup in historic Allen Fieldhouse on February 25th 2012. Both teams had no shortage of talent that year and had played just three weeks earlier in Columbia. Mizzou was able to edge the Jayhawks in the season's first matchup 74-71 despite trailing by eight points with less than three minutes on the clock. Don't worry, the Jayhawks would return the favor big time.

Headed into the final game Missouri was ranked #3 in the AP Poll and Kansas was at #4. A top 5 matchup to close out the rivalry is all you can ask for. Of course I was just 14 years old at the time and was not in the arena. Boy would I pay top dollar to have had been there. Pandemonium ensued throughout the greatest arena in the sport (no question) as the Jayhawks played their traditional hype video and introduced their starting five. After a competitive first 15 minutes of the 1st half Mizzou created some separation going up 12 points at half. This was the largest halftime deficit at home for Kansas since 2007. Things got worse to start the 2nd half as they found themselves down 19 points at one point. When things looks bleak, Bill Self is at his best. I can only imagine what he was saying in the huddle to fire the guys up. While we'll never know the specifics we do know it worked. He simply was not going to let his team go down this way in the final game against Missouri for the foreseeable future.

Kansas methodically chipped away at the deficit mainly by working the ball inside to star Junior big man Thomas Robinson. After a back and forth final few minutes Kansas found themselves down three after two free throws made by Ricardo Ratliffe of Mizzou. You just trust Bill Self in these kinds of situations and he's proven again and again to come through. With time left to even the score or go for a quick two point shot, T-Rob took the ball into the post backed down Michael Dixon and scored while getting undercut by Dixon for the and 1. The biggest hoop and harm of Robinson's young career. Robinson hit the free throw and came up even bigger on the other end by blocking the winning layup attempt by Phil Pressey. Was it a foul? Maybe, but we're going to look the other way on this one. It was only right that the storied rivalry got an extra five minutes of ball.

Kansas was able to strike first in the extra session off a three from Point Guard Tyshawn Taylor. Marcus Dedmon was able to keep the Tigers in the game with an answering three and later his three pointer on the wing actually gave them a one point lead with 39 ticks to go. In electrifying fashion Kansas took the lead off another bucket from Taylor this time a dunk off a beautiful back door cut and then feed from fellow guard Elijah Johnson. Missouri answered once again with a made jumper by you guessed it..Dedmon. The drama was set. Mizzou 86, Kansas 85. Tyshawn used his speed and agility to rush down the court and went right to the hole and was able to get a foul called before getting too out of control. Tyshawn, only a 66% FT shooter clutched it, he nailed the two shots and Kansas was up by 1 with 8.3 seconds to go. Missouri inexplicably walked the ball up the court with no sense of urgency and didn't even get a final shot off. Kansas 87, Missouri 86. Allen Fieldhouse was in a frenzy and there's really nothing better. An epic comeback to close the book on the the rivalry for awhile. Bill Self showed some serious emotion on the sideline after which you don't ordinarily see in a regular season game. This one just meant more. He'd be the first person to tell you that.

It's a damn shame Missouri decided to leave for the SEC following that season. This rivalry has provided many great moments not just in basketball but in other sports as well. Teams this close in proximity should be in the same conference and be playing each other every season. After nine years of no games between these two schools(one exhibition game for charity in 2017) the rivalry is being renewed this year for the first time. While the pandemic pushed it back one year this news should fire up Jayhawk/Tigers fans across the globe. The two teams will clash at Allen Fieldhouse once again in December. I just hope we can get a full Allen Fieldhouse crowd. Normally I'd ask for even half as good of a game as the last one but I'd rather just blow Mizzou out. That sounds nice.