Missouri had a week to prepare for its Big Eight basketball showdown with Kansas. The Jayhawks, who returned from snowy Boulder, Colo., on Saturday night, had a day to review for rival Mizzou.
Just wondering…did the the Big Eight schedule-makers have a hand in the Tigers’ 79-67 win over the Jayhawks on Monday night at MU’s Hearnes Center?
“I don’t think that had anything to do with it,” KU senior Patrick Richey said. “This is Missouri-Kansas. It doesn’t matter if we played one day ago or 10 hours ago.
“I won’t make any excuses. We just got beat,” added Richey, who hit one of seven shots, plus seven of eight free throws and scored 10 points.
He also didn’t buy into a theory, expressed by some fans on the talk shows, that the Jayhawks were hurt by the officiating — KU hit 17 of 26 free throws to MU’s 27 of 34.
“Give them credit. They hit some clutch free throws,” Richey said. “They played better than we did. They were into it mentally and we were not into it at all.”
For sure, neither team shot well from the field. Kansas hit 23 of 60 shots for 38.3 percent; MU 25 of 60 shots for 41.7 percent.
For the year, KU is shooting 46.6 percent from the field, the lowest mark at KU since the 1981-82 season. That team went 13-14 and shot .468 for the year. In Big Eight games, KU is hitting 43.4 percent.
KU’s defense, meanwhile, has held the opposition to .379 marksmanship overall — an identical .379 mark in Big Eight contests.
“It is a problem, but we are 19-3,” KU coach Roy Williams said sternly. “We’re not a bad basketball team. We lost to the team that’s in first place in the league, undefeated in the league on their home court.
“It was just a tough night for us,” Williams added. “We made a run in the second half, but they never got alarmed. It never seemed to faze them. They took the lead back like it was nothing.”
KU’s 11-2 run to start the second half opened a four-point lead. Undaunted, MU went on a 19-6 roll and opened a 55-46 lead.
“Missouri has been fantastic in the second half this year. We knew that coming in,” Williams noted.
The Tigers, 6-0 in the league and 15-2 overall, will vist Oklahoma on Saturday. KU, 19-3, 4-2, will play host to Nebraska at 12:30 p.m., Sunday, at Allen Fieldhouse. Five hundred tickets remain for the game and are on sale at KU’s ticket office.
