Columbia, Mo. — The student section at the north end of Missouri’s Mizzou Arena was packed full from the floor to the concourse nearly two hours before tipoff.
The chants and signs — some suitable to share and others not — filled just about every row and were an easy reminder that this one was different.
If that didn’t do it, the boos raining down on one of KU’s academic advisors — no, not Scooter — as he walked from the KU locker room out to his seat behind the Kansas bench surely did.
This wasn’t even a player and it would be a safe bet to say that not one Tiger fan in the entire section could have even gotten the man’s first name right, yet there they were viciously booing him like he just scored 30 points in a KU win.
It did almost become a 30-point Kansas win, with the sixth-ranked Jayhawks topping Mizzou 95-67 in a game Kansas led for nearly 34 minutes. But that was only part of the reason the Jayhawks so thoroughly enjoyed Saturday’s experience, just the second matchup with their longtime, bitter rivals in the past decade.
“It was nice,” Kansas coach Bill Self said after the win. “The crowd was very welcoming. But, in all honesty, you want to be in environments where people care and it was obviously a caring environment today. Mizzou turned out and the crowd was great.”
Among the signs that received a PG rating included: “Get loud if you hate Kansas;” “All I want for Christmas is a 10-0 record;” “Thomas Robinson fouled Phil Pressey;” “Get loud if you hate Kansas;” “Breathe if you hate Kansas;” “My ex is from Kansas;” “Yo, Harris! You chose the wrong school;” “K Useless;” “Gradey Dick: focus on basketball not Tik-Tok” and many more.
There were also chants of “F-B-I, F-B-I,” and “D-U-I, D-U-I,” aimed to take shots at KU’s ongoing NCAA investigation and Jalen Wilson’s suspension from last season.
One Missouri fan, probably in his mid-20s, even held up a Missouri license plate that read “H8SKU.”
It had been 3,962 days since the Jayhawks last stepped foot inside the Tiger den, and no one in crimson and blue was abougt to take it for granted.
“I love playing at Allen Fieldhouse the most,” said KU freshman Gradey Dick, who had more than his share of signs directed toward him. “But at the same time, I love being hated, too.”
Asked if he looked into the crowd to see the 8-10 signs that referenced him and his name, Dick smiled.
“A little before the game,” he said. “It was kind of funny to watch. That’s what I love about college basketball.”
So, too, does his family. His dad, Bart, walked out of Mizzou Arena with one of those signs.
“A little keepsake,” he called it. The one he wanted, he didn’t get. That had a price tag.
“A hundred and fifty dollars or a new car,” Bart said with a laugh. “So, we got this one.”
It featured the words “It’s Jayhawk season,” with a drawing of a Tiger hunting a Jayhawk.
Former MU forward DeMarre Carroll made sure to remind everyone of that during a pregame hype video that sent the crowd into an even wilder frenzy.
“The rivalry took a little break, but that doesn’t mean those feelings went away,” Carroll said on the video board to a frenzied crowd. “This one means something. We don’t like them. They don’t like us. But they’re in our house now. Welcome back… to the Jungle. Rivalry renewed.”
The pregame festivities wrapped with the Tigers mascot rappelling from the ceiling while holding a stuffed Jayhawk by the throat. After he reached the floor, he stomped on the Jayhawk with both feet under the basket right in front of the students.
After all of that, KU coach Bill Self finally made his way onto the floor, at his usual time just a couple of minutes before tipoff. As he slowly walked to the Kansas bench in front of the Mizzou student section, he glanced into the crowd for a few steps with a slight smile on his face.
Among all of those signs and screaming fans, Self was greeted with a few one-finger salutes and some students leaning forward a little farther and with a little more fire in their voices and faces.
None of the Jayhawks took any of it personally. In fact, Wilson and Kevin McCullar both said the wild and raucous environment brought the best out of the Jayhawks.
“It was great,” Wilson said. “I think we all came in here really motivated just because it’s bigger than us and it’s about everyone who supports us. You saw today how much it meant to them, and you know how much it meant to us so it feels good to go back home with a win.”
