Kansas coach Bill Self has said that the true measure of KU’s nonconference success will be its performance on the road.
If that’s the case, then setting aside the Jayhawks’ victories against big-name opponents from the month of November, they’ll need to win on Sunday to feel remotely good about their status ahead of the start of Big 12 play — and not only because they’re heading into a rivalry game.
Top-ranked (for the moment) KU will renew the annual Border Showdown when it travels to Mizzou Arena to face the Tigers at 12 p.m. Sunday.
The Jayhawks have won all three editions of the rivalry since it returned as a nonconference game in 2021, and 14 of the last 16 overall. But KU took a resounding 76-63 defeat at Creighton Wednesday, its first of the year, while Missouri recently rallied from an 18-point deficit, at one point hitting 15 shots in a row, to beat Cal 98-93 on Tuesday.
“You got to bounce back,” point guard Dajuan Harris Jr. said. “This game is for the fans anyway because it’s one of the biggest rivalries in college basketball, and we need to bounce back after the last game we lost at Creighton. We just got to show that we can play on the road.”
The ACC-SEC Challenge victory for Missouri was the first win for the Tigers against a power-conference opponent since the last edition of the challenge over a year earlier, and they’ve now won seven games in a row after ending last year on a 19-game losing streak.
Even if the teams’ recent form has them headed in opposite directions, it’s probably also worth noting that KU is 123-20 following a loss since Self’s arrival in 2003.
To come out on the right side of that trend once again, the Jayhawks will need to shut down a Missouri lineup that looks quite different from what the Tigers brought to Allen Fieldhouse in last year’s 73-64 result.
“They’re going to come after us in a way that we better be prepared for, and we need to have the same feelings towards them,” KU coach Bill Self said. “I didn’t approach it as just another game, because in all honesty it’s not just another game.”
They may not have to deal with one player of note. Caleb Grill returns from last season, but he missed the Border Showdown and every game after it due to a wrist injury; he is coming off the bench but leads the Tigers in scoring with 13.6 points per game, as he’s 21-for-38 (55.3%) from deep. However, he sustained a neck injury against Lindenwood and did not play against Cal.
Otherwise, fellow guard Tamar Bates is also back, and he, sophomore Anthony Robinson II and Duke transfer and Kansas native Mark Mitchell are all averaging at least 12 points per game. Robinson posted a game-high 29 against Cal without attempting a single 3-pointer.
“They’re better,” Self said of the Tigers. “I think that they’re having some individuals have big years. Grill’s off to a great start. Bates is off to a great start. Mark Mitchell’s a guy that we really tried to recruit hard, and he’s obviously a terrific talent. And more, but a lot of new faces.”
The key to all this scoring is efficiency, as Missouri currently leads the nation in field goal percentage at 52.6%. Granted, the Tigers have also played five teams ranked 250 or lower in the NCAA’s NET ranking.
Last season, Missouri put an early scare in KU at Allen Fieldhouse, prompting its coach Dennis Gates to declare, “I want to see the next time a team leads in this arena for 14 minutes to start the game. I don’t know when that will take place.” The Tigers will probably need to assert themselves for longer than that to pull the upset on Sunday, but this time they will have the home crowd on their side.
“Hopefully it’s a great game and it’s a back-and-forth game, because I want to have a great time,” said the sixth-year senior Harris, who grew up near Mizzou, “and it’s going to be my last time ever playing in Columbia too, so hopefully I’ll go out with a bang in front of my family.”
Missouri Tigers (7-1) vs. No. 1 Kansas Jayhawks (7-1)
• Mizzou Arena, Columbia, Missouri, 12 p.m.
• Broadcast: ESPN2
• Radio: Jayhawk Radio Network (in Lawrence, KLWN AM 1320 / K269GB FM 101.7 / KMXN FM 92.9)
Keep an eye out
Missing piece: The absence of sharpshooting wing Rylan Griffen was far from the only reason KU fell flat at Creighton on Wednesday, but given how intent the Bluejays were on daring non-Hunter Dickinson players to shoot, the Jayhawks could certainly have used him. Griffen had the flu and did not travel with the team. Self said on Friday he expected him to be close to 100%. Missouri has not been particularly good against the 3 this year (allowing 32% shooting to opponents, which is 11th of 16 SEC teams) and Griffen could get his fair share of chances to fire away.
Concerning trend: It wasn’t quite as obvious until Wednesday, but Dickinson hasn’t been scoring at anything resembling his usual rate for the last five games or so. Of course KU has more scoring options and a much deeper roster than it did when he tallied 17.9 points per game last season, but he’s been held to just 10.4 points and 7.4 rebounds on average in his last five matchups. Creighton made him a nonfactor by loading extra players into the paint to back up its center Ryan Kalkbrenner, and Dickinson and the Jayhawks will have to find a way to counter it if 7-footer Josh Gray and the Tigers attempt a similar strategy. Self said, “It’s stuff that everybody has to do collectively to put emphasis on getting him touches, and we didn’t do that” at Creighton.
Off the mark: To this point, the 3-point shooting renaissance promised by the acquisitions of players such as Griffen, David Coit, Zeke Mayo and to a lesser extent AJ Storr has not quite arrived. The Jayhawks have only improved from 33.2% last season to 34.6%, and they are still attempting 20.2 3-pointers per game, which was tied for 291st in the nation as of Friday. An 11-for-22 showing in the season opener against Howard is the closest thing to proof of concept when it comes to KU’s shooting, and the Jayhawks only have two more opportunities to shoot well and often against a power-conference team before league play starts.
Off-kilter observation
Missouri has four Kansas natives on the roster in Bates, Grill, Mitchell and Aidan Shaw.
AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz
