There’s a very obvious pecking order that outlines exactly who Sunday’s Border War scrimmage for hurricane relief is actually for.
First in line are the victims of the tragic hurricanes, who, according to KU coach Bill Self, stand to receive “well north of a million (dollars)” from proceeds from the game. That number easily could go up, if not double, [now that the schools have created a pay-per-view option][1] for fans to watch the game from home.
Second is the fans, both at home and in attendance, who figure to show up hours early and scream until their voices give out, rooting against the players and fans from their most bitter rivals.
And third is the players and coaches in both programs.
In actuality, it’s that last group that stands to benefit the most in terms of immediate gains from the exhibition game that was thrown together in a little over a week and has the entire area buzzing.
But in terms of lasting memories and long-term impact, it’s those first two groups that will be talking about this contest long after the 2017-18 Jayhawks and Tigers have moved on to their respective seasons.
Self knows that better than anyone, and on Thursday he explained why.
“I’d be shocked if (the players) feel like fans do,” Self said. “There’s not one player on Missouri’s team that’s connected to Kansas and there’s not one player on our team connected to Missouri. Whenever we used to play, everybody in both programs was totally connected because we’d been playing each other. So the connection (today) is through the fans, it’s not through the individuals.”
With that said, even when the rivalry was at its hottest, it was still the fans who made the rivalry as intense as it was.
Yeah, there were some serious villains, epic games and intense memories — good and bad on both sides — but, for the players and coaches themselves, those games, though huge in the moment, merely represented one or two parts of a season-long quest to win a conference championship, reach the Final Four and challenge for a national title.
More often than not, and probably more often than fans would care to admit or even realize, the war waged between the players was about the basketball first and foremost, with the bitterness and nasty part of the rivalry being most prominent with fans, before, during and after the games were played.
“Even when we used to play,” Self began. “You can talk about the great games we’ve had at Missouri and the hatred and the rivalry. But, hey, go interview (former Mizzou guard) Kim English and ask him if he hated the Kansas players. His first response will be, ‘No, I loved competing against them.’ Go interview Thomas Robinson and see if he hated Missouri. He’d say, ‘No, I didn’t hate (them). Those guys were cool. I just loved playing against them.’ It didn’t have anything to do with the individuals and it didn’t have anything to do with the coaches either. It wasn’t a bigger game for me because we were going against Frank (Haith) or Mike (Anderson). Or for them because they were going against me. It was a bigger game because it meant so much to the fan base.”
See, guys like English and Robinson, and dozens of others before them, were a part of the rivalry only for a handful of years. They never heard the chants of “Sit Down Norm!” or saw the Antlers in action or knew what it felt like to watch Anthony Peeler or Doug Smith make life miserable for the Jayhawks. They had their time, it was spectacular, but it came and went just like the rest of their careers.
The fans, though, most of them lived every wild and crazy moment. Many can tell you where they were precisely when this shot or that game went down. Most of them can recall what they were wearing and why. So for them, the Border War was not a fun four years of ups and downs, high intensity and horrible heartbreak. It was a way of life. And, even with the rivalry dormant for the past five-plus years, all of those moments and memories have lived on with them and continued to be talked about year after year.
To say every player who ever participated in the rivalry felt the way Self suspects English and Robinson did would be flat-out wrong. There are former players on both sides of the state line who, to this day, still harbor a lot of disdain for the opposing side and can, in a second, get fired up when talking about the past and the Border War rivalry. But the two teams that take the floor on Sunday will not benefit from that added incentive.
Sure, Devonte’ Graham, Malik Newman and the rest of this year’s Jayhawks, along with Michael Porter, Cuonzo Martin and the new-look Tigers will want to represent their schools and bring Border War bragging rights back home with them.
But it won’t be because they hate the other side. It will be because they know their fan bases do and giving the fans something to be proud of is a big part of why these guys compete the way they do.
In a world where hate fills the headlines day after day, sometimes hour after hour, it does not seem necessary for an exhibition game for a good cause to include hatred as part of the hook.
“You can try to sell it that way,” Self said. “But why waste energy trying to sell it that way for an exhibition game? The whole deal is to try to get better. I’ve said this before and I’ll reiterate it; this thing was done to raise money. So everybody in attendance can be proud that they’re doing something for others as opposed to just coming and watching their school play what was once considered, without question, their biggest rival.”
As with most games and nearly every special event, all sides and viewpoints will be represented in this one. Some fans will go just to enjoy the experience and add it to a long list of enjoyable KU basketball outings. Others will go with their intention being to get nasty and stir up trouble. As long as the two can peacefully coexist, to each his own.
But for the players themselves, Sunday’s game will not be about hating Mizzou or wanting to send a message. Instead, it will be about taking advantage of a golden opportunity to test themselves against another talented team before the season even begins and getting better in the process.
That is the main reason they plan to show up and play hard. And honoring the stakes their fans have in the bragging rights game, though important, is secondary motivation.
“It’s big,” sophomore forward Mitch Lightfoot said. “It’s another opportunity to play against a team that has legitimate talent and it’s an opportunity for us to see how we stack up and what we need to address heading into the season.”
As for the role the fans will play, Lightfoot said he and his teammates heard from a few hundred women during the program’s recent Ladies Night Out fund-raiser about how important this game was, and, while creating equal parts excitement and laughter, Lightfoot said he understood their message.
“They were just expressing how much they wanted us to win and stuff like that and telling us their memories from the Border War,” he said. “It’s really cool to see their passion about it.”
Added Newman, when asked whether he thought his team would get after it on Sunday: “Of course,” he said. “Why are you gonna go out there in front of all the fans and not play hard like it’s a real game?”
• BORDER WAR QUIZ: Test your knowledge of KU-MU Border Wars past and enter to win a $25 Visa gift card.
[1]: http://www2.kusports.com/news/2017/oct/20/border-war-exhibition-be-televised-pay-view-option/
