Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Border War Preparations

Here we are, less than a week from the next installment of the Border War on Big Monday!  By the way, I refuse to refer to the Kansas-Missouri match-up as the “Border Showdown.”  That’s the last time you’ll see me put those two words together in this medium.  We use “showdown” with the K-State rivalry.  Bill Self is fond of calling Kansas State our “rival,” and Mizzou “the enemy.”  An enemy deserves a WAR.  Like the immortal Don Fambrough once said (http://www.lawrence.com/audioclips/1961/), “It’s The Border WAR…not any g**-d***** showdown or hoe-down or any of that sh**!”

Of course, Don is talking about the football rivalry, which is actually competitive.  Depending upon which media guide you go with, the football version of the Border War has stayed within a couple of games in either school’s favor as long as I’ve been a fan.  As for the basketball game—well, perhaps “Border Snore” would be more appropriate.

 Let’s just talk recent history, for now—how about the history of the Big 12 conference?  KU basketball holds a 22-9 advantage over Mizzou since Big 12 play started.  TWENTY-TWO to NINE.  In those 14 seasons, KU has at least split the regular season with Mizzou every year, and SWEPT the Tigers SIX times.  This is NOT a competitive rivalry, friends.  This is a beat down.

 True story, I’m not making this up.  I actually once read on a message board where a Mizzou fan was boasting that they beat KU more often than the rest of the league does.  Fair point—they’ve won about 29% of their games versus KU in the past 14 seasons, while the rest of the league has beaten the Jayhawks a hair under 15% of the time.  Congratulations—you’re hitting .290!  Good enough to keep you on a Major League roster—but unfortunately, this is not baseball.  I wouldn’t be writing home about beating your hated enemy less than 3 times out of 10.

 I’ll give credit where credit is due.  The Tigers have actually managed to beat the ‘Hawks in Columbia a few times since opening “The Paige” in 2004.  It took Kansas State 20 seasons to finally triumph over Kansas in “The Octagon of Boobs.”  So they’ve got that going for them, which is nice (I guess).

 Maybe this will be the year things start to tighten up a bit.  Anderson probably has his best team ever.  If recent history is any indication, though, I wouldn’t bet more than I could afford to lose on it.  But you never know.

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