Mizzou on Kansas: Great Crowd. So What?

This should play into the superior mindset of some Kansas basketball fans. Missouri players admit Allen Field House is one house of horrors, that the crowd can intimidate long before the opening tip.

“It just drains you,” senior Keith Ramsey told me following Missouri’s victory over Nebraska on Saturday.

“As soon as you walk out, people are in your face, talking blah-blah blah blah-blah. You want to go out there and make every shot.”

That said, I’d suggest Mizzou pull a Baylor and walk off the floor rather than sit through the Hail to Dorothy and All Things Kansas pre-game video.

Do I expect them to? No.

But I’m reminded of a story former Missouri Coach Norm Stewart told me long ago about a game in Allen Field House when Stewart went out of his way to tweak the homestanding Jayhawks.

Back in the old Big Eight days, Stewart said, there was a rule that the visiting team could choose which half of the court it would take for pre-game warmups.

Stewart purposely held his team off the court at Allen Field House until KU Coach Ted Owens and the Jayhawks had hit the floor.

Stewart then dispatched one of his players to inform Owens of the league rule and the desire for Missouri that KU move off the Tigers’ warmup area.

Stewart’s assistant coaches asked Stewart if he was crazy, warning that an enraged KU team would run the Tigers off the court.

Stewart noted that was likely anyway, but his Tigers proceeded to pull the upset.

Hey folks. That’s why we still call it the Border WAR.