COLUMBIA, MO. • All night long Mizzou Arena rumbled with ear-rattling, heart-trembling thunder like you never heard in this place before.
Let me see if I can properly capture the essence of what happened in here Saturday evening in front of a national television audience.
Whoa.
Missouri and Kansas have been going at it for a very, very long time. But it's hard to comprehend in those 105 years on the hardwood that they could have put on a more glorious basketball war than what happened Saturday night. Old school hoop junkies have a phrase for what the No. 4 Tigers and eighth-ranked Jayhawks did.
Basketball the way it's 's'pozed to be."
Drama. Thrills. Emotion. Heroics and heartbreak. And of course, a happy ending to boot.
Missouri 74, Kansas 71.
Put this one on the list of the best games ever played in the MU-KU rivalry. More than 20 minutes after the game, my ears were still ringing and fans were still roaming around on the court trying to comprehend the magnitude of what they'd just witnessed. As he waited in the wings outside the Missouri locker room after the game, ESPN college basketball analyst Hubert Davis was trying to describe what he'd just seen.
"You know how there are so many times when you go to games like this with all the build up and you just can't wait for the game to start? And then the game starts and the whole thing just fizzles?" he said. "Well, this one didn't fizzle at all. Gawd, that might have been as loud and great an atmosphere as I've ever experienced at a basketball game. One of the greatest ever."
From start to finish, the Tigers and Jayhawks performed like fabulous showmen aware how many eyes were on them, knowing everything that was at stake in this battle for first place in the Big 12 (MU and KU are now in a three-way tie for first with Baylor at 8-2).
But it wasn't just the race for first place. It was all that end-of-the-rivalry stuff, too. And an equally provocative story line also came out of this as Kansas big man Thomas Robinson (25 points, 13 rebounds) and Mizzou's Marcus Denmon (29 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists, one steal) spent the entire second half engaged in an eloquent athletic debate as to who should be considered the conference (and perhaps national) player of the year.
Just for the record, Denmon, with his furious late second-half flourish, officially changed the course of that conversation. In that wild second half, the Tigers and Jayhawks kept swapping leads, snatching momentum, giving it away and doing all sorts of spectacular and maddening things to keep this marvelously entertaining see-saw conflict in dispute until the final intriguing seconds.
The game began with fireworks exploding off the top of the scoreboard during pregame introductions and ended with Denmon lighting up the scoreboard all on his own, busting out of a month-long shooting slump by hitting 10 of 16 from the floor and six of nine from three-point range.
Trailing by eight with 2 minutes to go, Missouri rallied when Denmon basically went nuts. He hit a driving baseline layup, twisting in the lane to draw a foul. He drained a cold-blooded three-point jumper, then another nerveless three, and within a span of 63 seconds, MU went from trailing by eight to leading 72-71.
And if you were among the doubters who are still reluctant to give the Tigers their due, perhaps a coming out party like this will remedy those doubts once and for all, because this was another one of those games that shows how darned fearless the Tigers really can be.
The game seemed to be falling apart when Kansas took that eight-point lead.
But while everyone else in the building thought it was slipping away, during the timeout with a little more than three minutes to go, senior Kim English (18 points) shouted something above the din that resonated with everyone in the huddle.
"I remember the most important thing that I heard in the huddle was Kim saying, 'We're going to win this game,'" Denmon said. "That meant a lot to me that Kim would say that."
The message was clear. Forget the scoreboard. Have no fear, and that's exactly what happened. There is always someone on this team willing and able to close out ball games in the most dramatic fashion. Fearless stuff. Bold stuff. Confident stuff. Denmon drilling threes. Mike Dixon and Steve Moore drawing charges. English stroking deep jumpers from the corner. Somebody, anybody, everybody always doing something to help them win games.
And now they are 21-2 overall and tied for first place in the Big 12. How much better can it get?
Look up. Way up. Suddenly anything's possible with this talented team. It's exactly why English stood along the baseline in front of the student section as the game ended and put the brakes on the Zou Crew's mad rush onto the court for a big post-game celebration. He waved his hands, stomped his feet and scowled at all of them and they promptly and abruptly obeyed his command.
Then English raced to the other end of the floor and shooed away the kids who were sprinting in from the far side.
"We don't go into games expecting to lose," English said when explaining why he stopped the big party. "We prepare to win every game and this game to us was just a continuation of our quest to win the Big 12."
Okay, go ahead and admit it. Yes, this is going to take a little getting used to.
But perhaps more games like this will hasten the cultural shift Mizzou fans need to embrace.
The Tigers really are this good.
Like I said: Whoa.
