Will the KU-MU rivalry have the same spark as the resumption of the border war?

KANSAS CITY, Missouri – He’s not sure what year this happened. He can’t even remember who owns that jersey.

All Scot Pollard remembers is stepping off the University of Kansas men’s basketball team bus for a game at the Hearnes Center in Columbia against their bitter rival, the University of Missouri-Columbia. .

A Tigers fan had hung a Jayhawks jersey from a noose. As the KU players got off the bus, he set the jersey on fire.

This is how Pollard, who performed at KU from 1993 to 1997, remembers the rivalry of the Border Wars, which will be renewed after a 10-year hiatus from competitive games at 2:15 p.m. Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence.

“It’s different,” Pollard said. “It’s not what you expect when you stop in the opponent’s arena.”

Pollard recalled unruly fans throwing objects at Jayhawks players in Kansas State – “in our other home arena, because I never lost there,” he said with a wry smile – and once in Oklahoma.

Everything pales compared to the vitriol spat out during games against the Tigers.

“Have batteries been thrown at us in every arena we’ve been to?” No, it was a little different at Hearnes, ”Pollard said. “When they had the Antlers hurling racial slurs at players – yes, it was actually different going to other buildings. It was very different when it was Missouri and it was very different then.

The Border War battles with Mizzou tend to merge for Pollard, but he remembers the pressure of walking through Hearnes Center with its high walls and rowdy fans seemingly just above the pitch.

“There have been so many great (moments) and so many great games in my four years there, both during the season and during this tournament, that made this rivalry so special and easy to play,” Pollard said. “You didn’t need any motivation other than, ‘This is Missouri. We have to go beat these guys.

He said former KU coach Roy Williams and his foil in Mizzou, Norm Stewart, had amplified the rivalry. He suspects that they were actually friends away from court.

“But as far as we knew as players, they hated each other with a passion,” Pollard said. “There was nothing they wouldn’t do to beat the other guy, like physically they wanted to assault. This is the message we received.

Charlie Riedel / AP

Missouri’s relative success – no one has won more games than the Tigers against the Jayhawks, who are 172-95 in the series that begins Saturday – helped stoke the flames.

“It was always the biggest game because they beat us every now and then,” Pollard said.

A Kansas education graduate, Pollard studied history in college, including the tension of the Civil War between Kansas, a free state, and Missouri, a slave state. Thus, he knew intimately the roots of the rivalry beyond the basketball court.

“The fact that this rivalry started with real bloodshed makes it, in my opinion, the greatest rivalry that exists,” Pollard said.

But after Mizzou’s move to the Southeastern Conference in 2012, which ended the rivalry outside of a 2017 exhibition match for hurricane relief, Pollard doesn’t think the border war will return. one day in his old fist fighting heyday.

In fact, he thinks it was a mistake for the Jayhawks to reignite the rivalry with a Tigers program that has struggled since leaving the Big 12.

“We beat Missouri in basketball now?” Big deal, “he said.” It’s not a conference game. It doesn’t really matter. But if they beat us? Man, that’s a nice win for the program. No offense, but it’s like that. It’s a huge win for Missouri to beat Kansas in basketball right now, but there’s no point in Kansas beating Missouri. just a game we have to win.

Former Tigers forward Kevin Puryear, a Blue Springs native who grew up despising the Jayhawks, doesn’t see it that way.

Dill Butch / AP

“I grew up in an anti-Kansas household so I’m still shooting for the Tigers,” he said. “Win or lose, I’m a die-hard.”

As a young basketball fan he lived for Border War games.

“It was a task to do every year,” Puryear said. “It was a must-see TV. I would say my favorite memory would probably be 2009, when Zaire (Taylor) hit that last second shot, that last second pull-up. Then when Marcus Denmon went completely unconscious in 2012, it was also amazing. “

LG Patterson / AP

Puryear played in Missouri from 2015-19, so he competed in the exhibition game – scoring four points with five rebounds in 22 minutes – but missed important games against Kansas. This makes him impatient for the return of the border war.

“It’s something that I wish it had continued when Mizzou made the transition to the SEC,” Puryear said. “Nonetheless, I think it’s great now that we have the six-year contract because it’s good for the fans, it’s great for the players [and] coaches. Even during the transition to the Kansas City area, I think Kansas City is pretty much split in half when it comes to Mizzou and KU fans, so I think it’s going to be an environment that people really enjoy.

He understands that a new generation of players haven’t seen the teams play a meaningful game since February 25, 2012, when Thomas Robinson blocked Phil Pressey on the edge and dashed Mizzou’s hopes of winning a conference title – ” clearly a fault, by the way, ”Puryear said.

But while players today may not be familiar with the rivalry, he expects fans to provide a lot of energy and inject life into the Border Wars again.

“After looking at Instagram’s posts and tweets for the past two days, I think it’s still alive,” Puryear said. “The main difference now is that you’re not really competing for the top spot in the Big 12. It’s really the only dynamic that has changed, but I firmly believe the rivalry is still there. “

LG Patterson / AP

Pollard isn’t so sure. A loss to Missouri would look terrible in Kansas’ playoff resumption, but that’s all he sees at stake besides bragging rights, which MU now plays against the University of L ‘Arkansas in football every year.

Make no mistake, the eighth-seeded Jayhawks are aiming for another Big 12 crown and a national championship, while the Tigers could struggle to finish .500 this season.

“For me, it’s a game that took all of the shine away from what was once the biggest rivalry in sport,” Pollard said. “… I hope these guys will be motivated and take care of the business, but none of them could have a real frame of reference that will make it more meaningful to them than any other game on the pre-schedule. -season. “

Nonetheless, Pollard will tune in and he expects his animosity to rekindle fairly quickly. Once a Jayhawk, always a Jayhawk.

“This story will always be there and it will never change,” Pollard said. “Do I want to win this game? Sure. We should win this game. I still want to beat Missouri. It’s never going to go away. In that regard, it’s special, because it’s a game that doesn’t need the extra hype. “