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BASKETBALL Your top MU/ku memory

1997 kU full game

Also probably the biggest "upset" Mizzou has pulled off as well. That Mizzou team was probably the worst team Norm had since the early 70s record wise, and kU was 17-0. It was their only loss until the ran into 'Zona in the dance.
 
January 20, 1990 - A loaded Mizzou team (Smith, Peeler, Buntin, etc.) took down the #1 Jayhawks at Hearnes 95-87. Georgetown would also lose that weekend, which vaulted Mizzou to #1 in the nation. As a kid, I never imagined the team I rooted for could be #1 in the country. Obviously it didn't hold up, as that season crashed and burned pretty spectacularly. I remember a late season loss to a not very good Notre Dame team. They then stumbled in the first round of the Big 8 to Colorado, then got upset by Northern Iowa in the first round of the NCAA's. I remember being in middle school at the time and heard about the upset during passing period and couldn't believe it.
All that said, that game was magical for a 12 year old kid. Watching your team knock off its hated rival to claim the #1 spot in the land.
This would be my choice as well. Sophomore year at MU. Man the Hearnes was electric! Got down early by like 9 or 10. When Doug Smith had a breakaway slam to seal it, thought the place was going to come down.

That team was absolutely loaded, as was the year before. College basketball then was on a whole different level.
 
The denmon game was the best I ever attended. But, the Clarence Gilbert game when he made 4 straight 3’s and boschee pushed him to the ground on the 4th is what hooked me for life on tiger basketball. Looking forward to Saturday.
 
Zaire Taylor game
I was deployed and watching it on the Armed Forces Network in Kosovo at like 3 in morning. I couldn't yell or I'd wake my bunk mates. I was living and dying with every shot. The cajones on Mr Taylor.

Shot fake, one bounce into a pull-up. Back of rim, back board, back down through the hoop, Game.

I got to watch the Elite 8 run at home, on my sister's couch though. So that was dope.
 
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I'll echo the multiple people saying the Denmon game. I was living in the DC area at the time and attended the alumni watch party, incredible atmosphere. My roommate was a kU grad and hearing him bitch about homecourt refereeing the next day (from a jayhawk, lol) was just wonderful.

Of course March that year was basically hell on earth, but let's focus on the good times.
 
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My favorite as of today is the Denmon game. I'm hoping that changes to the game this Saturday. It will be my first MU-kU basketball game in person. With all the football games I've been to, including Mizzou-kU, it will be my first in-person experience on the basketball side.
 
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the moment the Zaire Taylor shot went in, it felt like I could hear every other person in the complex at Copper Beech townhomes screaming. I honestly get chills thinking it about it today.
 
I can't remember the specifics of any of the games during my time as a student or as a reporter or as the play-by-play typist on press row. But the 2012 game at Mizzou Arena would still be the favorite even though I wasn't there in person. Our younger son was a freshman (not yet an Antler) and he called me on the way back to the dorm, so hoarse I could barely hear him and what voice he had was shaking. And then my mom called me. She was 84. She was crying. It was a three-generational moment I will never forget.

Football 2007 was also amazing because both sons, my husband and I were there together and we were #1 in the country when it was over. The boys were worried I might faint and they each grabbed an elbow as we left Arrowhead.

Hating kU is a family affair.
 
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2006... Christian Moody is at the line with the game on the line. My buddies and I were about 15 rows up from the court. I remember YELLING at the top of my lungs during Moody's FT's, but it was so loud in there, I couldn't even hear my own voice. I could feel myself yelling.... but I didn't actually hear any noise. It just blended in. I'm pretty sure I could feel the building shaking it was so loud. Mizzou goes on to win in OT... we storm the court... all is well.
 
The Christian Moody game. I remember it vividly. From seeing students run back to get their friends who were leaving early cause they thought it was over, to people beating on the metal when he was shooting free throws. I have never heard Mizzou arena be a more hostile place.
 
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Zaire Taylor game. My senior year, rushed the court and somehow in all the madness I spotted Zaire getting interviewed off to the side by ESPN, before anybody else noticed. I ran over behind him and started rubbing his head while shouting “this is my new best friend!” When I checked my phone later I had probably a dozen texts from people saying they saw me on TV. Proceeded to get hammered drunk.
 
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Though we lost, Peeler going off for over 40 in that stupid corn bin in lawrence. Peeler was my all time favorite Mizzou BB player.
I was at that game and it was unbelievable. Only time in my 35 years of work history I called in the following morning sick with a monumental hangover.
 
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Old timer here. January 15, 1968, Norm's first game coaching at Allen FH. I was 14 and listening to Mahlon Aldridge call the game on KFRU radio. Tigers trailed by 1 point, with 2 seconds left, and we had the ball under the ku basket--94 feet away from a score. Threw the ball in to Tom Johnson at half court. In one of the great boneheaded plays in history, he is fouled by a jayhawk, I believe it was a guy named Bennett, while attempting a hopeless half court shot.

Johnson goes down to the FT line, 0.0 on the clock, standing there all by himself in front of a horde of screaming jayhawks, and swished two free throws for the 67-66 win. First of 5 consecutive wins for the good guys.

I did not go to sleep early that night. It is my earliest memory of an MU-ku game, and I can still hear Mahlon calling out those two free throws.
 
Looks like it was a good decision for me to write a story about this game. Will post tomorrow morning.

We’ll that’s also the most recent, which makes sense with some our younger board members. But adjusted for time, I’d still put this with 1 or 1A.

Gilbert just going off, balls on Jeff boches head is right up there for me, esp bc that’s the only game in my recollection we didn’t just win but blew them off the court.
 
Sat, Feb 9, 1980. Stipo and Sunvold were Freshmen. The first season of 4 consecutive Big 8 Championships, ending with a loss to LSU in the Sweet 16. We had lost by 3 at Kansas earlier in the season. The return game was a packed Hearnes.

Darnell Valentine shoots an airball early. The place erupts in "AIRBALL! AIRBALL!" Then every time the ball comes close to him, "AIRBALL! AIRBALL! AIRBALL! AIRBALL!" thunders through Hearnes. He became so flustered he dribbled off his foot and another time threw a pass to no one. The crowd was so in his head he became worthless.

We won 88-65.
 
January 20, 1990 - A loaded Mizzou team (Smith, Peeler, Buntin, etc.) took down the #1 Jayhawks at Hearnes 95-87. Georgetown would also lose that weekend, which vaulted Mizzou to #1 in the nation. As a kid, I never imagined the team I rooted for could be #1 in the country. Obviously it didn't hold up, as that season crashed and burned pretty spectacularly. I remember a late season loss to a not very good Notre Dame team. They then stumbled in the first round of the Big 8 to Colorado, then got upset by Northern Iowa in the first round of the NCAA's. I remember being in middle school at the time and heard about the upset during passing period and couldn't believe it.
All that said, that game was magical for a 12 year old kid. Watching your team knock off its hated rival to claim the #1 spot in the land.

This would be my choice as well. Sophomore year at MU. Man the Hearnes was electric! Got down early by like 9 or 10. When Doug Smith had a breakaway slam to seal it, thought the place was going to come down.

That team was absolutely loaded, as was the year before. College basketball then was on a whole different level.
That was the first time in NCAA BB that #1 and #2 played each other twice in the same year, and both times was Mizzou and KU. So of course it was also the first time that #1 and #2 played twice and it was the same team.
 
1987 Big 8 Championship game. 67-65 good guys. It was the second win over ku that season. The team was riding a 9 game winning streak into the NCAA tourney. Then lost in the first round to Xavier. The year before in the NCAAs it was UAB. and the year after in 1988 it was Rhode Island.

Norm was great. But, people started saying he cared more about the regular season and the conference tourney than he did the NCAAs. The results didn't lie. So that win in the conference championship that year against the beakers REALLY meant something.

Man, the accumulated talent on those teams back then.
 
1989-90 season. I transferred to Mizzou that winter from Wright State in Dayton. While I liked basketball, and UD had some big games, I had never experienced B8 basketball.

My first game at Mizzou vs #1 kansas. The Hearnes was packed and we were in the rafters at the back of D level. It was an amazing game, fans were into it, the energy was unlike anything I had ever experience. We had our "Jesus was a Tiger" chant going. We chanted out "No Mixed Marriages" when a kU guy proposed to a Mizzou gal at halftime. We railed on the refs with chants that can't be reiterated today... and did not have the assumed meaning they would have today... it was amazing. And we won! #1 Mizzou!

Then, a few weeks later, we lost the #1 ranking and found ourselves over at #1 kU. My friends and I were gathered in front of a 20" color TV in a upper floor dorm room in Pershing. It was so cold out that the windows were frosted from the radiator heat. There was Pirelli's Pizza and beer and who knows what else and the atmosphere on campus was amazing... I think everyone else (even the library kids) was watching that game. We were #2, kU #1, and we beat them, again! #1 again.... then we came home to beat #11 Oklahoma...

Of course we lost to Colorado in the B8 tourney, and then to Northern Iowa (who knew there was such a place?) in the 1st round of the NCAA... but man, what a ride that was! And what a way to be baptized into Mizzou sports!

 
Being at the 1990 KU at Mizzou game at Hearnes (as @MUValjean just described above). I believe they were #1 and we were #4. The most electric atmosphere I have ever witnessed. Electric from tip to finish. Pure noise for 2 hours.

Mizzou swept KU in 1988-89 and 1989-90 which means, yes, 2 straight wins at AFH. I will always believe the 1988-89 team was the strongest Mizzou team ever. If Norm does not get sick they may advance past Sweet 16. Huge team. Talented team. Spectacular team
 
My freshman year was the Fall of 2012, so all-SEC era - so I have never attended a Mizzou/kU game in person.
70+ football games and probably close to 200 hoops games over the last 11 seasons, but never a Border War.

Saturday will be my first. Can't wait.
I drove to Columbia for the Denmon game in 2012 and went to College Gameday, but didn't have tickets. I watched in the Shack in the Student Center.
 
1997 kU full game

Also probably the biggest "upset" Mizzou has pulled off as well. That Mizzou team was probably the worst team Norm had since the early 70s record wise, and kU was 17-0. It was their only loss until the ran into 'Zona in the dance.
On the court for the winner: Ty Lee, L Dee Murdock, Jason Sutherland, Corey Tate and Dibi Ray. Incredible. Defensive sub Danny Allouche. Home court advantage is amazing
 
February 13, 1990 @Allen Fieldhouse. It was the third consecutive Mizzou game in Larryville I attended. Kansas was ranked #1 and Mizzou #2. We had beaten them at Hearnes on Norm's birthday when they were also #1. It was their only loss and we beat them again 77-71 with Anthony Peeler scoring 22 points. Travis Ford played in the game. We had been ranked #1 after beating them earlier and were again following this game. Being at both those games was amazing, though beating them in Lawrence was the best.

Here's the game story from the LA Times.

 
I shared a house with some guys from KU while in medical school in KC. We drove over for the 2012 Denmon game and sat in the nose bleeds. As everyone knows, it was an epic game. The KU guys literally did not say a word the entire ride back to KC. They were completely devastated. It was beautiful.
 
Throw another one on the pile for the 2012 game. Marcus Denmon will always be my favorite Tiger, and that game cemented it.

A big what-if: my roommate and I bought tickets to the Big 12 championship game at halftime of the semi-final game. We were sure we were gonna be in the barn for the last MU-ku game for a very long time. Too bad the Jayhawks couldn't hold up their end of the bargain. Still went, was awesome to see the Tigers take how the trophy in their last conference game.
 
Only rule of this thread: Pick one. Of all the games, of all the moments, of all the plays, what's your BEST memory? When you think of the Border War, what's the one game or one play or one player or one day that stands out? Here's mine:

1997, I'm a junior at Mizzou working at KOMU. Missouri is going to finish the season 16-17. kansas comes to town as the No. 1 team in the country, undefeated at 22-0. Jayhawks started the season No. 2 in the country, went to No. 1 after three weeks and were No. 1 in every single poll the rest of the year. Many believe it is Roy Williams' best team in Lawrence led by Jacque Vaughn, Paul Pierce and Raef LaFrentz.

Kelly Thames fouls out after playing 46 minutes, scoring 24 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Derek Grimm scores 20 and Jason Sutherland 18 for Missouri. But it is senior Corey Tate who picks up a loose ball near the free throw line with just more than a second left in double overtime to beat the top-ranked team in the land 96-94. The Tigers lose six of their final seven in the regular season, then go on a miracle run to get to the Big 12 tournament final where they lose 87-60 to still No. 1 ku. kansas would not lose again, reeling off 12 in a row to enter the Sweet 16 at 34-1 and the prohibitive favorite to win Roy's first national title. Miles Simon, Mike Bibby and Arizona take down the beaks.

The next day, I'm volunteering at the MSHSAA basketball championships in the Hearnes Center. Kareem and Jaron Rush lead a ridiculous Pembroke Hill team to the state championship. In the stands in Columbia, the day after his team has been knocked out is Roy Williams. One of my biggest regrets to this day is that I didn't have the guts to ask Roy to sign a copy of the Kansas City Star, headline "March Sadness" in gigantic font on the front page.

I've been to a lot of Border War games. A lot of them meant more and a lot had great moments. But that's always the one I go back to. What's yours?
In football the sodding
In hoops the last game at mizzou arena
 
The denmon game was the best I ever attended. But, the Clarence Gilbert game when he made 4 straight 3’s and boschee pushed him to the ground on the 4th is what hooked me for life on tiger basketball. Looking forward to Saturday.

I remember the students and some fans waving their arms up and down when he did this with the meaning of we are not worthy.
 
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It is easily the Christian Moody game for me. I was a student and standing in that student section when he missed both free throws is one of the coolest moments at Mizzou. I remember standing in line for hours before the tip and some of the basketball coaches brought us pizzas. Every time a kU fan would walk by, all the students just yelled obscenities at them. I never regretted it, because of all the times I went to lawrence, I got the same treatment. Cannot wait for Saturday, going to bring back so many good memories!
 
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It wasn’t a specific game. My aunt and uncle had season tickets (still do) when I was a really young. Was raised to hate kansas as any American should. When I was a kid they would call the house on a Saturday morning maybe once or twice a year and they would have a ticket for me to go see a game. Usually Colorado or Iowa St or someone like that. I looked forward to the phone ringing on Saturday morning during basketball season every year. By the time I was 9ish I wanted to go to a kansas game. As we all know, people don’t just give up kansas tickets. So no luck the first few times I asked. A couple of years later my aunt gives me a Christmas gift for some reason. I open it up. Boom. kansas tickets. At that point I had probably been to see Mizzou play just about every one of the conference foes, but the image stuck in my head was when I walked into Hearnes and looked up, I saw D was packed and the line of legs hanging over the ledge all around the arena because the students were sitting on the floor and looking over the rails. That is when I knew it was different when we played them.
 
It wasn’t a specific game. My aunt and uncle had season tickets (still do) when I was a really young. Was raised to hate kansas as any American should. When I was a kid they would call the house on a Saturday morning maybe once or twice a year and they would have a ticket for me to go see a game. Usually Colorado or Iowa St or someone like that. I looked forward to the phone ringing on Saturday morning during basketball season every year. By the time I was 9ish I wanted to go to a kansas game. As we all know, people don’t just give up kansas tickets. So no luck the first few times I asked. A couple of years later my aunt gives me a Christmas gift for some reason. I open it up. Boom. kansas tickets. At that point I had probably been to see Mizzou play just about every one of the conference foes, but the image stuck in my head was when I walked into Hearnes and looked up, I saw D was packed and the line of legs hanging over the ledge all around the arena because the students were sitting on the floor and looking over the rails. That is when I knew it was different when we played them.
that, my friend, is a "don't shoot your eye out" moment! Yeah, maybe... but the rifle is MINE!!!! Awesome!



BTW... I loved being in D... sideline, all the way at the top... banging the grates and stomping the benches... there is no way you can tell me we were not over what the fire marshal would allow for those games... no way!
 
1989-90 season. I transferred to Mizzou that winter from Wright State in Dayton. While I liked basketball, and UD had some big games, I had never experienced B8 basketball.

My first game at Mizzou vs #1 kansas. The Hearnes was packed and we were in the rafters at the back of D level. It was an amazing game, fans were into it, the energy was unlike anything I had ever experience. We had our "Jesus was a Tiger" chant going. We chanted out "No Mixed Marriages" when a kU guy proposed to a Mizzou gal at halftime. We railed on the refs with chants that can't be reiterated today... and did not have the assumed meaning they would have today... it was amazing. And we won! #1 Mizzou!

Then, a few weeks later, we lost the #1 ranking and found ourselves over at #1 kU. My friends and I were gathered in front of a 20" color TV in a upper floor dorm room in Pershing. It was so cold out that the windows were frosted from the radiator heat. There was Pirelli's Pizza and beer and who knows what else and the atmosphere on campus was amazing... I think everyone else (even the library kids) was watching that game. We were #2, kU #1, and we beat them, again! #1 again.... then we came home to beat #11 Oklahoma...

Of course we lost to Colorado in the B8 tourney, and then to Northern Iowa (who knew there was such a place?) in the 1st round of the NCAA... but man, what a ride that was! And what a way to be baptized into Mizzou sports!


This is the most memorable season of my fandom. The thrashing they put on ku in allen that year was simply amazing. So sad how that team regressed at the end of the year. Still to this day don't understand what happened to the psyche of that team in those last 8 games
 
Reading through this post and a lot of great memories - and seriously guys, don’t feed me this BULLSHIT that KU isn’t our number 1 rival. They are, and always will be - it’s not even close.

November 27th, 1969 in Lawrence, Kansas
MU 69 kansas 21
How sweet it was, did Dan Devine really flip off Pepper Rogers at the end of game - don’t know, but it’s a great story.
 
1990. I was in Law School, clerking for a Coumbia law firm. #1 kU was in town on Sat. MU at #4. Wednesday before I get sick - strep, I think. Sore throat, fever, the real deal. I clerked for a local law firm. Called in sick both Thursday & Friday. Saturday morning, I’m still sick, running a fever. But I couldn’t miss THE game. Given the rankings, at the time it was arguably the biggest regular season game ever in COMO. So I loaded up on Tylenol and went. Game is unbelievable. I have A section seats and am the focus of one of the TV fan shots. Tigers win. I’m still sick. Monday, I’m still sick, and don’t go to work. I finally go back into work at the firm on Tuesday. The senior partner of the firm sees me in the hallway. “Mark, I hear you’ve been feeling poorly.” Yes sir. I had strep sir. “I noticed you were out a couple of days last week, and yesterday.” Yes, sir. Today is the first day I’m not running a fever, so I’m back at it sir. “That’s funny, Mark, because I thought I saw you on TV at the basketball game Sunday”. BUSTED.
 
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