Why Missouri basketball needs to conquer the Border War’s psychological factor to have a chance

Dennis Gates told the media he has some selective amnesia about what happened the first time he went against Kansas as Missouri’s head basketball coach.

That was Dec. 10, 2022, when the Jayhawks put a beating on the Tigers 95-67.

Missouri wasn’t ready to take on an elite team. MU gets another crack at one, and the rivalry, on Saturday.

“The biggest thing that I can tell you is, when you look at two competitive traditions, you’re going to have this type of excitement moving into the games,” Gates said.

That rivalry needs some participation on Missouri’s side. The last two games MU and KU have played in 2021 and 2022 have seen the Jayhawks win by a combined score of 197-132.

It does start with the talent aspect of the rivalry: Kansas has All-American candidates in Hunter Dickinson and Dajuan Harris, as well as all-conference candidates in Kevin McCullar Jr. and KJ Adams.

But, the psychological aspect of the rivalry takes hold on the road. That’s where Missouri needs to show the most fortitude and improvement on Saturday if it hopes to have a chance at beating Kansas in one of the most hostile environments in college basketball.

It’s not easygoing for anyone who plays Kansas in Kansas’s house.

Missouri has won 31 of its 121 games at the Allen Fieldhouse. That’s a 34 percent winning percentage spanning back to 1907. The Tigers were thoroughly shaken when they last visited The Phog in 2021.

According to former Tigers who have won in The Phog, it takes experience mixed with a calloused mind that focuses on winning.

“My first year going in there, you’re awestruck because this is what you’ve seen on TV,” Former MU player Lamont Frazier told the Tribune this week. “But after going through it, time and time, time and time again, and going through those situations, you knew it was historic. You knew there was going to be something probably great that was going to happen in there.”

Frazier said the Tigers can’t go in and get caught up in everything that’s going on around them. He said the student body and fans get into the rivalry, but that just plays into the legacy-defining plays that happen on the court.

That certainly happened in 2021, when Christian Braun’s breakaway dunk nearly lifted the roof off the Allen Fieldhouse.

“Once you’re on the court, you sort of drown it out and play,” former Missouri guard Chip Walther said.

This Saturday, Missouri will have to face Kansas with a roster of players who have played in NCAA Tournaments, against other conference rivals and in other big games. However, only two MU players have previous experience playing at Kansas.

Caleb Grill played at Kansas while he was at Iowa State, and Kaleb Brown played at KU in 2021. Brown’s season-ending injury will keep him from playing Saturday. On Thursday, Nick Honor said Grill told the team a key to drowning out the Kansas crowd is to stay strong and persistent throughout the game.

But, beyond Grill and Brown, past MU players and coaches who played at Kansas in the past have assisted this current Missouri roster in understanding why it’s difficult to play Kansas in Lawrence.

“Norm always talks about it,” Gates said Thursday. “Every coach has told me, ‘Hey, this is the game’ in terms of our fans and our tradition has circled, right? It’s the rivalry.”

That rivalry is one of college basketball’s oldest and most classic. This season’s roster of Missouri Tigers will be the latest to experience it.

A win would change many narratives about the Gates era. It would also be the first time Missouri has won at Kansas since 1999.

In order to earn that win, Missouri will need to be confident in its skill as well as have the fortitude to foray into The Phog.

Doing so potentially means doing something few teams get to do.

“It’s an environment that if you could play 28 games in it, it would never get old,” Frazier said. “It was always something to look forward to because they hardly lost there. So, to go in there and just to even think that you could win a game at that place, you had to feel pretty good about yourself.”