Friday, February 27, 2009
Tyshawn Taylor is starting to understand this whole rivalry thing.
Taylor, a freshman guard, arrived at Allen Fieldhouse for practice Thursday and noticed the hallways clogged with campers waiting for Sunday’s 1:00 p.m. tipoff against Missouri. He looked at the camping group sign-up list. Sixty groups.
A Missouri player passes out of a trap from sophomore center Cole Aldrich and freshman forward Marcus Morris during the first half of the Jayhawks' Feb. 9 game in Columbia, Mo. Kansas will face the tigers again at 1 p.m. Sunday in Allen Fieldhouse, where the Jayhawks will seek to continue their 39-game winning streak at home.
Wherever Taylor goes, he’s noticed how much everyone is anticipating the game.
breakbox
Border Showdown
Kansas vs. Missouri Sunday, 1 p.m. Allen Fieldhouse
TV: CBS (Channel 5, 13)
Check Kansan.com/videos for footage of Thursday’s press conference with clips from coach Bill Self, Cole Aldrich and Sherron Collins.
“It’s big. It’s important,” Taylor said. “People have been telling me on campus, ‘We’ve got to get them, we owe them one.’ ”
No. 15 Kansas (23-5, 12-1) lost to No. 8 Missouri (24-4, 11-2) 62-60 three weeks ago at Mizzou Arena. For only the second time in the last eight years, the Jayhawks have a chance to avenge a defeat to the Tigers in the same season.
Of course, Kansas coach Bill Self doesn’t believe revenge should be the predominant theme of the game.
“Motivation should not be because it’s payback or things like that,” Self said. “It should be because you’re playing a rival and it means a lot.”
He’s right about it meaning a lot. The winner of the game at Allen Fieldhouse will be in first place in the Big 12 and control its destiny as far as winning the Big 12 regular season championship the rest of the way.
But most of Self’s players also have revenge on their minds.
“You could say that,” junior guard Sherron Collins said. “This is Kansas and Missouri. They beat us the first time. It’s a game we’ve been looking forward to.”
When Collins looks back on the loss to Missouri, however, he says he remembers Kansas giving the game away. The Jayhawks led for most of the night, including a 14-point advantage at halftime.
But an inability to deal with Missouri’s full-court defense cost them in the end. Kansas committed 27 turnovers, the third most by the team in the last 20 years.
“Coach will be telling us every five minutes how many turnovers we had, every time we screw up in practice,” sophomore guard Brady Morningstar said. “That’s just something that happens and we’ve got to learn to get fewer turnovers.”
Self said the Jayhawks — who lead the Big 12 in turnovers with 16 per game in conference play — shouldn’t commit more than 13 turnovers per game. He’s got some tactics to help keep the number down against the Tigers Saturday.
Self will make the Jayhawk starters practice against teams of seven and eight reserves in practice leading up to the game. Collins said that was helpful because it forced him to read three opponents at a time and concentrate on not turning the ball over.
But Collins thinks the most important thing to the Jayhawks will be playing aggressively after escaping the Tigers’ full-court pressure — something Kansas didn’t do in the first meeting.
“We didn’t attack their pressure at all,” Collins said. “We just got across the court and let them set their defense back up and tried to play from there. We’ve got to attack them in their soft spots, take the ball up court and attack the rim.”
If the Jayhawks play that way, it will make for an exciting afternoon of uptempo basketball at Allen Fieldhouse. It’s the kind of basketball that will make fans like the ones who talked to Taylor excited.
Not that they weren’t already. After all, this is Missouri. The whole experience might be new to Taylor, but everyone else is used to it.
“Same old Missouri team, same old rivalry it is every year,” Morningstar said. “It’s going to be a fun game to play in. I’m excited for it.”
— —Edited by Sam Speer
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