Kansas-Missouri: Teams Still Have a Lot To Play for in Border War Version 2.0

Kansas will host Missouri on Sunday at 2:00 pm Eastern on CBS in a game that is the foam on top of the latte that is the many great college basketball games this weekend.

Much has taken place since the last time these two teams met in early February, when the Tigers overcame a 14-point halftime deficit to beat the Jayhawks in Columbia.

The Big 12 contenders have separated themselves from the pretenders, and just three teams have legitimate shots at winning the regular season title.

Kansas currently sits atop the league with a 12-1 conference record. Missouri is currently tied for second with Oklahoma.

Both teams are on a great run of form as we say in the soccer business, with Missouri having won their last seven, and KU having not lost since their 62-60 loss in Columbia.

KU climbed to the Big 12 summit by defeating an Oklahoma team that was without player of the year candidate Blake Griffin, 87-78 in Norman.

A win for Missouri on Sunday would not only put them in first place in the league, but it would also end KU's nation-leading home court winning streak.

The game on Sunday will have a similar feel to the first game in which these two teams met.

Kansas fans and players hate Missouri with a fiery passion, and the feeling is more than mutual. If you'd ask any KU player or fan, beating Missouri in basketball or football can make even a dismal season feel like a success.

I'm sure that sentiment is echoed by the Tiger faithful as well.

Keys to the Game

Since I predict this game to be nearly identical to the first contest, the first key to the game is going to have to be the venue.

Allen Fieldhouse is deafening for almost every conference game, but when Missouri comes to town, you may need to break out the Bose noise-canceling headphones for your children.

With KU reaching the Big 12 summit in their previous contest and their most hated rival coming to town, I can comfortably say that the Fieldhouse will be rockin'.

If Missouri can weather that storm, as Kansas effectively did in the first half in Columbia, the Tigers will definitely have a shot.

Conversely, if the Tigers let the atmosphere overwhelm them, it will be tough to come back from any deficit greater than 10 points. It won't matter how tough the Mike Anderson "40 minutes of hell" press is.

For KU, there are really just three keys to the game.

The first is minimizing unforced turnovers. The Jayhawks are one of the worst teams in the country at protecting the basketball. If you give a team like Missouri, whose offense runs on the turnovers they force, free chances, they'll take it to you.

Missouri is going to try to force turnovers regardless, because that is what they do. If KU can limit the unforced turnovers that have plagued them in recent games, they should be able to sustain any lead they get.

The second key for me is the foul situation. KU tends to rack up fouls quickly and have been unable to force their opponents into fouling.

In the previous meeting Kansas out-hacked Missouri 22-15. If the Morris twins specifically, can stay out of foul trouble early, Kansas will have a good shot at building or at least maintaining a steady lead.

If Kansas can get Missouri into foul trouble early, however, the crowd will be thrown into the game even more, and obviously a lead will build.

Finally, KU needs to have a repeat performance on the boards. They outrebounded Mizzou 42-26 in Columbia. If they put up similar numbers on Sunday, Missouri will have a tough time staying in the game.

For Missouri, they have got to remain patient on the offensive end. As a KU fan I was loving the falling away, running jumpers they were attempting that allowed KU to build up the early lead in Columbia.

They cannot do that in Allen Fieldhouse because the crowd will carry KU to a 20-point halftime lead. I've seen it happen too many times.

Missouri only shot 35.6 percent in the first meeting; they must improve on that. Obviously the result was pleasing, but the means of getting there couldn't have been.

KU is notorious for holding opponents to dismal shooting percentages because of the way they guard. Again, patience is going to be key.

Finally for Missouri, I realize that they are going to want to slow this game down with a press on defense and speed it up on offense.

However, I don't see them winning this game unless they get close to their game average of 83 points.

Obviously they proved they can beat KU in the 60s, but that was at home. If they do force KU to play in the 60s, so be it, but I can almost guarantee it won't work in Allen Fieldhouse.

As you've seen, I don't like to dwell a lot on player performance as keys to the game because college basketball has such a team mentality.

That being said, Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich are going to need to have much bigger games than their performances of nine and eight points, respectively.

KU relied a lot on their bench in the first meeting between the two of these teams—that can't be the case on Sunday.

Collins and Aldrich need to play to their ability and not get sucked into playing to Missouri's level. Another gutsy performance from Tyshawn Taylor like the one he displayed on Monday against Oklahoma wouldn't hurt either.

Don't Forget This

Kansas has an unbelievable record when scoring 70 points or more. If they get to 70 on Sunday, I am going to guess that Missouri will not win.

Prediction

I thought Kansas would beat Missouri in Columbia for many reasons. Missouri proved me wrong by suffocating Kansas in the second half with a lot of execution and pressure.

Don't forget that Kansas was just one jump shot away from sending it to overtime in Columbia, where I think they would have prevailed.

That is neither here nor there though, because it didn't happen.

This time they meet in Allen Fieldhouse. It will be deafening, as I mentioned earlier, and I think the atmosphere alone will boost the Jayhawks to victory.

Missouri is a good basketball team—as much as I hate writing those words in such an order—but I don't see them getting it done in the Fieldhouse on Sunday.

Sherron Collins and Tyshawn Taylor are coming off impressive performances against Oklahoma, and they will have been on six days rest.

The fans will be ready to carry their Jayhawks to victory in this one, as they have been deprived of action for eight days.

I don't want to be overzealous for fear of a Jayhawk loss, but I am confident about a Jayhawk win.

Missouri 69, Kansas 76