Mizzou hoops hunts for second-straight win over Kansas

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Mizzou men's basketball team is hunting for history in Kansas City, on Sunday, as the Tigers take on Kansas in the annual 'Border Showdown.'

Over the course of the last 31 years, Tiger hoops has only beaten the Jayhawks in back-to-back games three times - twice in 1993-94, in the 1998-99 and 1999-00 seasons, as well as in the 2004-05 and 2005-06 campaigns. However, Sunday's game at the T-Mobile Center could add a fourth instance to the list.

Just one season ago, in 2024, head coach Dennis Gates and his team pulled off a legendary upset over then-No. 1 Kansas, in a victory that resulted in a court-storming at Mizzou Arena. But now, a season later, the Tigers aren't relying on the triumphs of years past.

"There's no life to last year. No different than when we were going into this game last year, there was no life to the game that happened before. Regardless of what the outcome was, this is a new game and this is what we're looking forward to," Coach Gates said. "Our players will be prepared. It's just a matter of being able to respond and react to where the ball is being bounced and how it's ricocheting off the rim."

You can watch the full press conference with Gates in the video player below.

Since the moment he stepped on campus ahead of the 2022-23 season, Coach Gates said he's been well-aware of the stakes of this rivalry, much thanks to Hall of Famer Norm Stewart.

"I think Norm Stewart did a good job of introducing me to what it means to be a head coach here at Missouri, but also one of the things that he always constantly does, and it's the reason why he's a Hall of Fame coach, there's no complacency, there's no settling, no matter what," Gates said. "I found myself responding to his challenge: you're not a head coach [at Missouri], unless you've beaten Kansas. That's what he said. We didn't do it in the first two years I was here and obviously last season we were able to get a win. The next morning I was having breakfast with Norm and he pointed out all the things we did wrong. So, tell me if I've been indoctrinated into what it means to coach [here]."

The 2024-25 edition of one of the most historic rivalries in the nation will take place at the T-Mobile Center, in Kansas City. Although it's technically classified as a neutral site game, Gates said make no mistake about it, it'll be a home game for Kansas.

The goal for his team now is to win a tough road game in the fifth year out of the six-year deal that both Kansas and Mizzou signed, when this rivalry first returned. Coach Gates made a point to note that he hopes the Tigers and Jayhawks can renew this rivalry for the next '50 years,' because of the importance it holds for both fan bases.

"I would love to just have it on campus and not a neutral site. I think the fans of Kansas deserves it. I think the fans here deserve it," he said. "At the end of the day, that's something I hope to work on moving forward to get that done."

As for this year's game, Mizzou will roll into the T-Mobile Center 8-1 on the season, fresh off of their first loss of the year against Notre Dame in the ACC/SEC Challenge.

Tiger senior Mark Mitchell said the difference in that game comes down to not shooting themselves in the foot in the final minutes.

"I think we did some good things, but obviously we made some mistakes. When we go on the road, you can't leave room for error," he said. "Just being ore together, not letting environments get to us and things like that. I think that is more important than whatever happened on the court."

You can watch the full press conference with Mitchell in the video player below.

Coming off of that game, Coach Gates said there's an advantage in the fact that the team now has multiple days of practice in between games, unlike they had in the month of November. He said the group has had two, very solid, days of work to eradicate some of the issues that popped up in South Bend, on Tuesday.

"When you get kicked in the teeth, there's a level of response that takes place," Gates said. "For us, being able to now gradually, without panicking, have an 8-1 record going into the Kansas game. We would love to be 9-0, but we're not. We still have responses per person that has been tremendous and I think that's the growth and the lessons that we learned."

Up next - Mizzou will tip off against No. 21 Kansas on Sunday at 12 p.m. at the T-Mobile Center.