No. 1 Kansas suffered its second loss in as many outings this week on Sunday in a 76-67 defeat at the hands of rival Missouri in the Border War series. The Jayhawks scored the first points of the game but promptly surrendered the lead and never led thereafter as Missouri in front of its home crowd raced out to a double-digit lead midway through the first half and staved off a late KU run down the stretch.
The win is Missouri’s first in the Border War rivalry since 2012, ending a four-game losing streak for the Tigers in the series that has both historically and recently been dominated by the Jayhawks. In KU’s last three wins during that span, it had won on average by 24.6 points.
Missouri’s win shrinks KU’s all-time lead in the series to 176-96 and gives it its first win over a No. 1-ranked team since 1997, when it beat — you guessed it — then-ranked No. 1 Kansas in double-overtime.
Missouri (8-1) led by as many as 24 points in the second half before Kansas (7-2) put together a pair of big runs down the stretch, which included a 15-0 run, to get the game within one possession. Junior forward Mark Mitchell drained a 3-pointer with just over two minutes remaining in the game to give Mizzou a five-point cushion, which effectively served as the final dagger.
The loss for Kansas comes just four days after it suffered a 76-63 road loss to Creighton, all but guaranteeing it will not be ranked No. 1 in the AP Top poll Monday for the first time all season.
Here are three takeaways from the result.
KU’s turnover troubles continues
In its loss earlier in the week to Creighton, Kansas committed only five turnovers while allowing the Bluejays to shoot 12 of 29 from 3-point range. In its loss to Missouri, the Tigers shot just 4 of 13 from 3-point range but forced the Jayhawks to an uncharacteristic 22 turnovers. That’s the most turnovers by KU since February 2022 and tied for the seventh-most in a single game under Bill Self since he took over the program in 2003.
Former five-star recruit Tamar Bates scored the second-most points in a single game of his career in leading the charge to an upset over Kansas with 29 points on 15 shots. Bates flamed the Jayhawks on both ends of the floor with five steals and was the only Missouri player to make more than one 3-point shot in the game.
Missouri announces it is for real
Missouri extended its winning streak to eight games Sunday after opening the season with an 83-75 away loss to Memphis. The Tigers have one of the most efficient 3-point attacks in college basketball and have consistently been able to force teams into turnovers on the season, now ranking ninth in turnover percentage forced and sixth in steal rate.
The Tigers now move to No. 49 at KenPom.com, which is a predictive metric, and should be in position to potentially move higher than that in the NET rankings when it refreshes on Monday after entering Sunday at No. 46.
There’s lots of basketball yet to be played and Missouri’s soft nonconference schedule leaves us with little confidence in predicting how this team will look over the next few months. But a big win in the Border War over a team that has been ranked No. 1 for more than a month might be a building block to get the Tigers some needed momentum. After an 8-24 season last year, that’s something coach Dennis Gates and his program desperately needed.
