LAWRENCE, Kan. — The Missouri Tigers and Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball teams met Saturday for the first time in nearly a decade, renewing a rivalry that had gone dormant with the former’s move to the Southeastern Conference.
The last games these two teams played in 2012 were the stuff of basketball lore, two extremely close, edge-of-your-seat affairs with all sorts of stakes on the line.
It was clear this time around, with Mizzou barely above .500 and Kansas ranked No. 8 in the country, that this one wouldn’t be as tight. And Saturday’s game certainly wasn’t anything close to competitive as Missouri lost 102-65.
Here are takeaways from the Tigers’ performance.
Swallowed by The Phog
With Saturday’s loss, Missouri’s record at Phog Allen Fieldhouse moves to 14-43.
The Tigers have now lost 14 consecutive meetings in Lawrence.
The teams’ previous game in this building was an overtime loss for the Tigers that came down to the buzzer. Saturday’s 37-point defeat was an embarrassing showing for Mizzou, its worst loss to KU since 1977: a 96-49 KU win in Kansas City.
A lackluster defensive performance
The Missouri offense has often been hard to watch at the start of games as it’s struggled to get any points on the board in the opening minutes this season. But that wasn’t the case on Saturday.
The Tigers didn’t open the game as slow offensively as they often had in previous games, but Kansas was just too hot. The Jayhawks made eight of their first 11 shots from the field, compared to 5 of 12 for the Tigers. By the under-12 timeout, the deficit had already ballooned to 12 points, 23-11.
Mizzou was also burdened by foul trouble in the first half as it couldn’t seem to guard without using contact.
After trailing by double digits early, the Tigers brought the contest as close as 28-21 with a little under nine minutes left in the first half, but then forward Brown got his second foul and sat the rest of the way. With Brown on the bench, the Jayhawks went on a 21-6 run to enter halftime up 49-27. From there, the game was never close.
Guard DaJuan Gordon had three fouls and center Jordan Wilmore had two in the first 20 minutes. Eleven of the Jayhawks’ points in the half came at the free-throw line and they finished with 22.
Kansas made 33 of 59 (55.9%) shots from the field on the afternoon. They also made 14 three-pointers on a 51.9% clip as Missouri couldn’t keep up defensively.
No chance in the second half
Mizzou entered the second frame trailing Kansas by 22 points. But the deficit was about to get much, much steeper.
The Jayhawks scored on their first seven possessions of the half and had outscored the Tigers 11-2 by the first under-16 media timeout.
Missouri trailed by as many as 41 points as it was run off the floor by its former Big 12 foe. The Tigers were outscored 53-38 in final period and went on to suffer one of their worst defeats ever against the Jayhawks.
Javon Pickett leads the way
Javon Pickett was electric in Missouri’s first game of the season against Central Michigan, recording 18 points. It looked like this could be the year the senior stepped into a bigger role as one of a precious few returning players.
But Pickett had been somewhat quiet since. He averaged 7 points in the following eight games, reaching double-digits just twice.
The Belleville, Illinois native was back in his zone for the biggest game of the season. He scored seven of the Tigers’ first 11 points Saturday, including the first bucket of the game on a three-pointer — his first make from deep in three games.
Pickett scored 13 points in his first 14 minutes. And by halftime, he was at 15 on 6 of 8 shooting.
Though the Tigers were overwhelmed by the Jayhawks in the second half, Pickett finished with 19 points on 8 of 12 shooting, plus three rebounds and two assists.
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