The Border War is coming. Tomorrow night, the fight for Big 12 supremacy will commence with the Kansas Jayhawks and Missouri Tigers competing for bragging rights at a key stage in the college basketball season. ESPN’s Gameday crew will be there and both top 10 teams will certainly be ready for the spotlight.
Bill Self said the game should be a good one and looks forward to getting the game under way in Columbia. That said, the Kansas coach also admits that there are definitely match-up issues with Missouri’s smaller line-up that boasts Kim English as a major problem.
“So much is made of how you match-up, but the bottom line is we have to match-up with them, but they also have to match-up with us,” says Self. “One of their strengths is playing Kim (English) at the four. They have a lot of strengths, but that is one of their biggest. When you play him at the four, then that also isolates (Ricardo) Ratliffe one-on-one in the post because there are no traps or anything like that. It is a well thought-out scheme that they are doing over there and it is our job to try and take something away.”
That said, Self has considerable success here and he mentioned as much even as he was giving Mizzou their due credit.
“We’re 5-3 in games at Missouri since I’ve been here, so I have five favorite games. There’s nothing more fun, in my opinion, than beating Missouri and I’m sure they would say there is nothing more fun than beating Kansas.”