And now, in Omaha, the Border War becomes the new Cold War
The Kansas City Star
OMAHA — They’re all here, together, mixed into one city, eating at the same restaurants, drinking at the same bars, sleeping at the same hotels.
Missouri and Kansas, two top 10 basketball programs with a healthy mutual hatred, practicing in the same arena and even using the same locker room with no chance of playing each other, so who says the NCAA doesn’t have a sense of humor?
Kansas’ players haven’t been available to the media quite yet today, but officially, Mizzou couldn’t care less.
“Doesn’t matter,” Steve Moore says.
“Couldn’t care less,” Kim English says.
That’s the way the players must feel, of course, because really, the Kansas-Missouri thing is irrelevant to them now. Norfolk State is their rival, for another day anyway, and that’s the important thing.
For the fans, this is entirely different. It’s the start of the Border War becoming the new Cold War.
Both sides have taken turns trying to convince anyone who’ll listen that they don’t care as much about the rivalry, depending on allegiance, that either the SEC is too exciting with too many new possibilities, or that all that matters is the teams still in in the Big 12.
It’s all nonsense, I think we can all realize that, but one of the fun little subplots of this weekend is a pretty good indication of where everybody stands.
Kansas and Missouri play in different sessions tomorrow. The games require different tickets. There will be some KU fans on hand for the early games, and some MU fans who stick around for the late games, but for the most part our little experiment will have to wait until Sunday.
Assuming Mizzou beats Norfolk State and KU beats Detroit, fans of each school will share the same building at least one more time.
And if those games on Sunday are close in the second half, I’ll be glancing in the stands to see if the KU or MU fans on hand are rooting against their rival.
I’m guessing it won’t look at all like they don’t care.
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