An old rivalry heats back up, warms the heart
The Kansas City Star
So, you may or may not have seen the weekend column on Kansas State’s historic achievement this year, winning league titles in both sports we care about — the kings of the one-year-old new Big 12.
And you may or may have seen a few tweets I sent out about the absurdity of KU’s run of basketball dominance^.
^ Here’s one more: Texas is second in the league with two (shared) titles since 2005, equaling Kansas’ total if you only included seasons in which KU lost three straight league games.
In response, I’ve heard from perturbed fans of both sides, most of them arguing points that are either, at best, stretches of facts^ or just irrelevant to what we’re talking about here^^.
^ DO THE REFS GET A SHARE OF KU’S TITLE TOO!?!?!?!?
^^ Bruce Weber got fired last year and Oklahoma and Texas are the stronger overall athletic programs.
Clear heads can see what we’re dealing with here. K-State had, without debate, the best season in the two sports we care about in the first year of the Big 12. Kansas is, without debate, on a preposterous run of basketball success. Neither diminishes the other.
But, even with a few of the responses laced with various forms of you’re-an-idiot, it was nice to see.
For whatever reason, I had my doubts about how well the KU-KSU rivalry could fill the void after Missouri left for the SEC. The Sunflower rivalry always seemed more like a brotherly thing to me than the beautiful mutual hatred of the Border War (the Tigers, incidentally, found their own renewed rivalry).
There are differences, for sure. But I think this season — this past weekend in particular — is showing a more heated side. I like that. Makes it more fun. And I like that we’ll see more of it here in Kansas City this week with the Big 12 tournament. And hopefully more of it again next week in the first weekend of the NCAA’s.
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