ku! mu! live blog ...

KU! MU! Let’s hit the not-quite-live blog!

20:00: “You are looking live at one of the great venues in all of sport, the Phog Allen Field House!”, in the words of Brent Musburger. Sadly, Brent is joined tonight by the worst color commentator in sports broadcasting, Bob Knight. No matter how many times I hear it, I love the “you are looking live!” intro. Knight looks stoned. Not that I’d know what being stoned looks or feels like. Let’s just move on.

20:00: No, really. Bob Knight looks baked. At least Brent called it the “Border War”. Of all the indignities the Lew Perkins era dumped on the Jayhawks, and God knows we’ll be dealing with the criminal charges, ethics accusations, and asset recovery issues for a while, changing the name of this game to “Showdown” was the worst of them all.

20:00: Probably good we don’t hop like that on benches before football games. Those things wouldn’t last.

Morris misses. Couldn’t tell you which one, I didn’t pay that close of attention.

Back to back defensive steals. This game is gonna be fun. 19:15 left, still scoreless, Hawks ball.

Taylor tough miss.

Morningstar … awful layup miss. Taylor follows. 2-0 Hawks. And MU storms down the court and draws the foul going for the layup. You can’t relax for even 0:01 against these people. Denmon hits both. Tied at 2.

Reed … bang! 4-2 Hawks, 18:09 to go first half.

Who the hell failed to box out Ratliffe? Easy follow. Tied at 4.

Cheap foul on Pressey. Stupid foul at the top of the key.

Markieff, bang. 6-4. For the fifteenth time already, Bob Knight says the Morrises are “good posters”. I’m assuming he means on the court, and not on Facebook.

Horrid shot by Taylor. Definitely playing at MU’s pace so far.

Great pass to Bowers. 8-6 MU. I missed a Mizzou basket somewhere.

Morningstar, bango! Tied at 8. Great pace and action so far.

Ratliffe from 3. Ouch. Tigers regrab the lead. Markieff answers with a layup. 11-10 Los Tigres.

Bowers nails it. Musburger: “We could have one brewing here”. I hope he means a game, and not, uuh, you know.

Denmon with the charge. We hit the under 16. 13-10 Mizzou.

Tonight’s adult beverage of choice? Figured I’d go old school. Yup, Original Coors. At least until the six pack runs out, then it’s back to Ocean Spray Cranberry juice and Polar Ice vodka.

If you missed today’s post, I picked MU to win 81-72. Have a bad feeling about this game.

Doing this old school too, because I forgot my Cover It Live password and got locked out. D’oh!

Two misses by Little, but hits the third. 13-12 Tiggers.

Have no idea what Knight just said, but MU just got it's third offensive putback. Yikes. 15-12.

Robinson misses both free throws. English draws the foul on the other end. More Knight nonsense.

English hits the first. Lane violation gives him a second chance on the second ... bango. 17-12 Mizzou. Game definitely at their pace.

Morningstar, nice feed. 17-14. Crowd seems dead so far.

Dixon ... Christ. 20-14. What a shot.

And KU commits the offensive foul just shy of the under 12. Definitely not starting well.

English, quick shot. Dammit, Knight agrees with me. I hate that.

Markieff! 20-17 Mizzou.

Dixon hits from the top of the key. 22-17. Traveling on KU to boot on the other end. 11:32 to go. Mizzou up 5. Excuse me, I need a refill of my adult beverage. Wasn't planning on burning through this many, this soon.

And we're live. Working on logging into Yahoo! IM. Should be up momentarily.

Rowe: the MU huddle is "very excited right now". These jokes write themselves.

Big miss from three by MU. Cheap foul on Dixon on the defensive end to boot. More Knight nonsense. Seriously, I'd be a better option for ESPN than Knight, and even factoring in the FCC fine money, I'd be cheaper for them too.

Little hits. 22-19. Good start for him.

Safford nearly raped by Reed. To the line he goes.

Knight: "he (Safford) gave him the target". Safford hits one of two. 23-19 MU, 10:20 to go.

Markieff showed up tonight! 23-21.

English got away with a double dribble. Airball to boot by Safford.

Marcus ties it! 23 all! We're on pace for a 95-95 regulation. I'm very, very good with that.

KU steal! Ugly sequence ends with a Kansas turnover. Knight: "that'd have been a really big bucket for Kansas to get there". Glad you're hear coach.

Little for three ... BANGO! Hawks lead 26-23! And NOW the Field House comes to life.

Good answer by Ratliffe. Kansas by 1. Knight: "He's made himself available very well". Again, MU jokes write themselves.

Pressey steal, Taylor foul to save the bucket.

Jesus God above. How did that go in? From 30 plus feet. MU up 2.

Little again! Great board putback! Tied at 28, next dead ball is the under 8.

First Ratliffe miss. Hawk board.

Jump ball? Yup. Under 8 at 7:12, tied at 28. Will be MU ball after the break.

Musburger commenting on "hops". For once, that was not a beer reference.

Air ball! Air ball! Air ball!

Knight: "That's exactly what you don't want out of the offense". He's not an insightful asshat for nothing. Of course, he said Dixon threw it up. It was Denmon. One of the Pressey's hits a layup. 30-28 Tigers.

If ESPN is paying Knight by the word, they're definitely getting ripped off.

Another Pressey kid layup, KU timeout. MU up 34-31. Time for another Banquet original.

What the hell game is Bob Knight watching? Neither team is being "patient" on the offensive end!

And one for Robinson! Betting he misses it, but solid follow up to score and draw the foul.

As usual, I'm wrong. Tied at 34, 4:57 to go.

Who hasn't heard the Thomas Robinson saga at this point?

KU in the bonus after a MU offensive foul. Morningstar hits the first. KU up 1.

Knight: "They (MU) move well from side to side, especially when they reverse it". Uuh, that statement made sense how?

MU miss. Markieff draws the foul. Under four timeout upcoming. 35-34 Kansas, 3:58 to go.

Knight: "A lot of guys in the post can't draw the foul". (steve bashing head on desk in frustration of knight's utter stupidity).

Love the fake Brent Musburger laugh.

Nice job OSU dude. Not even I've been charged with four felony counts at the same time.

Shocker -- Markieff misses a free throw. He did make one.

Knight calls this a "really crucial moment" because "Kansas has gone from four or five behind to two ahead". Good God, to think he makes money for this nonsense.

Bowers hits, tied at 36.

Crap, charge on KU. Robinson. Musburger is confused who the foul was on, although in his defense, I kind of am too.

Should have been Marcus Morris. And it was. Good God, how do you confuse the "0" uni with one that begins with a "2"?

Turnover MU. Still tied at 36, we're at 3 to go.

Mario Little from 3! This is a bigger shocker on the shock-o-meter than "Steve hooks up tonight!"

Robinson, bang! Knight calls him "your guy Robinson". So Brent has action on KU? I mean Musburger, not the obvious Brent that may or may not have some action on tonight's contest.

Knight doesn't recall Kyrie Irving's name. I mean, he's only one of the three most impactful freshmen in the nation entering the season ...

MU hits a pair of free throws. 41-38 KU, pushing 2 to go.

Bad shot by Morningstar. And Little picks up his third foul on the rebound. Yikes.

Can we hire Paul Pressey Sr. as our free throw coach? MU within one on two more textbook form foul shots.

Morningstar ... BANGO! 44-40 Kansas! Great ball rotation.

Turnover MU!

Taylor ... too soon. Board Pressey. Bowers from the corner, yup. 44-42. Great game so far. GREAT game!

Both teams shooting over 55 percent. I love it.

Morningstar gets his own board, KU can bleed it to 3 seconds, and will.

Best first half of hoops I've watched in a while at the college level.

Relaford ... YES! Halfcourt shot falls short. 46-42 KU at the half. AWESOME first half. Absolutely awesome. That was a NBA paced first half. Couldn't ask for better. Absolutely loved it.

Be back in ten.

And ... we're back.

I know it's been chopped in half, I know it first hit the airwaves nearly a decade before I was born ... but the Hawaii 5-0 Theme Song is still THE coolest theme song ever.

And Grace Park emerging from the ocean in a lovely two-piece doesn't hurt things at all.

Gotta admit -- it's been probably close to a year since I had some Original Coors ... and I'm remembering why I had a solid beer gut for a while post-college now. Forgot how good and (dj voice) criminitely! underrated the Banquet is.

Alaska -- Beyond Your Dreams, Within Your Reach. Crap, sounds like a campaign slogan theme thingy for their most famous native daughter.

Rece Davis: "Second half coming up, what will we learn about the Jayhawks". Uuh, I think the second part of his closing is what matters: "And Missouri, on the road". Final Four contenders find a way to steal this game. This is the closest MU has been at halftime in Lawrence since 2002, when MU trailed by one. That MU team reached the Elite Eight (that KU team reached the Final Four). I could live with both outcomes this March. Especially the latter.

Damn, Knight wasn't fired at halftime.

Travel on Markieff to open the half. Good call.

Uuh, that was definitely a "bad pass", Brent.

Cheap foul on MU, on Ratliffe, his third. Yikes. Safford to sub in for a while for him.

Good steal by MU. AWESOME Pressey to Bowers layup. Awesome.

Another cheap MU foul, this one on one of the Pressey's.

Marcus follows up Reed's miss. 48-44 Kansas.

Great ball movement by MU. Denmon layup. 48-46.

Marcus ... and one! Three of KU's four possesssions this half have been to pound it into a Morris in the post. Smart thinking.

Hits it. 51-46 Kansas.

Pressey ... nope. Good look though. Over the back on Safford? Yup. Marcus to the foul line. Knight: "Kansas can have it's largest lead if they convert these two". The next time KU hits both will be the first.

He hits one. 52-46.

Awful shot by MU, and a cheap foul to boot. That's four or five fouls already on MU this half. MU in serious foul trouble.

Taylor ... awful. Markieff ... yes! 54-46. It's slipping away. Marcus ... yes! 56-46 Kansas, timeout Mizzou!

For what it's worth, my favorite commercial yesterday was the Bieber / Ozzy Best Buy ad. You gotta love the Bieber. A close second was the Darth Vader Volkswagon ad. Loved that one too. Worst ad? Without question, Joan Rivers as the new Go Daddy girl. Nearly puked seeing that one.

Denmon stops the bleeding. Not sure what KU was thinking there.

Taylor ... YES! 59-48 KU!

Pressey answers with his three. This is fun. Excuse me, this is fun!!!

Knight being the proverbial wet blanket in the room. Bob? Buddy? Pal? This game is supposed to be fun! God forbid you realize that.

We're at the under 16. 59-51 Kansas, I think they just called the fifth team foul of the half on MU. Couldn't be sure though -- neither announcer spent any of the last 45-50 seconds before the commercial doing anything other than being grouchy (Knight) or channeling their inner Gus Johnson (Musburger).

I think a Morris just got an and one. Wouldn't know by the commentary -- they're off on some Tom Izzo tangent.

KU up 62-51.

Denmon answers from three. KU is in the bonus.

Relaford ... wow! Where has this been! 65-54!

Bowers good. 65-56. Great follow up to Safford's miss.

Taylor misses an open three. Can't fault him -- had to shoot that. Foul on Markieff on the board. Really cheap one, this might be a flagrant to boot.

Should be a flagrant, that was ridiculous.

Proper call. Flagrant.

Safford hits the first. I agree with Knight -- this is a huge momentum shifter, could be five free points essentially. Safford hits the second. MU ball to boot now. It's 65-58 Kansas, MU ball.

Should have been five -- in and out for MU. Foul on Bowers on the other end. Man, that was so close to going down from three for them and cutting this to four.

Robinson hits the first. 66-58.

67-58. Holy God, Robinson hit them both!

Blocked by Robinson!

Three here would be huge.

How about a posterizer! Robinson! 69-58 Kansas!

Cheap foul on Relaford. Still about 13 to play, KU up 11.

Safford hits. Not a shot I would have taken. Down to 9.

Little ... BANG! As the shot clock runs out! KU up 12!

Bad shot by Dixon, bailed out by a turnover.

MU not even looking inside of 12 feet at this point.

Denmon misses from three!

Knight: "This is where KU really wants to be patient". Relaford drills a three with :29 on the shot clock. Shut up Bob. Just please, shut up. Kansas up 15, timeout MU!

MU has completely abandoned any semblance of a post game. It's all 15-25 foot jumpers right now. Not even remotely surprisingly, the lead has gone from 4 to 15.

Another bricked three out of the timeout. Foul at the other end on Ratliffe, his fourth. Under 12 timeout at 10:59 to go.

Another two, three minutes of this, and KU is up 25 and you can cue the Rock Chalk chants. This is a complete implosion by MU in this half. A complete implosion. Someone done effed up the halftime adjustments.

Fine, ESPN, fine. Call UNC / Duke "the greatest rivalry of them all". But the first game Wednesday is pretty damned serious too. (G'Town / Cuse). As is tonight's showdown. Which only, you know, came about because of a freaking Civil War and each side raping the other side's women, killing their children, and burning their towns to the ground. But clearly, two schools eight miles apart (encouraging inbreeding) is the "greatest rivalry of them all". Jesus.

Foul on KU, Little. His fourth? Yup. MU misses the first. Hits the second. Down to 14.

That's just about the ugliest MU / KU couple mixing ever. I mean, the one mixed KU / MU couple I know is DJ and his better half. And Dusty and Kellie could each pack on 250 lbs apiece, and still not approach the heft of those two they just showed.

Morris kid hits one. Up to 16.

Really, really, really cheap foul on Marcus. MU to the line. Really cheap foul.

MU hits both.

Good point by Brent -- at least Christina didn't lip synch the Anthem yesterday.

Reed for three! It's up to 17!

Two straight possessions MU has attacked the rim. Where was this the first 10 minutes of the half? Pressey gets the and one.

Crowd chanting "bullshit". Come on. We're better than this, Hawk fans.

80-66, 9:15 to go.

Really cheap foul on MU, as Marcus backed into the paint. I think this is the last one-and-one.

KU hits both. For the first time all year, KU has to be pushing 70 percent at the line.

MU whiffs. On the other end, Marcus is fouled going up. I can't believe MU has imploded like this. I totally misread this team. Totally misread them.

Marcus hits the first.

Hits the second. We're officially in Bizarro World now! KU up 17!

Uh oh. Phil Pressey from three. Down to 14. Let's not get this kid warmed up guys.

Good point by Knight, amazingly enough -- KU's been up tempo from the opening tip. To slow it down now, you risk going cold from the field.

KU hits a 10 footer, Pressey hits a three to counter. 85-72 KU. Don't let up guys. Don't go four corners yet.

Quick foul on MU brings us to the under 8. Under 8 (7:34 to go), and its 85-72. I friggin LOVE this game!

Great point from a buddy via text -- this is exactly where MU / G'Town was two months ago. And MU forced overtime. Same pace, same type of game.

KU misses the first. Misses the second, and a foul on KU on the boxout. We're back from Bizarro World and back to reality.

MU now in the bonus, one and one the next three.

Knight can't add. 4 plus 9 equals 15.

MU misses. Ouch.

Another quick foul on MU. Knight is dead wrong on this. He thinks this "bails Kansas out". I argue you hack-a-hawk the rest of the way. KU is HORRENDOUS at the foul line. Horrendous.

KU hits both. It's a fluke. 87-72 KU, 7:18 to go.

Bang. Ratliffe from three. It's down to 12, still over 7 to go.

MU goes full court press. Another Hack-a-Hawk, although they lose Ratliffe. Again though, it's the right strategory. KU is awful at the foul line. Make us earn every point, versus a gimme two in the paint.

There's still 6:44 to go, and its 87-75. I freaking love this.

English checks in for Ratliffe. (steve gulping in a little bit of fear ...)

KU hits the first.

And the second. 89-75, 6:37 to go.

Dixon misses from three. Too quick. You don't have to stop and pop yet.

Great drive by Taylor. 91-75. MU needs to do something ... and does, great drive and draw the foul on Marcus. English totally sold that, but great play by Kim.

English gets both. 91-77, still 6:01 to go. Plenty O Time.

Oh. My. God! Taylor. To Little. Bango!

And Markieff rejects MU's follow up into the fifteenth row! Holy crap, that was an awesome back to back!

Damn! Taylor nearly stole the inbounds!

Foul on Relaford. MU actually looks intimidated for the first time since Quin Snyder was in charge.

MU gets one. 93-78.

Bowers fouls out. Tough call. Looked like both Bowers and Marcus slipped in the paint. Bowers had 19. Solid game for him.

Quick flash to the ESPN announcers ... and Knight's eyes are more glazed than a Krispy Kreme donut. I need to get the digits of his supplier.

95-78 KU. 5:12 to go. Make that 95-80, no slowdown by either team.

97-80! Morningstar. Make that 97-82. MU won't go away quietly.

That's four made jumpers in the last 46 seconds ... and this is a double digit game. I am so freaking digging this!

Morningstar quick three ... nope. Huge possession for MU here.

English misses an open three. Next dead ball is the under four. KU walking it up the court.

Great steal by English. Great defense by Morningstar to force the out of bounds. 3:27 to go, KU up 97-82. As good as that lead looks, if ANY team can pull a string of threes out of their ass ... it's the guys in black and gold ...

If I was Mike Anderson, I'd design a stop and pop three for Paul Pressey out of this timeout, hope he does what he's done all night (hit it), and full court press. On the other hand, if KU survives this next 25-30 second surge that MU has to be playing for, you can start The Chant.

Musburger: "I was at breakfast this morning at the Argosy ..." I'd have wagered on Harrah's dammit.

Great designed play to Pressey but for two. MU does go full court.

KU can take this to the 2:40 mark.

Reed ... BALLGAME! KU up 100-84, 2:30 to go. Pressey hits a quickie, 100-86.

MU has to foul, they're not.

Marcus fouled on the drive. 1:46 to go. For the third time, we're waving the wheat as a Tiger heads to the bench.

Self looks furious still. I love that guy's intensity. Up 14 on your hated rival, you dropped 101 (and counting) on them, and you're still pissed off. I love it.

101-86, board MU.

English misses. Rock ... Chalk ... Jay ... Hawk ... K ... U! Musburger: "And that familiar chant has started ..."

AWESOME -- Bob Knight is chanting along! I take back every "Fire Bob Knight" comment in this blog!

103-86, I missed a KU bucket somewhere while chanting along.

How insane would it be to go 30-1 ... and NOT win your conference? Or even tie for the conference championship? If Texas wins out, we're gonna see that happen. Unreal.

103-86 is your final. MU's lack of a post game is their achilles heel. They had nothing in the first 8 minutes of the second half when KU pounded it inside. Might have to rethink MU's ceiling. Sweet sixteen seems more likely than surprise Final Four run.

KU on the other hand? Wish we'd play like that (and the second half at Nebraska) every game. Maybe Self is realizing this? That this team isn't built to play his usual style of defense-keys-offense? If the last 60 minutes of basketball mean anything, I probably misread KU's ceiling too. KU can beat anyone if they play this tempo. They'll lose to anyone decent if they play the typical Self plodding style.

Great game overall, even if the second half was kind of a letdown. Can't wait for the rematch three weeks from Saturday. (And hopefully a third showdown a week after that).