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Kansas becomes fifth ever No. 1 to lose two straight games to unranked teams

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By SAM LANCE

It’s been a week to forget for No. 1-ranked Kansas. After losing on the road to Creighton on Wednesday, the Jayhawks followed that up with a disappointing performance in a rivalry game against Missouri, falling 76-67.

This is the first time since Florida in 2003 that the AP No. 1 team has lost back-to-back games to unranked opponents. It’s only happened four other times in college basketball history. Kansas had led for just 17 seconds over the past two games.

With 6 seconds remaining, Missouri coach Dennis Gates called a timeout to allow Bill Self and his team to leave before the students stormed the court.

“That was a real court storming,” Self told reporters. “Mizzou played great today, but that court storming may have been better.”

For Missouri, it was their fifth win over an AP No. 1 team, and first since 1997.

Missouri hadn’t beaten Kansas since Feb. 4, 2012, and now the Tigers have a marquee win in the non-conference to help them out come Selection Sunday.

Missouri started off the game with some hot scoring, led mostly by senior guard Tamar Bates and junior forward Mark Mitchell, who scored 26 of the Tigers’ 39 first half points. Kansas simply couldn’t hold onto the ball in the first half, committing 15 turnovers, a season high for a game. That allowed Missouri to a 39-25 lead at the break.

Behind stout defense, Kansas made it a game in the second-half and trimmed it to a nine point game after a 15-0 run over five minutes. The Jayhawks got within three points at 63-60 with 2:31 to play, but their late run just wasn’t enough. Mitchell hit a huge 3-pointer to give Missouri a 68-63 lead, and the Tigers closed it out from there.

“It’s amazing that we were still in the game as poorly as we played, but, you know, we did hang in there second half and cut it to two,” said Self. “I think it was probably a combination of them being good and us not being good. I think we got good enough players to win at a high level, but we have to be a unit.”

As for the Jayhawks, this is now two straight losses in the first two true road games of the season. Kansas will likely fall in the rankings and will be searching for a way to get back on track. It has about a week off before playing NC State at home on Dec. 14.

This story will be updated with postgame quotes.

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