‘My ears rang for a day and a half’: KU’s 2012 comeback win vs. Mizzou fueled by crowd

Kansas’ men’s basketball team, with a big-time assist from its fans, has won the last 13 games played against rival Missouri in Allen Fieldhouse.

That includes a perfect 9-0 record against the Tigers in games in Lawrence coached by Bill Self, who overall is 15-4 versus the Tigers as KU coach, including a 5-4 mark in games contested in Columbia, Missouri.

It’s safe to say the crowd has never been louder in KU’s tradition-rich building than on Feb. 25, 2012, when the Jayhawks erased a 19-point deficit to defeat the Tigers, 87-86, in overtime.

“It’s the loudest I can ever remember a facility, the loudest I can remember a game of any sort including rock concerts. I never heard anything like it. My ears rang for a day and a half after it,” former KU director of basketball operations Barry Hinson told The Star in a recent interview.

It was the last game played in the series between the two teams — rivals that will begin a new, six-game, six-year series which will begin at 2:15 p.m. Saturday back in Allen.

“I remember Thomas’ blocked shot more than any play in college basketball I’ve witnessed or been part of,” Hinson said. He was referring to former KU power forward Robinson’s rejection of a driving layup by Phil Pressey that prevented a KU loss and sent the Border War contest into overtime.

It also was loud in the fieldhouse, of course, after the final play of OT.

With MU down one, Michael Dixon dished to Marcus Denmon, who was unable to launch a long-range shot before the final horn. Dixon had been boxed in by Robinson as he tried to get to the basket and hit a shot that would have given the Tigers a sweep of the season series during the 2011-12 season.

Denmon actually converted the final shot attempt but well after the horn had sounded.

“The jubilation after … they were ranked so high (No. 3 to KU’s No. 4 ranking) and it was the last game (in KU-MU series until this season). They were going on (to SEC). Everything you can imagine. They played so great. it was probably a movie script game if you were a Jayhawk. It wasn’t if you were a Tiger. For us it looked dead in the water. All of a sudden Allen erupted,” said Hinson, who currently works as adviser on Mike Boynton’s basketball support staff at Oklahoma State.

Yes, the fans helped KU rally after the Jayhawks trailed by as many as 19 points in the second half.

“It was late in the season. We were playing for something (winning gave KU at least a share of Big 12 title). On top of it being a rival, on top of it being maybe the last time we play them (Tigers) and it’s a home game and all those fans going crazy. … Being down 19 it probably got quiet in there for all of two minutes maybe,” said former KU guard Tyshawn Taylor.

His two free throws with 8.6 seconds left in overtime erased a one-point deficit and accounted for the points that propelled KU to victory.

“Any time we scored or got it close, to 11 or nine, they (fans) went crazy, so it was no way (we’d give up),” Taylor said, crediting the fans for making so much noise.

“Then when we got it tied or under one or something like that, there was no way for us to just be like, ‘OK cool.’ We were playing on pure adrenaline, playing off pure will and fight. That was the best atmosphere for a stretch there. I couldn’t even hear. Words can’t even describe it, for real,” Taylor added.

Hinson said the Jayhawk coaching staff has come to rely on the fans for help in pulling out big victories, such as the last win over Mizzou at home.

For instance, Hinson is convinced the fans definitely helped make possible KU’s comeback from the 19-point deficit.

“All we had to do, and coach (Self) has always talked about this, he talked about it every year at KU when I was there. There would come a point in time he said, ‘All you have to do is get this crowd started,’” Hinson said. “It starts with a dunk, It starts with a dive for a loose ball. It starts with taking a charge, an unselfish play. If you do that then it’ll come alive. We started doing that.

“Thomas Robinson’s blocked shot ... after that it was unbelievable because Mizzou was making everything. They couldn’t miss. We went through a period we were tight. We were trying too hard. Then we went through a period when we were trying not to lose. We finally got to the point the crowd said for lack of a better term ‘Forget everything that’s happened, let’s just let go, play and see what happens.’ That’s what we did.”

Senior guard Conner Teahan is partly responsible for igniting the crowd in the last KU-Missouri game. He went 4-of-4 from three, helping slice into that 19-point second-half deficit.

“I know we came out in the second half and we thought we’re gonna take it to them and then they ended up taking it to us in the beginning of that half and then we kind of started to chip away,” Teahan said. “I know, a couple of my shots I think got the crowd fired up. And we were able to really use that momentum to obviously go on to win the game.”

Asked if he remembered the noise in Allen that day, Teahan, who now works as a senior vice president for Merrill Lynch in Kansas City, said: “I think when you’re playing you are so focused on what you’re doing that you obviously feed off that energy, but I know that coming out at halftime, it was loud. And then obviously the beginning of the game too,” Teahan said.

“Then as we started to make that comeback, it just started to get louder and louder. So it was a lot of fun.”

KU assistant coach Kurtis Townsend said: “I think I just remember how happy all our fans were after that game, just thinking back to when Thomas blocked that shot and the place went crazy and when they didn’t get the shot off when guarded … the clock went off; they actually made the shot if I recall correctly.

“Players were running on the floor. It was a big win for us because if I remember correctly we were both ranked very high.”

Of the reaction to the win, Townsend said: “That’s one of my greater moments. I almost pulled out my shoulder moving my arms so hard. I’m glad coach (Self) didn’t hit anybody on his uppercut.”

Taylor remembers the players celebrating briefly before getting in the handshake line. For instance, Travis Releford jumped on the scorers table and ripped off his jersey.

“I just asked Trav (who was in room when Taylor was interviewed by The Star). He said, ‘Hell yeah (he remembers),’” Taylor said. “Trav says when we played at Missouri, Steve Moore took his shirt off and started running (into) the crowd. Trav remembered that so he said he went right in front of their bench. I don’t remember that though (laugh),” Taylor added.

Taylor, who went 2-2 against MU in games played in Columbia, Missouri during his college career that spanned from 2009-12, recalled some loud crowds in Mizzou Arena as well. Missouri, in fact, won the first game between the teams during that season.

“I mean it’s always tough playing over there with them being really good. It’s probably the best Mizzou team I played in the four years I was here,” Taylor said. “They were really good. I remember the team we played there my freshman year was really good and the team we played my senior year was really good, one of the best teams in the country.”

Next year the two teams will play Game Two of the six-game, six-year series at Mizzou Arena.

For now, the Tigers will have to deal with the noise level in Allen.

“The whole thing with Kansas, the student section there, you know, 15 minutes before, maybe 30 minutes before tip, they’re already there, or an hour before tip maybe, I don’t know what it was. But when we got to the building, they were there,” former MU coach Frank Haith, coach of the Tigers in 2012, said in an interview with The Star.

“So it was juiced. And obviously just the way the game played out, it made it even, they were even louder. But I think our guys, I was so proud of our guys and how we handled ourselves,” added Haith, now head coach at Tulsa.

Noted former MU guard Marcus Denmon in an interview with The Star: “In my four years, that was the most quiet I ever heard Allen Fieldhouse (as MU built its 19-point lead). Phog Allen is always loud. It’s always an exciting place to play, but you could hear a pin drop in there, like the first 20 minutes of the game. The last four minutes got really loud.”

The loudest ever in Allen? Well, those at the KU’s 150-95 win over Kentucky on Dec. 9, 1989 insist the noise that day rivals the KU-Missouri game. And some KU-K-State games through the years as well.

This year’s game?

“I just want to see a competitive game,” former KU guard Taylor said. “Like I said as basketball players we respect each other on the court. It’s a school rivalry but I’m sure those guys have a great respect for each other where it will be super competitive but at the end of the day everybody will shake hands and be proud of the way they played. I want to see us win, but I’d love to see a competitive game, a scrappy, rivalry type game.”

This story was originally published December 10, 2021 at 5:00 AM.

Gary Bedore

The Kansas City Star

816-234-4068

Gary Bedore covers KU basketball for The Kansas City Star. He has written about the Jayhawks since 1978 — during the Ted Owens, Larry Brown, Roy Williams and Bill Self eras. He has won the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year award and KPA writing awards.