Why Bill Self is impressed with Mizzou, including one player KU recruited hard
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Missouri stands 8-1 as Bill Self credits the Tigers for dominant early wins
- Anthony Robinson and Mark Mitchell drive Missouri's offense and draw fouls
- Kansas emphasizes tougher practices and defensive focus to counter Missouri
Missouri’s basketball team, which is unranked at this early stage of the season, has nonetheless caught the attention of Kansas coach Bill Self.
“They are 8-1, and they’ve beaten everyone pretty handily,” Self, KU’s 23rd-year coach, said of fourth-year MU coach Dennis Gates’ Tigers, who will face the No. 21-ranked Jayhawks (6-3) at 12 p.m. Sunday.
That game at T-Mobile Center will be shown live on ESPN2.
“Then Notre Dame … they (the Tigers) had a chance to win and probably should have won the game,” Self added.
MU fell to the Irish 76-71 Tuesday in South Bend, Indiana.
KU recently defeated the Irish 71-61 on Nov. 24 at the Players Era tournament in Las Vegas.
Aside from Notre Dame, MU has played and defeated Cleveland State (86-59), South Carolina State (98-66), South Dakota (102-68), Prairie View A&M (91-73), Minnesota (83-60), VMI (106-68), SE Missouri (89-84) and Howard (88-67).
“I like their team. I’ve always liked their point guard. I thought he’s been good against us when we played,” Self said of 6-foot-3 junior Anthony Robinson II, who had 11 points with five steals and three assists in MU’s 76-67 victory over KU on Dec. 8, 2024, at Mizzou Arena.
Robinson, a native of Tallahassee, Florida, has averaged 10.1 points per game with 26 assists against 18 turnovers. Senior Mark Mitchell, a 6-9, 230-pound native of Kansas City, averages 18.1 points and 6.1 rebounds a game.
“We recruited Mark hard, so I’m very familiar with him,” Self said of former Bishop Miege and Sunrise Christian Academy forward Mitchell. “He’s like (Duke’s Cameron) Boozer in a lot of ways. They are so good at driving and drawing fouls.”
Boozer, a 6-9, 250-pound freshman, scored 18 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and dished five assists in Duke’s 78-66 win over KU on Nov. 18 in New York.
Mitchell had 17 points and four rebounds in last year’s nine-point win over KU. Tamar Bates, who has graduated, led the way with 29 points and five steals.
Just one current Jayhawk played in last year’s contest. Then a freshman, Flory Bidunga had three points and one rebound in seven minutes in the loss in Columbia.
“We came out flat last year, something we would not do this year for sure,” Bidunga said Friday. “It’s a big rivalry between Kansas and Missouri. They got the best of us, but I think we will bounce back ready to compete again.”
Bidunga, a native of Democratic Republic of Congo, did not follow the KU-MU series growing up.
“I mean, I’ve been here since last year, so I pretty much know a little bit about it. But again, pretty much everybody knows about Missouri-Kansas,” Bidunga said. “And then I think when you commit to Kansas, you also commit to the culture. I think we need to do a better job obviously, I’ll say offensively and defensively. In this kind of game, if the offense is not really working, we need to play well defensively and just be ready to bounce back (from Tuesday’s home loss to UConn).”
Self said Friday he hadn’t had any guest speakers talk to his team about the significance of KU-MU.
“We’ve gone over quite a bit of that stuff. We’ve addressed it as a group,” Self said.
He said the Jayhawks have had some long practices thus far, including this week leading up to the game against MU, a team currently fifth in the “others receiving votes” category of the AP Top 25.
“I told the guys today,” Self said Friday, “’We practice too long, but what happens if we come to practice ready to practice every day and we don’t have to do something five times that we could get done twice if everybody’s locked In?’ I actually hope practices can get cut, not in half, but probably 30 to 40% moving forward. They’re a little too long right now.”
Bidunga believes the team will respond well to Tuesday’s 61-56 defeat to the No. 5 ranked Huskies at Allen Fieldhouse.
“We were sad we lost,” he said. “We led a good (portion of game). It’s a long season, a lot of ups and downs and we just need to keep our head up and then look for the next one.”
