“I’d be a fool to sit here and act like it’s just a regular game, like it’s no different,” Missouri guard Tamar Bates said. “It’s just as serious for the players as it is for the fans.”

Growing up in Kansas City, Bates and Tiger forward Mark Mitchell have a full understanding of what today’s matchup between the Tigers and No. 1-ranked kansas means.

“Obviously it’s a big deal. It’s a great thing that we can bring this rivalry back,” Mitchell said. “… It’s going to be a great environment, two great teams, two great coaches going against each other.”

Thus far into the season, the Tigers haven’t played in a great environment.

Opening the season at Memphis was a good road test, but many Tiger fans were rightly disheartened by last season and have yet to return to Mizzou Arena.

Attendance has been low, especially compared to this point in Dennis Gates’ first year in Columbia when energy was sky high.

That will change today.

“All rivalry games have a different type of energy, a different feeling in the air,” Mitchell said. “... I’m experienced in these types of situations, so I can bring that experience to the team for the guys who might have not played last year or the year before in this game. Show them what it means to be in a rivalry game.”

Mitchell is new to the Tigers this season, but in his two years of college basketball, he played in four editions of Duke/North Carolina, one of the other premiere rivalries in college basketball, as well as some experience against kansas in a five-point loss in 2022 where he produced seven points on 3-of-7 shooting with five rebounds as a freshman.

“Throw out the records, the stats, whatever else,” Mitchell said. “We’re just two teams with animosity toward each other.”

The return of the series after nine years without a matchup hasn’t gone the way the Tigers were hoping for.

But after a large loss in the series’ first game back, the Tigers fought to a single-digit loss last year with Bates and fellow Kansas City native Aidan Shaw both in the starting lineup.

Most of Mizzou’s stat production from last year’s matchup is gone though with 21 points, six assists and three rebounds from Sean East, 17 points and two assists from Nick Honor and seven points and seven boards from Noah Carter.

“We have a completely different roster, we have some returners, but just the makeup of the team is different,” Bates said. “Obviously, the mentality is the same, the preparation is a little different just because they have some different players and new added pieces … it’s not really too much different other than the names on the back of the jerseys."

The two teams enter today’s matchup with different momentum.

The Tigers come in having come back from an 18-point deficit to win their last game, while kansas suffered its first loss of the season last time out as it fell 76-63 to Creighton.

“No lulls, no gaps between us, just the connectedness we had, that’s what carried us to fight the last 20 minutes,” Mitchell said of the comeback. “The first half, we were a little back-and-forth, things like that, but I think we were playing that connected on defense. On offense, just being together, I think we’re one of the best teams in the country.”

If the Tigers can carry over that momentum from Tuesday’s second half, they can do something a Mizzou team hasn’t done since Marcus Denmon scored 29 points in February of 2012, beat kansas.

“It’s a whole different game,” Mitchell said.

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