OVERLAND PARK, Kan. — It’s been 31 years since the Mizzou men’s basketball team entered the NCAA Tournament as a higher seed than Kansas, but that hasn’t dampened the enthusiasm of Jayhawks fans for March Madness at Maloney’s Sports Bar & Grill in Overland Park.
Playing in March is a birthright for KU fans, whose team isn’t a top-four seed for the first time in 25 years.
“We’re just playing the long game,” Jayhawks fan Cassie Chapman said. “Bill Self knows how to get to the tournament, right? He knows how to play in the tournament. He’s coached for so many years. The players are ready for this.”
Despite entering the tourney as a No. 7 seed, the lowest since Kansas was a No. 8 seed in 2000, there’s optimism in Oz.
“The optimism is that, if we can get through this first game, I like the way the draw works out for us,” KU fan Cory Reynolds said. “The expectations are a little lower, but that’s a good thing for us sometimes.”
There’s definitely a different level of confidence entering March Madness than most seasons.
“If we’re honest, it’s kind of a little low,” Chapman said.
Still, that didn’t stop fans from flocking to Maloney’s for first-round games Thursday and Friday.
“This is something we do every year,” Reynolds said.
It’s a tradition for lots of Mizzou fans, too — one that means more this March.
“It’s more exciting now that we get to watch the Tigers,” MU fan Austin Swailes said. “I’m excited about that — that we actually get to watch our team as opposed to rooting for other teams or just the bracket. ... We’re looking at Final Four stuff this year.”
Ross Chapman — a Mizzou fan married to Kansas fan Cassie — agreed.
“It’s exciting,” he said of returning to the Big Dance a year after a winless SEC season. “Last year was a little bit of a fluke, we had a little downslide, but now we’re back in it and pretty excited.”
Kansas State fans were even allowed to enjoy the party, even though their team didn’t get selected for March Madness.
“I’m honorary (KU fan),” Megan Watson, a Gardner native and Wildcats fan who was wearing a KU jacket, said. “K-State didn’t make the tournament, so I’m representing my husband’s alma mater. Unfortunately, I know a lot more about KU than I would like to (know).”
During the early window of first-round games Thursday, KU and Mizzou fans seemed to coexist peacefully.
“We’ve got some Missouri people in here as well — so, go Drake,” Reynolds said. “Other than that, we pace ourselves and we like to have a little bit of action on all these games early on.
But the rivalry was expected to heat up closer to tip-off with Kansas battling 10th-seeded Arkansas in Providence, Rhode Island, about a half-hour before Mizzou tipped off against 11th-seeded Drake in Wichita.
“We always know KU comes out at the top; Mizzou, it’s one of those like, they always hope but,” Cassie then broke out in song, “‘never gonna get it, never gonna get it.”
Regardless of your allegiance, tourney time is a great time to be a college basketball fan, especially in Kansas City.
“It’ll be exciting to have both games on — good atmosphere and all of that,” Swailes said.
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