3 Takeaways from Mizzou's Rivalry Loss to No. 21 Kansas

Quick thoughts from the Tigers' second loss to the season in an impactful rivalry matchup.

Dec 7, 2025; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Missouri Tigers guard Sebastian Mack (12) shoots against Kansas Jayhawks guard Melvin Council Jr. (14) and guard Elmarko Jackson (13) during the second half at T-Mobile Center. | © Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

KANSAS CITY, Mo.— There wasn’t a ton to call home about Missouri’s NUMBER loss to the No. 21 Kansas Jayhawks, outside of the first 10 minutes of the game, where the Jayhawks couldn’t buy a bucket. Missouri lost 80-60 in an extension to the Border War Showdown, one that will sting for the Tiger faithful.

In all honesty, there wasn't much that went well for the Tigers. Kansas pulled away in the second half and took full control of every aspect of the game, from the offensive side of the floor to the rebounding department.

Glaring issues are starting to appear for this Missouri team. Against good defensive teams, the Tigers are struggling to score and generate half-court offense. On defense, whatever the Tigers choose to throw at their opponent isn't really working.

The game flipped on its side, starting around the four-minute mark of the first half. The Jayhawks went on a monster run to end the first and enter the second half, turning momentum completely in the direction of Kansas. There was no coming back after that.

Here are three takeaways from Missouri's loss to Kansas.

The game changes when Ant Robinson is out

Dec 7, 2025; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas Jayhawks guard Darryn Peterson (22) shoots against Missouri Tigers guard Anthony Robinson II (0) during the first half at T-Mobile Center. | © Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

Robinson picked up his fourth foul of the game at the 17:02 mark of the game. Without him, the Tigers lost their true primary ball-handler, along with a great defender and solid shot-maker. 

The technical foul he picked up at the end of the first half left both him and head coach Dennis Gates frustrated, undoubtedly making an impact on the game.

"A guy get hit in the face," Gates said. "We call it double tech, and your best player don't close out that first half. I thought we got put in a bad situation."

He can’t do what he needs to do to help this team from the bench. Foul trouble has been an issue for Robinson since he set foot in Columbia, and it hasn’t exactly gotten any better since. A higher level of maturity on the defensive end was expected of Robinson entering his junior season, but his constant foul trouble has continued to plague both him and the Tigers. 

Simply put, Robinson has to be better. When he was in the game, especially in the first half, he was in firm control of the offense and was making plays on defense, minus the fouls. Missouri was able to stay within reach or have a lead when Robinson was in the game.

That's just not the case when he's out. Even if he hasn't taken the leap as a scorer that many thought he would, his presence on both sides of the ball is mandatory for the Tigers to find any sort of success.

It's time for an Anthony Robinson wake-up call at this point in the season. He has all the tools to be the most impactful player on this team, even if his shots aren't falling. He's the best defender and the sole playmaker. Something has to change quickly for the Tigers in general, but Robinson is absolutely at the root of that.

Half-court offense needs more life

Dec 7, 2025; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Missouri Tigers forward Mark Mitchell (25) shoots against Kansas Jayhawks guard Jamari McDowell (11) and guard Tre White (3) during the second half at T-Mobile Center. | © Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

Missouri’s issues on offense became alarmingly clear against Kansas for the last 25 minutes of the game. The Tigers are capable of scoring large chunks of points when they can control the pace and are hitting from the outside. When that's not happening, things crumble.

The Tigers crumbled like dirt on offense against Kansas. They couldn't hit from the perimeter or free-throw line and took too many bad shots to count when they'd get down in the paint. A lack of patience, movement and shot-making burned any chance Missouri had of either getting back into the game or pulling away.

"Free throws and those open looks, and I'll go back and count them, we generated the shots," Gates said. "We just didn't knock them down and it didn't go our way."

Some of it falls on shot-making ability, but there are moments while watching Missouri attempt to execute on the offensive side of the ball that leave you scratching your head. The Jayhawks never had much issue defending the rim and the Tigers didn't have any issues taking bad shots at the rim.

Only going 7-for-27 from the three-point line also makes a difference. The Tigers did get good looks from the perimeter, but failed to make them consistently. This is the third time over the last four games that the Tigers shot under 30% from the three-point line, something that's going to need to change come conference play.

In general, with the SEC part of Missouri's schedule knocking on the door, the Tigers need to find their footing on offense. Even when they've scored large sums of points in recent games, it hasn't always looked pretty. This time around, against one of the nation's best defenses, they looked as unstable and beatable as ever.

No answer on defense

Dec 7, 2025; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Kansas Jayhawks guard Tre White (3) shoots a three point basket as time expires in the first half against the Missouri Tigers at T-Mobile Center. | © Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images

It didn’t matter what looks the Tigers threw at Kansas on defense during the stretch they dominated. Kansas was getting inside and finding easy looks against the Missouri man-to-man defense, but did it even easier when they switched to a zone. 

The same things stand on offense as they do on defense for the Tigers. There are moments that leave you puzzled, especially when Missouri flip-flopped to a zone. Kansas got inside easier than they did the other way around, getting near wide-open shots at the rim.

Gates wasn't completely unenthused by his team's defensive performance, however. He did point to the end of the first half run as a moment of weakness for that side of the ball.

"Defensively, we did a tremendous job following our scouting report," Gates said. "But there was a point I thought the game changed, and they went on to a 20 plus, to probably eight point run or five run going into from that end of the first to the second half."

Missouri's main weakness as a team is its defense as a whole. That isn't the end of the world if it can produce on offense, but when it doesn't winning games gets a whole lot harder.

The Tigers will take the court next at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 11, at Mizzou Arena against Alabama State.