Portal:Basketball/Selected article/February, 2008

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The Sunflower Showdown is the series of athletic contests between Kansas State University and the University of Kansas, most notably football and men's basketball. The name is derived from the official nickname for the state of Kansas: the Sunflower State. In addition to being natural geographic rivals, both schools are members of the Big 12 Conference North Division, so they are guaranteed to play each other annually in all sports.

The basketball series dates back to 1907, and is the most-played series in either school's history. The University of Kansas leads the basketball series 174-90 following a Kansas State victory in the first contest of the 2007-2008 season.

The two schools had a strong rivalry in basketball for several decades, peaking in the 1950s. For the past two decades, the University of Kansas has dominated the series, including a winning streak over K-State that lasted from 1994 to 2005. Even when the schools have been at different levels, however, upsets are always a possibility in the rivalry, as when Kansas State upset a KU team that was ranked #1 in the AP Poll on January 17, 1994, or when KU pulled the upset on a K-State team ranked #1 on January 17, 1953.

Over the decades, the rivalry has seen a number of notable coaches match wits, including Jack Gardner, Tex Winter, and Jack Hartman at Kansas State, and James Naismith, Phog Allen, Larry Brown, and Roy Williams at KU. During the 2006-2007 season, both teams featured noteworthy coaches with high winning percentages – Bill Self (KU) and Bob Huggins (KSU). Following that year, however, Huggins left Kansas State to return to his alma mater, West Virginia University. The 2007-2008 season promises a high degree of interest in the Showdown, as Kansas returns nearly every player from the previous season, losing only Julian Wright to the NBA, and Kansas State debuts the top recruiting class in the country under the tutelage of an untested first-year head coach, Frank Martin.

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