Mizzou’s 11-2 start to the basketball season is starting to look awfully deceiving. With one look at the schedule it should’ve been obvious things weren’t as they appeared. The Tigers won their first nine games, but to put that in perspective, all of them were at home. Only two games during that streak were against NCAA tournament teams from a year ago and both Davidson and Arkansas were first round losers.

MU didn’t leave the comfy confines of Mizzou Arena until the 10th game of the season. That would seem like plenty of time to gain some confidence and find an identity for your team. But it seems that the Tigers are having a tough time playing when the crowd is against them. All three of their road contests have resulted in losses. The neutral site loss to Illinois (73-70) stands as the only close defeat. Purdue allowed Missouri to stick around for a half, but then outlasted the Tigers 79-62 in West Lafayette, Ind. Texas showed MU no love and no remorse with an 88-68 spanking in Austin. Even home games have been a struggle of late. Iowa State overcame a double-digit second half deficit to beat Mizzou 66-65 and Kansas State stole one in Columbia 85-81. That 11-2 start has since been followed by losing five of their last seven, including the last three.

The Tigers look to end that streak and more tonight when they travel to No. 6 Kansas. Mizzou has had recent success against the Jayhawks having won two of the last three meetings, but none of them were in Lawrence. MU hasn’t won at Allen Fieldhouse since 1999, a streak that has lasted seven games.

Let’s just say starting the Big 12 season 0-4 won’t help Missouri dance at the end of the year.