Get your game face on.

It’s game day, folks.

Oh, and welcome to ESPN’s Rivalry Week.

That’s right, boys and girls. My beloved alma mater takes on Kansas tonight, and I can’t wait. I’ll be perched on the couch with some popcorn, a Cherry Coke Zero, Muffin the Wonder Poodle, and cheering on Missouri. Heck, I may even sing the alma mater. Because you guys know you love it when I do that. (The fight song is more about football and it never made sense to me to sing it at basketball games.)

Let me just get this out there. I LOVE the Missouri/Kansas game each year. (Well, actually there are usually two, one in Lawrence and one in Columbia . . . ) But those are my favorite games of the season. When I was in college, I made it a point to get to the MU/KU game each year. We’d always try to get there early, just to revel in the festivities. The Hearnes Center (where Mizzou played at that point) was always packed to the rafters, which is actually where I generally sat, and being a game against KU, Mizzou fans were in fine form. They’d shout “Rock Chalk Jayhawk,” we’d answer back with “Screw KU!” (And of course, substitute “chickenhawk” for Jayhawk.) And there were some less PG-13 rating things yelled, but we won’t discuss that here.

I loved the atmosphere of that game. MU/KU is a true rivalry. You really can’t graduate from Mizzou and be a Kansas fan. There are a few misled souls who have graduated from Mizzou and gone to KU for grad school, but I like to believe that they are just living in sin for a season. I have knocked cute guys off the list of possibilities simply because they had gone to KU or worn a KU shirt. I. do. not. like. KU. They are the enemy.

But No matter how good KU is and/or how bad Mizzou might be that year (there have been some bad years), the KU/MU match-up is always a good game. And I expect it to be tonight. I also expect to “watch” the game with my family, since I’m sure I’ll get several calls from the parents and my brother. I should call and make sure they dress Eli in his MU gear I got him for Christmas. That boy is going to be a fan. He will break my heart if he ever even thinks about going to KU.

So 8 p.m. can’t come fast enough. I want to win this year! If only to knock that smug smirk off Bill Self’s face.