Too new to the college scene to understand that basketball fans at powerhouse schools can get greedy and lose sight of the reality it’s not by how many points that counts, rather just how many victories, Kansas University’s top two freshmen just let it rip Monday night in Allen Fieldhouse.

Their Border Showdown baptism was a memorable one that ended with the scoreboard reading Kansas 80, Missouri 77.

Sherron Collins, playing with the aggressiveness and looseness that made him a Chicago legend and high school All-American, and fellow McDonald’s All-American Darrell Arthur of Dallas, a shot-blocking monster at the best possible time, scored 17 of the Jayhawks’ final 19 points

They won a thrilling rivalry game that featured plenty of stress for the home crowd, but not a dull second. In some ways, isn’t that more enjoyable than a blowout?

Three games into the Big 12 season, Kansas is undefeated and has shown it can blow out a ranked opponent (Oklahoma State) and win close games against unranked teams (Iowa State in overtime on the road Saturday and Mizzou) who play completely different styles. What’s wrong with that?

“You should never apologize for winning on the road in our league against teams that are 11-5, or winning at home against (a big rival),” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “You don’t apologize. It’s unbelievable how some people can view these things, in that every other rivalry it’s ‘Forget the records. Throw out the records.’ But sometimes when we play people, it’s, ‘What was wrong tonight?’ There was nothing wrong. It was a great basketball game. Missouri played great. : That was a fun game.”

For a Kansas fan to view it as anything but a riveting evening of entertainment capped by a happy ending would be masochistic. If you can’t enjoy that, why be a basketball fan?

Missouri, a high-energy team that has embraced new coach Mike Anderson’s high-energy style with maximum effort and mixed results, was in attack mode all night, playing without nervousness, spurred in that regard by its underdog status.

Stacey Harris’ son Sherron, playing with one shoe off and one shoe on for a possession, played the same way. It was as if the sight of former high school rival Stefhon Hannah, Missouri’s magnificent junior point guard, brought Collins back to Chicago and reduced the game to a simple formula: I’m better than you, and my team’s better than yours. Watch me prove it.

Collins proved it all night. He finished with 23 points (on 14 field-goal attempts) and five rebounds in 26 minutes.

Arthur scored two first-half points, but when the clock was becoming a concern, Julian Wright, KU’s most gifted passer from the high post, knew the two places to go with the ball against the Tigers’ zone: either Arthur down low or Collins in the corner.

After watching the duo’s clutch efforts, Self was in no mood for saying sorry for making the jacked crowd of 16,300 sweat so much. Nor should he have been. His team is 16-2 and ranked fifth in the country.

“I said when they hired the different coaches in our league, the different styles will make all the teams better because it makes you prepare for different ways to play, which hopefully will help you if you’re fortunate enough to get into the postseason,” Self said.

The Jayhawks will get there. Meanwhile, enjoy the journey.