Is Kansas’ Big 12 basketball title streak annoying? ‘Yes. Yes. It really is.’

Ishmail Wainright is in his fourth year at Baylor and before that grew up in Kansas City, so he is uniquely qualified to talk about the most annoying part of playing basketball in the Big 12.

He may or may not be aware of the joke about the league being Kansas and nine other schools in both football and men’s basketball, but he is absolutely aware that the league is working on year No. 13 of failing to knock the Jayhawks out of the regular-season championship.

So this year, his last at Baylor, will be spent much like the first three. He will pay special attention to KU scores, checking them the first thing after his own games, hoping — really, really, hoping — to see a Kansas loss. In fact, Wainright is not too proud to admit he hopes KU goes 9-9 or worse this year.

At least that way, somebody else can be the champion, and we can stop talking about The Streak. Because, as long as we’re all being honest, it’s incredibly annoying to play in a league where one school has won at least a share of every conference championship since the freshman class was in kindergarten.

“Yes,” Wainright said at the Big 12’s annual media day at the Sprint Center. “Yes. It really is (annoying).”

This is the story that will not go away until one of the nine other schools makes it go away. Kansas is the overwhelming favorite, again, and you probably know a 13th consecutive league championship would tie the record set by UCLA. That streak began in something called the AAWU, which has since evolved into the Pac-12, and ended so long ago that ESPN wasn’t alive to overhype it.

UCLA’s run was such a different time in college basketball that it’s fair to say we’ve never seen something like this — and fair to say KU’s hoarding of trophies is a bad look for the other schools, coaches, and the league as a whole.

“I don’t know why that would taint anything,” said West Virginia coach Bob Huggins, whose team is picked second behind KU. “Because they’ve been one of the top three or four teams in the country for how many years, and that’s not going to change. They can be in whatever league you want to put them in and they’re still going to be. So don’t listen to those people.”

Huggins — who famously has a bonus clause in his contract for beating Kansas — has a point. The image of Kansas and the nine dwarfs does not completely match up with reality.

The Big 12 has been the No. 1 RPI league in the country each of the last three years, and has had more teams reach the Elite Eight over the last 15 seasons than any other league.

The Big 12 has been loaded with terrific coaches over these years — Lon Kruger, Bob Huggins, Fred Hoiberg, John Beilein, Eddie Sutton, Kelvin Sampson, and what was left of Bobby Knight.

Kansas has had the best players in most seasons, but not all. Each NBA Draft from 2006 to 2009 featured a Big 12 player selected first or second overall — LaMarcus Aldridge, Kevin Durant, Michael Beasley and Blake Griffin — but none could wrestle the entire championship away from the Jayhawks.

Kansas has shared four titles — Kelvin Sampson’s penultimate Oklahoma team in 2005, Aldridge’s Texas team in 2006, D.J. Augustin’s Longhorns in 2008, and Weber’s first K-State team in 2013. The Jayhawks have only worn blue jerseys as the lower-seeded team in two Big 12 Tournament games over those years, both wins in the final, including the 2008 team that went on to win the national championship.

“What they’ve done is inconceivable,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said. “No one could have predicted it, and it’s still hard to believe.”

The struggle is real for everyone else. Self is the best coach in the league, he has (by a fairly substantial margin) the best players this season, and has always worked with the best home-court advantage.

The list of things that would have to happen for one of the other nine to shove KU out of the championship picture is long and diverse enough to push the limits of reality.

Kansas is the only school with two players on the preseason All-Big 12 team, and that doesn’t include freshman Josh Jackson, who is projected to be a top-five pick in the NBA Draft. Carlton Bragg could work his way into the first round, Svi Mykhailiuk is likely to be a pro somewhere next year, and Udoka Azubuike has the talent to be one of the best big men Self has coached.

West Virginia is picked second in the conference preseason poll, with Texas, Iowa State and Oklahoma somewhat close behind. But all of those programs will need so much to go right, and can afford very little to go wrong. For what it’s worth, Kansas is picked No. 2 nationally by the coaches. West Virginia is the Big 12’s next highest team, at 18th.

There is no Buddy Hield in the league, no Georges Niang. Good players remain — Iowa State point guard Monte Morris might be the best player in the league — but it’s hard to see anyone even sharing the title with the Jayhawks this year.

The gap, if anything, looks as big as it’s been in quite some time. Good for KU. Annoying for everyone else.

This story was originally published October 25, 2016 at 2:36 PM with the headline "Is Kansas’ Big 12 basketball title streak annoying? ‘Yes. Yes. It really is.’."