Ranking Bill Self’s Big 12 champions at Kansas. Are Jayhawks’ Final Four teams his best?
As Kansas was stacking Big 12 men’s basketball championships in the double digits, we’d engage in an annual exercise of comparing and ranking them.
Rankings are folly of course. But fun. After the Jayhawks won their 14th straight title in 2018 with a team that advanced to the Final Four, the story stopped. KU didn’t win the Big 12 in 2019 or 2021.
But with the success of this season’s team, which tied Baylor for first place to capture at least a share of the program’s 16th Big 12 title in Bill Self’s 19 seasons, the time is right to dust off the list and see how the championship teams of 2020 and this season measure up.
Spoiler alert: The most recent additions to the KU Big 12 title list are among the best, and the one that didn’t get to compete in postseason is the ultimate could-have-been story.
Also, as Kansas prepares to meet Villanova in the national semifinals on Saturday (5:09 p.m. on TBS), a Final Four appearance doesn’t automatically bump a team to the top.
Here’s a stab at ranking Self’s best Kansas teams that won a Big 12 championship:
1. 2007-08 (37-3, NCAA champion)
The best Kansas team during the streak wasn’t even the top seed in the Big 12 Tournament. Texas was because it beat the Jayhawks in their lone regular-season meeting. But Kansas beat the Longhorns for the third straight year in the conference tournament title game and went on to win it all. The 37 victories are a program record. An analytics system available on sports-reference.com called Simple Ratings System (SRS) gives this KU team the highest rating in program history.
2. 2019-20 (28-3, no NCAA Tournament because of pandemic)
The second-best SRS by a Self team belongs to the Jayhawks led by Udoka Azubuika and Devon Dotson. Kansas finished 17-1 in the league play, the most conference victories in Big 12 history. Six current Jayhawks, including starters Ochai Agbaji, Christian Braun, David McCormack and Jalen Wilson, were part of this team that likely would have been the overall No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament that was canceled by the pandemic.
3. 2011-12 (32-7, NCAA runner-up)
The numbers crunchers don’t love this team of Thomas Robinson, Tyshawn Taylor and Jeff Withey, but perhaps no Self team won more pressure games. With the regular-season comeback against Missouri, plus high drama in four of their five NCAA Tournament victories, Self squeezed as much from this team as any he coached in Lawrence.
4. 2009-10 (33-3, NCAA second round)
From an expectation standpoint, these Jayhawks took the hardest postseason fall. The KU roster featured eight who would play in the NBA. After dominating the Big 12, winning the league by four games, and powering through the conference tournament, KU was the NCAA’s overall No. 1 seed. That’s what made the second-round loss to Northern Iowa such a disaster.
5. 2015-16 (33-5, NCAA Elite Eight)
About halfway through the season Kansas stood in fourth place. Self solidified the lineup by starting Landen Lucas and KU raced to another championship. In a regional final, Kansas fell to a Villanova team that went on to win the national championship. Also this season, the Buddy Hield game, when KU beat Oklahoma 109-106 in three overtimes.
6. 2021-22 (32-6, NCAA Final Four)
This team led by Agbaji didn’t seem to play with much confidence in the NCAA Tournament, until the second half of the regional final when it outscored Miami (Florida) by 32 points. If the Jayhawks cut down the nets in New Orleans on Monday, the team won’t replace 2008 as Self’s best. But with historical powers, sometimes the national champions are the program’s best teams. And often the most powerful lose along the way.
7. 2010-11 (35-3, NCAA Elite Eight)
Standing between Kansas and a Final Four was 11th-seeded VCU. But it proved a bad matchup for the Jayhawks, who fell in the final game for Marcus and Markeiff Morris. With a final record of 35-3, only the 2008 team has more victories in program history.
8. 2017-18 (31-8, NCAA Final Four)
The 2022 team has Remy Martin coming on strong at the end. The 2018 Final Four squad had Malik Newman. Both players were named regional most outstanding player. The 2018 Jayhawks of Devonte Graham made 71 more three-pointers than the next most productive team in program history.
9. 2016-17 (31-5, NCAA Elite Eight)
The most decorated player in Self’s tenure, national player of the year Frank Mason, led Kansas to the regional final in Kansas City. But the team that averaged 96 points in three NCAA games mustered only 60 in the loss to Oregon.
10. 2006-07 (33-5, NCAA Elite Eight)
Kansas got a preview of the national championship season to come with this team, the first not to include any who had played for Roy Williams. The Jayhawks of Brandon Rush, Mario Chalmers and Julian Wright won Self’s first outright Big 12 championship, and a highlight was defeating Texas and Kevin Durant, despite him going for 32 and 37, twice in eight days.
11. 2012-13 (31-6, NCAA Sweet 16)
Kansas and Ben McLemore recovered from a three-game losing streak in the middle of the Big 12 season.
12. 2004-05 (23-7, NCAA first round)
Wayne Simien and the Jayhawks won the game of the year, a showdown with Oklahoma State for the title.
13. 2014-15 (27-9, NCAA second round)
KU posted the league’s only perfect record at home and won the title by one game over Iowa State and Oklahoma.
14. 2013-14 (25-10, NCAA second round)
Roster included two starters in this year’s NBA All-Star game, Joel Embiid and Andrew Wiggins.
15. 2008-09 (27-8, NCAA Sweet 16)
Breaking in five new starters, Bill Self won national coach of the year.
16. 2005-06 (25-8, NCAA first round)
Kansas opened 3-4 and lost back-to-back games to K-State and Missouri. But back came KU to share the title and win the league tournament.
This story was originally published March 31, 2022 at 5:00 AM.