Is Kansas basketball out of Big 12 race? Where the Jayhawks sit after 3rd early loss
The Kansas men’s basketball team finds itself in unfamiliar territory in the Bill Self era.
After KU’s 79-75 loss to Iowa State on Saturday, the No. 7 Jayhawks are 4-3 in Big 12 play for just the second time under Self.
Kansas (16-4) is currently tied for fourth in the conference with K-State and TCU.
Last season, KU won the Big 12 with a 13-5 conference record. Before last season, the Big 12 hadn’t had a team win the league with five or more losses since KU in 2017-18.
The Jayhawks would have to finish 9-2 in their last 11 conference games to match that record. That stretch includes seven ranked opponents, with four ranked clashes coming on the road. (Texas Tech, No. 1 in the Big 12 at 5-1, has four total top-25 games remaining.)
The difficult schedule isn’t lost on KU star Hunter Dickinson.
“It’s going to get harder down the stretch if we keep dropping games like this,” Dickinson said. “You notice the winner of the league will probably only have about five losses. That gives us about one or two more, potentially. So we’ve got to try to go on a run here and string some wins together.
“We can’t be (winning) every other game, especially on the road. We’ve got to stretch the wins on the road. When we’re at Allen, it’s a little easier with the crowd and everything. So we’ve got to (win) some of these road games.”
The Jayhawks have six games (Oklahoma State, Houston, Baylor, Texas, BYU and K-State) remaining at Allen Fieldhouse — plus five games on the road (Kansas State, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Baylor and Houston).
Just to keep pace in the standings, KU likely must win its next two games (Oklahoma State and Houston), which are both at home. Houston, the No. 4 team in the country, blew out K-State 74-52 on Saturday and is a projected favorite over Kansas, per KenPom’s team rankings.
Can Kansas get to 13-5? One path would be if the Jayhawks can remain perfect at home and lose no more than two additional games on the road. That would mean finishing above expectations — KenPom projects Kansas to go 7-4 down the stretch and finish with an 11-7 conference record.
So then, it’s an uphill battle for the inconsistent Jayhawks, who have lost games to UCF, West Virginia and Iowa State already. KU was a heavy favorite against both UCF and West Virginia.
Kansas coach Self knows the league is an absolute gauntlet.
“The teams are good, and you’ve got good coaches in our league, too,” Self said. “We’ve got a nice team. We’ve shown this year we can beat anybody — Connecticut, Tennessee, Kentucky. We’ve also shown this year anybody can get us for the most part. But there’s no anybodys in our league. Everybody is good.”
The current standings:
- Texas Tech — 5-1
- Houston/Iowa State — 5-2
- KU/K-State/TCU — 4-3
- Baylor — 3-3
- BYU/Cincinnati/Oklahoma/Texas/UCF — 3-4
- West Virginia — 2-5
- Oklahoma State — 1-6
Still, Self isn’t quite worried ... yet.
“This league is a monster,” he said. “What’s Iowa State, 5-2? And Texas Tech is 4-1 if I’m not mistaken, or 5-1 … and Houston is 5-2 or something like that. It seems like to me that we’re like that every year. We’ve had some success and won the league a few times. But it seems like we’re a game or two behind at some point in time throughout the year.
“Certainly, this year will be harder because our schedule is tougher than a lot of team’s schedules in the second half, so we’ve got to go steal one or two. That may be something that would be a long shot, but (the league) is just good. (There are) good players and our league is old.”
This story was originally published January 27, 2024 at 8:11 PM.
