Kansas Has Clear Path To 11th Consecutive Big 12 Regular Season Title

For the past decade, when you discuss basketball in the Big 12, the name of Kansas has to roll from your lips. Yes, there have been other teams who have seen their moment under the sun, but they are just brief aberrations that ultimately just become second best. Winning 11 straight regular season conference titles is a difficult task.

Doing so in a conference that has featured countless premier teams with loads of NBA talent and the recent title as the deepest conference in college basketball makes this a feat that is seemingly unheard of, but that’s exactly the accomplishment that Bill Self’s Jayhawks are nearing with a increasingly clear path to achieve it.

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Despite the massive upset they suffered last night in Morgantown – and that’s just what every loss Kansas suffers in the Big 12 can be considered – the Jayhawks are still in a league of their own en route to an 11th straight Big 12 regular season championship.

Kansas leads the staggeringly deep Big 12 with a 10-3 conference record, which puts them 1.5 games ahead of second place Iowa State, who Kansas split the season series with. Only being up 1.5 games would seemingly make this an unsecured lead to the finish for Self’s club, but this is the Jayhawks we are talking about here.

Regardless of the murmurs of post-season disappointments that can be associated with Self, there’s no denying his annual ability to assure his team ultimately comes out on top of the Big 12.

And in regards to this season, even fresh off of Monday’s heartbreaking last second collapse against No. 23 West Virginia on the road, the Jayhawks are poised to continue their winning ways and conference dominance with little resistance from the road ahead.

Kansas has five games remaining this season: vs. TCU, at Kansas State, vs. Texas, a rematch of last night’s loss to West Virginia and their season finale on the road in Norman against No. 17 Oklahoma.

Let’s put the eye test to use here. Kansas will hosts TCU on Saturday, and not only do the Jayhawks rarely ever lose in The Phog – Self has more Big 12 regular season titles than he de does conference home losses at Kansas – but they don’t lose to bad teams late in the season in The Phog.

They squeaked by the Horned Frogs in Fort Worth, but that was amid a horrible effort by Self’s club. They cruised past Kansas State in their last match for their 49th win in the teams’ last 53 meetings, which doesn’t give much reason to believe their second matchup of the season would yield a much different result for the Wildcats during this disappointing season.

Feb 2, 2015; Lawrence, KS, USA; The Kansas Jayhawks fans cheer from the stands during the second half against the Iowa State Cyclones at Allen Fieldhouse. The Jawhawks won 89-76. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

Kansas will then host Texas and West Virginia is back-to-back meetings, but outside of a massive upset from either, it’s unlikely to see Kansas allow their first home conference loss of the season. This leaves the only likely remaining loss for Kansas coming on the final game of their season when they travel to face Oklahoma, which has won five of their last six before their last-second heartbreaking loss to Kansas State.

But even in this environment, it would be considered as an upset for Kansas to drop the finale game of their regular season.

With a relatively easy road ahead of them, it’s hard to imagine the Jayhawks won’t finish the season atop the Big 12 conference, making this their 11th straight season at the throne. They’ve got a 1.5 game cushion and some of the conference’s bottom-feeders in their sight.

Of course, if there were ever a conference race where something drastic an unexpected could happen, it would be this season in the Big 12, but seeing is believing and until then, it’s safe to start assuming a 10-year celebration of conference dominance for Kansas will continue this this year.

Next: College Basketball Rankings: Top 25 Teams In America

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