Kansas Basketball Streak of 14 Big 12 Conference Championships Comes to an End

Kansas has won or shared a remarkable 14 straight Big 12 regular season conference championships in men’s basketball, but the Jayhawks will not get that 15th straight title.

Oklahoma hosted Kansas on March 5th, and the Sooners put an end to the streak by beating the Jayhawks rather handily 81-68. The loss dropped Kansas to 11-6 in conference play with one game left in the regular season. Kansas State and Texas Tech are both 13-4 in the conference standings, each with one game to play as well. Overall, Texas Tech is 25-5, Kansas State is 23-7, and Kansas is 22-8.

The Jayhawks can still win the Big 12 Tournament, and will of course get a bid to the NCAA Tournament. While 22-8 is a good record for most teams, the Jayhawks were the preseason #1 pick and are used to being a #1 or #2 seed in the tournament. They’ve been a #1 the last three years straight, and the last time they were lower than a #2 was the 2008-9 season, when they were a #3. If we are figuring things correctly, if the Jayhawks win their final regular season game vs. Baylor (not a given, as the Bears are 19-10 this year) and win the Big 12 Tournament, they would finish 26-8. Maybe that would get them a #2 seed, but that’s a lot of pieces that would have to fall into place for that scenario to happen.