Kansas continues to own the Big 12
Jayhawks run their conference regular-season title streak to 14
LUBBOCK, Texas – Afterward, there was no pretense. Devonte’ Graham was as surprised as anyone else when the circus shot went down – somehow clanging high off the backboard, rolling around the rim, banging off the backboard again and then finally nestling into the basket.
“It was a crazy wild layup,” Graham acknowledged. “That was definite luck to go in.”
With 31 seconds left, Kansas had a four-point lead. Soon after that, the Jayhawks had another Big 12 championship.
A 74-72 victory against Texas Tech clinched at least a share of their 14th consecutive league title, a feat unmatched in NCAA history – and at least by Kansas’ standards, the accomplishment was the equivalent of Graham’s crazy wild shot in the final minute.
It was not luck, exactly. Graham scored 26 points and made seemingly every critical play down the stretch for the Jayhawks. We probably should have expected him to score when it counted – just as we should always expect Kansas to win the Big 12.
But this conference crown was not like so many of its predecessors. Most years, the Big 12’s blue blood program has, as Self put it – he’s not bragging, just saying – “the best personnel.” Couple that with one of college basketball’s best home-court advantages and the institutional memory that does not include a secondplace finish since 2004, when senior leaders Graham and Svi Mykhailiuk were second-graders, and Kansas is an easy annual pick to win the league, regardless of the competition.
Most years, it’s more slam dunk than circus shot. But this bunch of Jayhawks is different. There’s no surefire NBA lottery pick. They’re not big. They’re only seven players deep.
Meanwhile, the Big 12 is as deep as it has ever been. And it didn’t matter.
“We probably didn’t have the best personnel in the hardest year it’s probably gonna be to win the league, from a competitive standpoint,” Self said. “We didn’t have the worst (either), but I’m just saying the pieces didn’t always fit the way we had a vision.”
The Jayhawks have been maddeningly inconsistent this season, and although they’re trending toward a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, no one would be surprised if their run isn’t deep. But Saturday evening, the players emerged from the visitors’ locker room after their fourth consecutive victory, wearing blue shirts and white caps commemorating the 14th consecutive title and clearly savoring the moment.
“This is the year everybody thought we was gonna lose it,” said Graham of the streak. “As a team we’ve just been battling, staying positive with each other, going through the grind. And now we’ve made history.”
The 14th consecutive league title is an NCAA record, surpassing UCLA’s 13 in a row in the old Pac-8 (and Pac-10).
And here’s a nugget, too: During his 15 seasons at Kansas, Self ’s teams have never been swept by a Big 12 opponent.
Texas Tech’s 83-75 win in Lawrence back on Jan. 10 was among the first signs this team might not be a typical team. The Jayhawks later lost at home to Oklahoma State (the rematch is next week; the Cowboys could still sweep Kansas, though it seems unlikely) and by 16 points at Baylor.
Two weeks ago, they trailed red-hot Texas Tech by a game in the league standings. Now they’re two games clear. A victory at home Monday against Texas or next Saturday at Oklahoma State would seal an outright title.
“We’ve either been bad or pretty good,” Self said. “We picked the best time to be our best here the last couple of weeks. … I’m amazed.”
By now we shouldn’t be.
Texas Tech’s swarming, relentless defense, which fueled the Red Raiders’ drive at dethroning Kansas, was a problem for the Jayhawks on Saturday, especially in the second half. But get this: Kansas never trailed. The game was tied only once after the opening tip, at
68-all in the last three minutes. Graham then took advantage of a mismatch, driving and pulling up for an
18-footer to regain the lead. A minute later, he drove again and somehow converted that unlikeliest of shots, losing the ball on his hip as he jumped, finding it again, flinging it skyward, and then watching it bang and roll around and in.
“Better lucky than good,” said Self of the shot, and some might describe this latest conference championship in the same way.
But the remarkable streak continues. And if this Kansas team wins the Big 12 tournament, who wants to guess when it might stop?
“If one of those shots doesn’t go in, we’re sitting in here popping pinatas and having a party,” said Chris Beard, Texas Tech’s second-year coach. “But that’s not how basketball works.”
Not in the Big 12, anyway. Not against Kansas. The Jayhawks always seem to get some breaks, sure. Texas Tech was rolling through February. And then senior guard Keenan Evans, who was the team’s catalyst during their rise, suffered a toe injury. A seven-game winning streak was snapped. It’s now a three-game losing streak.
Evans is back in the lineup, but he’s clearly not
100%. Saturday, senior guard Justin Gray was injured
27 seconds into the game. The only Red Raider to start every game this season didn’t return.
But to talk about other teams’ tough breaks is to minimize what Kansas accomplished, rallying in these last few weeks – and Saturday, controlling the game most of the way, keeping a simmering crowd from exploding early, then finding a way to win.
“This is what they do,” Beard said. “Every year they’re in this position.”
And slam-dunk or circus shot, they always convert.