FanPost

Kansas's Big 12 Streak is the Most Overrated Accomplishment In Sports

Hello, college basketball fans!

This just in! Kansas lost again! For those keeping score, that's seven times this season. Here are the seven losses this year (courtesy of CBSSports.com):

"HOME" to Washington (technically in Kansas City but for NCAA purposes counts as a home game). Washington is a bubble team at best and they just lost at home to Oregon yesterday.

HOME to Arizona State. This game was in Allen Fieldhouse! They lost back to back games "home" games to Pathetic 12 teams. ASU can't even finish .500 in the Pathetic 12 yet somehow can win in Lawrence.

HOME to Texas Tech.

at Oklahoma

HOME to Oklahoma State, a team whose RPI stands at 87 who unless they go on a deep run won't even make the NCAA Tournament.

at Baylor, another bubble team.

at Oklahoma State AGAIN! They got SWEPT by a team that doesn't even belong in the NCAA Tournament!

Only two of these losses are to teams that right now are NCAA Tournament teams and one is a lock (Texas Tech) and that game was a home game Kansas should have won. The only good loss on this list was the Oklahoma game, maybe the Texas Tech game since they are a top 25 team, the others are embarrassing.

Kansas lost five games in the Big 12 this year. In the Bill Self era, that is tied for the most number of conference losses in a single season. I will give him and Kansas credit for that. I would say the other premiere basketball teams in the country over the last decade have been North Carolina, Duke, Kentucky, and Michigan State. North Carolina and Kentucky have each flat out missed the NCAA's in the 14 year streak that Kansas has won or shared the Big 12 regular season title. Duke and Michigan State have not but have lost six or more conference games at least once (last year Michigan State lost eight and Duke lost seven). So to not lose more than five conference games in a single season for 14 straight seasons is an accomplishment.

On the other hand, consider the ACC and Big Ten. Duke is in a league with North Carolina, Virginia, Louisville, Syracuse (the latter two are down now but have been up in the past). The Big Ten is down now but has been strong in the past. Wisconsin will miss the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1998. So it's harder to finish year in and year out with five or fewer losses when you have to play other top teams.

Also consider that Duke has the same 13-5 record this season as Kansas, is ahead of Kansas in the RPI, and lost the ACC by four games. That isn't the only time Coach K had five or fewer losses in the last 14 seasons and didn't win at least a share of the ACC, it happened on THREE other occasions.

Five losses in the ACC? Not good enough when North Carolina is in your league (and this year it wasn't even North Carolina!) In 2013, Duke had four conference losses and still finished 2nd ... to MIAMI!In fact, Duke finished ACC regular season play with THREE regular season losses FOUR times and finished second (2007, 2011, 2012, 2015)! You know what happened in 2015? Duke won the national championship. It wasn't even North Carolina who finished first that year in the ACC, it was Virginia.

Why doesn't Mike Krzyzewski have 14 consecutive ACC Championships? It's not like he can't go 13-3/15-3 in the ACC, it's just that's not good enough in the ACC like it is in the Big 12. Roy Williams went 13-5 once in the ACC and finished 3rd! He also went 12-4 one year, second place. Tom Izzo has gone 13-5 three times this decade in the Big Ten and only won the Big Ten one of those three seasons. He also lost the Big Ten title despite a 13-3 in Self's first season at Kansas to Self's former team, Illinois who went 15-1 in the regular season. On the other hand, Kentucky is in a conference almost as bad as Kansas is in and when they don't win the SEC it's because it's they suck (like the NIT year and this year).

The difference is while Kansas sucks this year (can't even beat above .500 Pathetic 12 teams or Oklahoma State at home), the rest of the Big 12 sucks worse. The next highest team in the RPI in the Big 12 is #20 TCU. Kansas won the Big 12 by default. If there was any decent team in the Big 12 this year they would have won the Big 12 easily. Kansas would be barely .500 in the ACC this year. This year's team is so bad it's the first time Bill Self has ever been swept by a Big 12 opponent in the same season (and it's not like they're a Final Four caliber team, it's a team that doesn't even belong in the NCAA Tournament).

Then again, if you want to compare Kansas to Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Michigan State over the last 14 years, look to the NCAA Tournament. Since the 2004-05 season, North Carolina has won 3 national championships, Duke 2, Kansas and Kentucky 1 each, Michigan State hasn't won one (last was 2000). North Carolina has made 5 Final Fours, Kentucky and Michigan State have made four final Fours, Duke and Kansas just two each. I'd argue Kansas is the least accomplished of the five. if Memphis could have hit a free throw in 2008, Bill Self would not have a national championship at all. Plus, the Big 12 as a whole only has four Final Fours since the 2005 season compared to 12 for the ACC, 10 for the Big Ten, and 9 for the SEC. Of those four Big 12 Final Fours, one was West Virginia when they were still a member of the Big East and one was Oklahoma when they were thumped by the largest margin in Final Four history. You can throw out Louisville's and Syracuse's Big East Final Fours as well but they'd still have 8 (2016 Syracuse still counts).

Face facts, the Big 12 is a bad basketball conference compared to the ACC and (in most years) the Big Ten. Maybe Kansas will play in the Big Ten. I guarantee they won't win 14 straight Big Ten titles. This is the worst Kansas team in the Bill Self era by far. They shouldn't be a #1 seed unless they win the Big 12 Tournament and even then I'm not even sure. Yet they still won the Big 12. That tells you everything you need to know about the Big 12. It's Kansas and the Nine Dwarfs!

By the way, you know I'm writing this here. They'd never let me write this at their blog! Pass this along to them and see what they say!

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