Kansas shows there’s good reason to expect 12th Big 12 title in a row

NORMAN, Okla. — Buddy Hield simply doesn’t miss jump shots or free throws.

At least not normally.

But Kansas is not a normal Big 12 opponent. Not this time of year. Not when the Big 12 race is heating up.

So, though Oklahoma is the best three-point shooting team in the nation, the third-ranked Sooners started their game against No. 6 Kansas on Saturday afternoon 0-for-9 from beyond the arc. And though Hield is the frontrunner to win the national player of the year, he wasn’t even the best guard on the court during Saturday’s marquee matchup. That distinction went to Kansas’ Devonte Graham, who stifled Hield for the most part defensively while scoring 27 points to lead all scorers.

The Jayhawks won 76-72 to sweep the Sooners in the regular season. But more important, it was a reminder, once again, why Kansas is poised to win its 12th consecutive Big 12 regular season title.

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Some years during this stretch, Bill Self admits, his Jayhawks caught breaks. Other times, they were led by future lottery picks who simply overmatched and overwhelmed their opponents for weeks on end. Throughout it all, they’ve won a whole bunch of games … and, somehow, they’ve done that again this year. Somehow they’ve beaten a true national title contender — twice — in the most thrilling games of an undoubtedly wacky regular season. Somehow, though they’re currently tied with West Virginia atop the Big 12 standings with three road games to go over the final few weeks, they’re on the inside track for No. 12.

Self said winning a conference championship this season would likely mean more than the 11 before it.

“You know, we won the league three years in a row with the best player in the country playing somewhere else — Blake (Griffin), Kevin (Durant), (Michael) Beasley,” Self said. “I think this year, to me, would mean — I think it would mean more. Maybe because it’s the (most recent) one. But this is the best our league’s been. Also, our personnel is good, really good — I’m not going to apologize for our personnel. But we’ve run some lottery picks out there in the past, and we’re not running them out there right now. It’s more of a really grind-it-out type of team effort.”

As Self reminded us after the game Saturday, the first school Graham signed with was Appalachian State, and Frank Mason III signed with Towson. Yet the duo now make up of the best backcourts in the best conference in the country; that’s the kind of team this Kansas squad is.

This is also the kind of season that has to be among Self's best coaching jobs. He's pieced together various lineups depending on what might work best for a specific opponent — for example, he went, successfully, to a four-guard lineup during part of Saturday's game after talking out its merits with former Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg this week — and also figured out how to maximize players who have shown mere flashes of potential the last few years, such as Wayne Selden Jr. He's pushed his players to their limits (and various overtime periods) and to 21 wins. It's impressive to say the least — and frustrating if you're another Big 12 coach.

Oklahoma's Lon Kruger has watched, firsthand, as Kansas has won four consecutive league titles. He might have just watched his best Sooners team miss its opportunity to end The Streak, suffering another nail-biting defeat in the final seconds, this time because of the oddest of circumstances: A missed would-be game-tying free throw with 25 seconds left by none other than Hield, a 90% free throw shooter. (Seriously, sometimes it feels like the basketball gods are the ones keeping the streak alive.)

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Kruger told USA TODAY Sports that the reason Kansas might win No. 12 is quite simple. It’s a combination of very good coaching and very good players. Self has established a culture that works, and he has players who buy into it, and what it takes to win. Against the Sooners, they also hit huge shots with the game on the line.

Oklahoma is not out of the Big 12 race, but Kruger admitted it's more of an uphill battle now, one that would require some Kansas assistance in the form of losses.

But knowing Self and knowing the Jayhawks this time of year, it doesn't seem to make much sense to expect that to happen. There's a reason Kansas has won 11 of these in a row — and there's good reason to expect No. 12.

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