RIP, Kansas’ Big 12 regular season title streak (2005-2018).
There is no pulse, the autopsy is in, there’s no chance of a reanimation. The streak is dead.
After 14 consecutive seasons of winning at least a share of the Big 12’s regular season championship, Kansas will surrender its crown in 2018-19. Oklahoma made certain of that on Tuesday night, dealing the Jayhawks an 81-68 defeat that guaranteed KU will finish at least one full game behind both Kansas State and Texas Tech in the final Big 12 standings.
It took a season chock full of tumult to knock Kansas from its familiar perch. In early January, the Jayhawks lost starting center Udoka Azubuike for the season after an MRI revealed torn ligaments in his right hand. A month later, the NCAA ruled that Silvio De Sousa, the player Kansas hoped would fill the void in the middle left behind by Azubuike, was ineligible for not just the rest of the 2018-19 season, but the entirety of the 2019-20 season as well. That same week it was announced that starting senior guard Lagerald Vick would be taking a leave of absence from the team to deal with “personal matters.” Vick has not returned to Lawrence.
KU, which sits at 11-6 in the Big 12 and 22-8 overall, will wrap up its regular season with a Saturday home game against Baylor. The Jayhawks are a perfect 16-0 inside Allen Fieldhouse this season, but are just 3-8 in true road games.
Texas Tech and/or Kansas State will become the first team/teams to win a Big 12 title without sharing it with Kansas since 2004. In that season, Eddie Sutton’s Oklahoma State Cowboys went 14-2 in the conference and wound up advancing all the way to the Final Four.
In its final form, Kansas’ streak of 14 consecutive regular season titles is the longest in Division-I history. The Jayhawks broke a tie with UCLA (1967-79) last season.