I’m guessing by now that nearly all of you saw that Texas lost to Texas Tech in Lubbock, Texas on Monday night, bringing the Longhorns to four losses in the loss column and Kansas right back into the pole position in the Big 12 race.
For now.
None of it will matter if the Jayhawks lose tonight at Oklahoma State to a team and in a place that they’re definitely capable of losing to.
But if we’ve seen anything from Bill Self’s teams in the past few years, it’s that this is the time of year that the Jayhawks tend to be at their best, dig their deepest and have the biggest advantage on the rest of the Big 12.
Remember last year, when KU laid an egg in back-to-back road losses late in the season at Baylor and TCU, forcing them to respond with back-to-back home wins in the final two regular season games just to share the regular season title?
Not only did the Jayhawks deliver, but they got tough in doing so, winning a dog fight over the same TCU team that rocked them two days earlier and then scrapping out an OT win over Texas in a gotta-have-it game that led to the shared title and, in a very real way, to the postseason run of nine straight victories that delivered Big 12 and national title trophies to Lawrence.
Two years ago, during a season that did not end nearly as well, the Jayhawks responded to a stretch of five losses in seven games by flipping the switch on the defensive end and winning six of their last seven in the league, including handing eventual national champion Baylor one of its two losses on the season in convincing fashion at Allen Fieldhouse.
Then, the year before that, after falling to 2-1 in Big 12 play with a double-digit home loss to Baylor, the Jayhawks ripped off 15 in a row to end the regular season, a season derailed only by COVID and nothing the Jayhawks actually did.
As you all know, that team was well on its way to winning a national championship of its own.
In three consecutive seasons, when facing different backs-against-the-wall scenarios in conference play, Self’s Jayhawks responded with tough wins down the stretch.
Now they get the chance to do the same thing, with this week suddenly shaping up as maybe the biggest of the three that remain in the regular season.
None of them will be easy, of course. After all, the Big 12 has shown throughout the season that no games can be counted as gimmes and anyone can beat anyone on any given night. Texas found that out the hard way on Monday night, falling to a Texas Tech team that had just two wins in 12 tries in conference play entering the week.
One of those came a couple of days earlier, when the Red Raiders defeated K-State in Lubbock to put a damper on the Wildcats’ Big 12 title hopes.
Like Kansas, K-State is very much alive again, with the Wildcats now just one game back in the loss column. On paper, KSU might actually have the most favorable remaining schedule, with Oklahoma twice, West Virginia and Oklahoma State and Baylor and Iowa State both at home.
It’s probably a little too early to start looking at the remaining schedules in depth, but it won’t be a week from now. At that point, we’ll know who has the best shot to win this thing and if the Jayhawks can win both of their games this week, the smart money at that point will be on the Jayhawks.
Here’s the funny thing about Monday’s result in Lubbock; that loss may actually put the Longhorns in position for a real free fall, as they appear to have the hardest remaining schedule of the Big 12 teams in the title hunt.
After Saturday’s game with Oklahoma in Austin, they finish the season against Iowa State at home, at Baylor, at TCU and home against Kansas. Based on how Monday went, it’s not hard to see them losing two or three of those.
Then again, nobody’s safe at this point. And they won’t be until we reached March 5th and all of the dust has settled.
In case my mere mention of looking at the rest of the schedules has you curious and you’re the type that wants to project six games out, here are the remaining schedules for the seven teams still in the Big 12 title hunt.
If I’m handicapping it, I’d probably say Kansas State has the easiest remaining schedule, followed by Kansas and then Oklahoma State, then TCU, then Texas, then Baylor and finally Iowa State with the toughest road home.
Again, though. It might be a little too early for this exercise. Let’s revisit it at the start of next week.
Texas (9-4)
vs. Oklahoma
vs. Iowa State
at Baylor
at TCU
vs. Kansas
Baylor (9-4)
at Kansas
at Kansas State
vs. Texas
at Oklahoma State
vs. Iowa State
Kansas (8-4)
at Oklahoma State
vs. Baylor
at TCU
vs. West Virginia
vs. Texas Tech
at Texas
Kansas State (7-5)
at Oklahoma
vs. Iowa State
vs. Baylor
at Oklahoma State
vs. Oklahoma
at West Virginia
Oklahoma State (7-5)
vs. Kansas
at TCU
at West Virginia
vs. Kansas State
vs. Baylor
at Texas Tech
Iowa State (7-5)
vs. TCU
at Kansas State
at Texas
vs. Oklahoma
vs. West Virginia
at Baylor
TCU (6-6)
at Iowa State
vs. Oklahoma State
vs. Kansas
at Texas Tech
vs. Texas
at Oklahoma
