It was another wild week in Jayhawk country, as Kansas split two games this week, but not in the fashion that many expected.
This season started with Kansas as the preseason No. 1 team in the nation and beating teams like Duke and Michigan State on neutral court sites before some unexplainable home losses. The starting lineup continues to ebb and flow depending on how head coach Bill Self is feeling that day. It’s been rather bizarre, but Kansas is still in the top 20 with a chance to finish in the top three in the conference very much in play.
After an improbable meltdown last Saturday, in a game where Kansas led Baylor 40-21 at halftime and ended up losing 81-70, the Jayhawks were able to bounce back with an impressive 69-52 win over No. 8 Iowa State. The win boosted head coach Bill Self to an incredible 38-0 record at home on ESPN’s Big Monday. Those two back-to-back results are symbolic of the season as a whole, going from a gut-wrenching loss to a win over a top-10 team.
Self continues to tinker with the starting lineup. This isn’t a great sign, as there’s only about a month of the regular season left to play. Freshman Flory Bidunga was sent back to the bench, and KJ Adams was put back into the starting lineup against Iowa State. Self also inserted Rylan Griffen back into the starting lineup for the first time since the last non-conference game against Brown. It ultimately led to a big win for the Jayhawks, but will Self continue to mix and match the starting five based on matchups, or will he stick with a starting five moving forward?
From what we’ve seen so far this season, he may never stick with the same starting five and ultimately decide to mix up the starting five based on matchups. It’s something to continue to monitor going forward. The next six games will be monumental for the Jayhawks in their efforts to have a chance to finish in the top three in the conference standings.
As things currently stand, it’s Houston and Arizona tied atop the conference standings at 10-1 with Texas Tech alone as the second-place team at 9-2. Kansas and Iowa State are tied for third at 7-4 in conference play. The Jayhawks can stack some wins with six consecutive games against unranked opponents. The Big 12 is always tough, especially on the road, but Kansas will be favored in all of these games. It starts this Saturday at Kansas State. Then Kansas will host Colorado, go on the road to play Utah and BYU, host Oklahoma State and end this stretch with a road game at Colorado.
If Kansas can go 6-0 in those games, it would set up a fantastic finish to the Big 12 regular season. The Jayhawks will host No. 13 Texas Tech on March 1st, play at No. 5 Houston for Big Monday on March 3rd, and close the season in Allen Fieldhouse against No. 20 Arizona. The Jayhawks will likely be favored in the home games against Texas Tech and Arizona while being underdogs on the road against Houston. If the Jayhawks can win the games they will be favored in and wrap up the season with an 8-1 stretch, they would finish the season with a 15-5 Big 12 record and would likely be right there for the second or third seed in the Big 12 tournament.
If the first couple of months of the season is any indication of how the final month will go, nothing will be predictable. The start of this stretch against Kansas State in the Little Apple will be a huge game for both teams. The Wildcats are riding a four-game winning streak, including one of the best Big 12 wins of the season last week in Ames, Iowa, against Iowa State, and knocking off the Jayhawks would be an even sweeter win for their fanbase.
For Kansas, this is a chance to kickstart a big stretch of games they’ll need to win to finish near the top of the conference standings. The Sunflower Showdown will tip off at 1:00 PM local time on ESPN.
