Kansas wins record 14th straight conference title

The last time Kansas didn’t win the Big 12, Myspace was still popular and 14 years later Kansas is still winning conference titles.

The Kansas Jayhawks did something never done before in the history of college basketball. The Jayhawks have won a 14th straight conference title, and this one didn’t come easy.

It’s becoming redundant at this point. Every season pundits ask, is this the year someone will finally dethrone the Jayhawks? For a second it looked like Texas Tech might actually do what hadn’t been done since 2004. Alas, Kansas walked into Lubbock, Texas on Saturday just one win away from another conference title, and they left with said title.

The Jayhawks have won eight straight road games against top-10 opponents to boot, which is also the longest in Division I history. Saturday’s game against Texas Tech was the toughest game the Jayhawks played all season and earned the 74-72 victory the hard way.

Devonte’ Graham finished the game with 26 points on 10-of-18 shooting, including a wild shot from the hip that gave Kansas a four-point lead with 31 seconds left in the game.

This year, in particular, the Jayhawks looked poised to be dethroned and there were moments where it looked imminent. After Kansas lost to Baylor in Waco, Texas Tech held a one-game lead before surrendering the lead by losing back-to-back games.

Next: Sean Miller will collect if fired with cause

The Jayhawks have made winning the Big 12 the equivalent to LeBron James winning the Eastern Conference and making the NBA Finals. Until they don’t actually win the conference you have to pencil them in as champions. This year’s team isn’t as talented as the previous 13 teams, but they play with a lot of heart. Head coach Bill Self has won 82 percent of his conference games since he got to Kansas. In that same time frame, no Big 12 team has won 60 percent of their conference games.

Kansas has another conference title, and we’ll see if they can turn that into a National Championship.