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Kansas basketball: 2019-20 season review and 2020-2021 first-look preview

By Mike Phillips

LAWRENCE, KANSAS - MARCH 04: Head coach Bill Self of the Kansas Jayhawks hands the the Big 12 Championship Trophy to players after Kansas defeated the TCU Horned Frogs to win the game at Allen Fieldhouse on March 04, 2020 in Lawrence, Kansas. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
LAWRENCE, KANSAS - MARCH 04: Head coach Bill Self of the Kansas Jayhawks hands the the Big 12 Championship Trophy to players after Kansas defeated the TCU Horned Frogs to win the game at Allen Fieldhouse on March 04, 2020 in Lawrence, Kansas. (Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images) /
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Kansas basketball was the top team in college basketball when the season was canceled, robbing us of the chance to see if they could win it all.

The 2019-2020 season will certainly go down in the history books for the Kansas Jayhawks. The year began with a cloud hanging over the program in terms of potentially significant penalties but Bill Self made it clear early on he wouldn’t let that define Kansas’ season.

The Jayhawks had a loaded roster but didn’t showcase it against Duke on the season’s opening night, turning the ball over 28 times in an ugly Champions Classic loss at Madison Square Garden. The rest of the non-conference season went well for Kansas, which scored nice wins over East Tennessee State, BYU and Dayton with the only loss being a one-point defeat at Villanova.

Conference play began with Kansas dropping a big home game against Baylor, putting the Jayhawks behind the red-hot Bears for most of the season. Kansas never lost again after that game, ripping off 16 straight wins to end the regular season, including a gritty three-point win at Waco to jump back in front of the Big 12 standings.

The table was set for Kansas to claim the no. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, with a matchup against Oklahoma State awaiting them in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament. That game never happened as a result of the massive coronavirus cancellations, robbing the Jayhawks of a prime opportunity to claim their fourth national championship.