Kansas basketball: 5 best seasons in Jayhawks history, ranked
Kansas basketball is royalty in the sport but, among the many great years, what are the five best seasons in Jayhawks history?
When you consider the bluebloods of college hoops, Kansas basketball is certainly one of the first programs that come to mind. The Jayhawks have been winning for a long time and are always among the premier teams in the country year after year, running through one all-time great head coach after another in Lawrence.
Throughout their history, Kansas basketball has five National Championships — two coming as Helms Champions in the 1920s before the tournament. But almost more impressive is how often the Jayhawks have been in the mix for a title. They’ve finished as National Runners-Up six times and have made 15 total trips to the Final Four in program history.
With all of that success, perhaps the most difficult task is determining which Jayhawks teams were the best in the history of the program. Yet, that’s what we’re going to do, giving the definitive five best Kansas basketball seasons ever.
5. 1996-97 Kansas basketball season
Final Record: 34-2 | Season Result: Lost in Sweet 16 to Arizona
This might seem like an odd selection considering the aforementioned rich history of the Jayhawks. Again, 12 teams that didn’t win the NCAA Tournament still made it to the Final Four and six of those teams actually made it to the championship game. So then why does the 1996-97 team that only made it to the Sweet 16 crack the top five best seasons in program history?
How that season ended for Kansas isn’t indicative of how great that team was. Not only did the roster feature some elite players of the era as Raef LaFrentz, Paul Pierce and Scot Pollard led the way, along with Jaque Vaughn but they had Roy Williams one the sidelines as well. And their talent showed at every turn.
The Jayhawks entered that season as the No. 2 team in the country but, by the beginning of December, they’d taken over the top spot in the polls. And they didn’t relinquish that seat for the remainder of the season. In fact, they were exceptionally close to a perfect season as they started out the year 22-0 and suffered only one regular-season loss (a double-overtime defeat at Missouri).
Unfortunately, when Williams’ group made it to the Sweet 16, they ran up against an Arizona Wildcats team that had underperformed at times but had their own assortment of NBA-caliber talent. Kansas put up a huge fight, losing by only three points, but fell to a team that eventually went on to win the National Championship. That loss, however, shouldn’t erase just how good the 1996-97 team was.