Kansas projected Top 25 ranking after losing to Kansas State in Sunflower Showdown
By Quinn Everts
It's tough to predict the flight patterns of the Kansas Jayhawks. After one of their better wins of the season on Monday — an impressive beating of Iowa State — the Jayhawks responded with a clunker against a Kansas State team that's been on fire recently, but are still far from NCAA Tournament consideration.
They're still a top-ten KENPOM team and they'll still likely end up, at worst, a 5-seed in the NCAA Tournament. But now sitting at just 7-5 in Big 12 play, this team is a far cry from the No. 1 team in the country they started the season as. With a month-plus of basketball left to play, there's enough time to fix this bird's wings... but the inconsistency of Bill Self's team doesn't instill confidence that they can compete with Auburn, Alabama or Duke at this juncture.
Projecting Kansas AP Top 25 ranking
Do an impressive win and a bad cancel each other out? Not quite — especially with the loss coming second in the week, and being the last version of the team we all watched. I think the real Kansas team is somehwere in between what we saw on Monday and what we saw today... but recently, it's been impossible to tell which of those versions will show up.
I think Kansas drops one spot No. 17 in Monday's AP Top 25, and doubters will say even that's too high for a team that is just 4-4 since January 15th.
The sky isn't falling in Lawrence. Wins against Duke, Iowa State and Michigan State show this team is not fraudulent and can beat elite teams in college basketball. When March rolls around, it'll be tough to bet against the good coaching and tons of talent this team possesses. But right now, there's a bit of a lull for the Jayhawks. Rattling off a few wins would comfort KU fans that a lull is all this is.