Kansas Jayhawks: Remembering Big 12 Titles From Bill Self Era
Kansas Jayhawks guard Wayne Selden Jr. (1) and head coach Bill Self Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
2012-2013 Season
Following a season in which they made it to the national championship, the Jayhawks lost a total of five people.
First, guard Tyshawn Taylor, guard Jordan Juenemann, and guard Conner Teahan were lost due to graduation. Along with those three, the Jayhawks lost power forward Thomas Robinson to the NBA draft and small forward Merv Lindsay transferred to another school.
Not only did those five players left, assistant coach and KU legend Danny Manning left to pursue the head coaching position at Tulsa. Manning was usually in charge of developing the big men that KU would recruit.
To counteract these losses, Bill Self courted power forward Perry Ellis, guard/forward Andrew White, forward/center Zach Peters, shooting guard Anrio Adams, and forward/center Landen Lucas.
KU would begin the season ranked seventh by the Associated Press.
In the second game of the season, the Jayhawks would drop a close game to then 21st-ranked Michigan State 67-64.
That loss would barely phase the Jayhawks as they would go on to win their next 18 straight games, including their first seven games in conference play.
Guard Ben McLemore was molding into one of the best three-point shooters in the NCAA, getting over 20 points in 5 of the aforementioned 18 games and would top 30 points in one of those games.
Something unusual happened to this talented team. They would then lose their next three games in a row. Losing consecutive games is something that Bill Self is not known for. One of these losses came inside Allen Fieldhouse as well.
The Jayhawks, feeling the same way I was about having to share the conference championship with K-State, proved again that they were the best team in the Big 12. KU would beat K-State in the finals of the Big 12 tournament 70-54.
Those three losses would knock KU from the #2 ranking in the nation that they had earned down to a ranking of 14th. KU would go on to win their next seven before dropping their regular season finale to Baylor by an embarrassing 23 points.
At the end of the regular season, KU had a conference record of 14-4. While they did win their ninth consecutive conference championship, they shared this year with intrastate rival Kansas State.
I will go on to say that KU did sweep K-State in the regular season, but I digress.
The Jayhawks, feeling the same way I was about having to share the conference championship with K-State, proved again that they were the best team in the Big 12. KU would beat K-State in the finals of the Big 12 tournament 70-54.
Once again, KU found themselves in the Sweet Sixteen. They were up against Trey Burke and a very talented Michigan Wolverines team.
The Jayhawks had built a 14-point lead with about seven minutes left in regulation. Michigan came storming back and a late three-point shot from way behind the arc by Trey Burke brought the Wolverines back. Michigan would go on to win in overtime 85-87.
The Jayhawks ended the season with a record of 31-6 and an unprecedented ninth conference championship.
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