Kansas Jayhawks: Remembering Big 12 Titles From Bill Self Era
Kansas Jayhawks guard Frank Mason III (0) Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports
2009-2010 Season
This season boasted what was, I think, the most talented team in college basketball in the 2009-10 season. It seemed that this team was poised for another national title. I remember thinking that it was the best team I had ever watched play college basketball.
In this season, numerous records were broken including KU winning it’s 2,000th game. This moved KU into second place for all-time wins.
Let’s start with the recruiting class. Self brought in shooting guard Xavier Henry, shooting guard Elijah Johnson, and power forward (and one of my favorite KU players ever) Thomas Robinson.
Self also had center Jeff Withey and shooting guard C.J. Henry, Xavier’s brother, transfer from different schools.
I was a senior in high school at the beginning of this season and I remember every game. Every cheer I yelled for the wins and each time I sank my head in my hands for each loss. This season still gets me emotional.
KU began the season with an AP ranking of #1 and started by winning their first 14 games before finally falling to the #16 ranked Tennessee Volunteers (Eric Berry must have been happy). While the loss did sting, the Jayhawks would only lose two more times in the entire season.
It seemed that any person in the Jayhawks’ starting five could put up double-digit points on any opponent. In fact, four of the five members of the starting five, according to RealGM, averaged double-digit points per game for the season.
No game has ever crushed me the way that the Northern Iowa upset did.
With many of the other records that were broken this year, KU would post the best conference record the school has ever seen with a 15-1 record. The closest team to them this season was Kansas State with an 11-5 record in conference play.
This was Bill Self and company’s sixth straight Big 12 championship. They also went on to dominate through the Big 12 tournament, winning their third in four seasons.
It seemed this team was destined for greatness. Nobody could get past Aldrich and his shot-blocking ability and any combination of the Morris twins, the Henry brothers, or any other player could put up big points in any game.
However, all of that came crumbling down.
In the NCAA tournament, KU was seeded first overall and won their first game by a blowout. Then came the upset of the century as a previously unknown Northern Iowa team defeated this scoring monster known as the Kansas Jayhawks 67-69.
No game has ever crushed me the way that the Northern Iowa upset did. The Chiefs-Colts debacle of 2014 came close, but it just wasn’t heartbreaking enough for me.
The Jayhawks finished with another 30+ win season, amassing a total record of 35-3 and bringing a sixth consecutive Big 12 championship back to Lawrence.
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