Road woes may put end to impressive Kansas basketball streak
By Mike Norris
Kansas basketball should be counting their lucky stars that Monday’s game against Kansas State is at Allen Fieldhouse. Terrible performances in true road games this season could be what finally ends KU’s Big 12 Conference streak.
As the Kansas Jayhawks walked off the court and into the visitor’s locker room Saturday at Texas Tech, it would be easy to imagine each player did his best not to look at the scoreboard.
There was no need.
You only had to play, or even see, a few minutes of the game to realize it was easily won by the Red Raiders.
The 91-62 defeat, which was actually uglier than the 29-point deficit let on, was the worst conference loss in 16 seasons for the Jayhawks under head coach Bill Self. It bested by four points a loss at Texas in 2006, meaning any Kansas fan younger than 14 years had never seen anything like this before in their lifetime.
While this has been as bad as it gets for the Jayhawks lately, this one result wasn’t really that shocking. Kansas has been a shell of itself since losing three former starters to injuries or other reasons, and is now just 10-7 since beginning the season a shiny 10-0.
The biggest culprit? Road woes.
Not only was the loss at Texas Tech embarrassing, but it was a microcosm of the Jayhawks’ season thus far. Winning road games is what has set this team apart from others during the 14-consecutive conference titles. Now Kansas is a paltry 2-7 in true road games this year, and 2-5 in Big 12 play.
It’s no secret teams are better at home than on the road, but the Jayhawks are 18-0 at home or neutral courts, creating a juxtaposition between where the team plays its games that’s about as jarring as possible.
The team began its woes by falling apart late in a December loss to Arizona State and continued them by dropping a 17-point loss to Iowa State in its first conference road tilt. Since then, the team has lost five of its past seven away from home, and Big 12 opponents are beating them by 10.7 points per game in their six conference losses.
If Kansas is going to win a 15-straight regular season title, it’s almost assuredly going to be shared with Kansas State and/or Texas Tech. Even if the Jayhawks right the ship and win their final two Big 12 road games, the damage has been done.
Last year KU somehow won the conference despite losing two Big 12 games at Allen Fieldhouse, but that’s because they were 6-3 on the road in conference play. The best they can hope for this season is 4-5.
The fans can point to a plethora of issues that have plagued this team but many of them they have been able to work around. The streak being snapped will come down to road play, and history proves this.