Kansas fans are spoiled

February 7, 2013 Rock Chalk Blog

Kansas fans are spoiled.

For 264 games, a span of seven seasons (going back to January 2006), the Kansas Jayhawks haven’t suffered two losses in a row. Until last night.

That’s an incredible streak. Before you complain, maybe you should ask Towson fans how they felt about their 41-game losing streak.

Kansas fans are spoiled.

Loss wise, Bill Self’s worst season at KU was his first season, when he went 24-9. That team made it to the Elite Eight. The 2003-04 season was the last time Kansas didn’t win the Big 12. He’s working on his ninth Big 12 Championship and only has eight losses at home. His record at Kansas is 288-54 (.842) and his Big 12 record is 131-24 (.845).

Kansas fans are spoiled

Kansas is currently 19-3 and 7-2 in the Big 12. Kansas holds the tiebreaker over Kansas State for first place in the Big 12 Conference and can themselves back in the driving seat of the conference race if they win their next two games. Kansas would have to lose all their remaining games to not make the NCAA tournament. That’s clearly not going to happen.

Kansas fans are spoiled… but that being said, Wednesday night was probably the lowest moment for Kansas basketball in a long time. Their 13 points in the first half was their lowest point total in a half since 1988. You can relive the terrible first half below:

Kansas was a terrible 1-for-17 from the floor in the first half and scoreless in the first 12 minutes. It was almost too unbelievable that fans were stuck between shock and disgust.

The second half wasn’t much better. If you felt too ashamed to wear your KU gear on Thursday I can’t really blame you.

I know Bill Self felt the same way.

It was the worst team that Kansas ever put on the floor, since Dr. Naismith was there. I think he had some bad teams when he lost to Topeka YMCA and things like that in the first couple years. — Bill Self

As bad as KU was… Kansas is still in a good position but they need to bounce back on Saturday against Oklahoma. They cannot go into Monday’s game against Kansas State needing a win to stay even with the Wildcats. Regaining their confidence in their play is key. This team demolished a lot of good teams earlier this season.

For this team to make a deep run in the tournament, Elijah Johnson needs to step up and be a senior guard. Kansas’ big advantage is having four seniors starting and a player of the year candidate in Ben McLemore filling in the last starting spot. Unless Naadir Tharpe ends up matching McLemore’s field goal percentage, this team cannot survive with Tharpe being KU’s best point guard.

Sports Illustrated included this graphic on Elijah the other day. For Kansas fans, they better hope that this forecast pans itself out for him for the rest of February and March: