Kansas basketball: Jayhawks and Bears will battle for Big 12 once again

Kansas basketball was able to come away with yet another Big 12 Conference title last season, but things won’t be easy this coming season.

Kansas basketball has dominated the Big 12 since the league formed in 1996. The Jayhawks have claimed 19 conference titles in that time, and they’re nearly always picked to win the Big 12 at the beginning of every season, but not this year.

This season, the Baylor Bears came out on top of the Big 12 Preseason Poll, and that makes a lot of sense. Baylor nearly won the conference last season, and they were all but guaranteed to be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Bears are returning almost every key piece from that team, including Jared Butler, MaCio Teague, Mark Vital, and Davion Mitchell.

The hype is real for the Bears too. Butler was named the Big 12 Men’s Basketball Preseason Player of the Year, and Baylor is also ranked No. 1 in ESPN‘s early top 25. It wouldn’t even be shocking to see the Bears ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll when it comes out. So what does all this mean for the Jayhawks?

It means Kansas basketball will need to establish themselves quickly in the conference and do what they do best: win at home. The problem is that Allen Fieldhouse isn’t going to be rocking like normal considering the capacity limit that will only allow 1,500 fans per game. Still, if Bill Self has proven anything during his time at Kansas, it’s that he’ll have the Jayhawks playing some good basketball by the time the conference slate rolls around.

Yet, it’s hard to know exactly what the Jayhawks will look like this season without Udoka Azubuike and Devon Dotson.

Marcus Garrett and David McCormack should help pick up the slack, and we should also see some increased output from Christian Braun and Ochai Agbaji. Tristan Enaruna, Jalen Wilson, Tyon Grant-Foster, and Bryce Thompson should also contribute too, and it’ll be interesting to see who steps up out of that group.