Kansas fans will know that the Jayhawks basketball program is in the midst of a foggy stretch since the 2022-23 season. For almost every other school in the nation, a 44-24 record is one they will bite your hand off for over two years. But, back-to-back early NCAA Tournament exits have made the eyes of the Big 12 shift firmly onto relative newcomers, Houston.
During that same two-year span, Kelvin Sampson’s team has accumulated a 67-10 record, which included a trip to last year’s National Championship before a last-second 65-63 loss to the Florida Gators.
CBS Sports' Kyle Boone has continued Kansas' push off the top of the food chain with his recent “College basketball offseason winners and losers: Duke, Florida and Big Ten make right moves; Memphis stumbles” article, which paints a harrowing picture not just for Kansas, but for the Big 12 as a whole.
“But everyone in the Big 12 is playing for second. Houston is just that good. Again.”
That, of course, is the subsection of a headline labeled “Loser: Every team not named Houston in the Big 12.”
Two things can be right: Houston can hold its stance as the best team in the Big 12, while also seeing an uptick in Kansas’ results.
We are aware of the recent coaching staff changes, which have seen experienced assistant Tony Bland join the program, along with former NBA coach Jacque Vaughn, who joined the ranks in late May.
Combine that with the surrounding hype of 247Sports No.1 recruit Darryn Peterson, who enters his freshman year this Fall, and the Jayhawks have a clear route back to national contention. Bill Self’s squad also has reeled in what 247Sports called the ninth-best composite class in the country, which has seen four-stars Kohl Rosario, Samis Calderon, and Paul Mbiya join three-star Corbin Allen to sure things up.
Are things perfect for Kansas? No, the Big 12 is a dangerous conference where Houston, BYU, Iowa State, Texas Tech, and Arizona have all asserted themselves among the pack. As a matter of fact, Kansas’ biggest priority must be to claim to find gritty wins over these schools, as Kansas has found back-to-back sixth-place finishes in the Big 12.
The first chance to see the Jayhawks take to Allen Fieldhouse is November 3rd, when Kansas hosts Green Bay, all before an early beginning, which sees Kansas take on UNC, Duke in the State Farm Champions Classic (Nov 18th), and UConn (Dec 2nd). Two of those three games are away or at a neutral site for the Jayhawks.