Kansas should never have to defend its blueblood credentials, but here we are

What have you done for me lately? That old saying evidently applies to the Kansas basketball program after winning 96 games over the last four seasons. How many schools would take winning 24 games in a year, let alone averaging that over four years?

On X, College Basketball Report does many interesting things with graphics and stats. For college basketball fans, it is a good account to follow. Now and then, however, they post something remarkably obtuse and out of touch.

Recently, they posted a graphic outlining the college basketball bluebloods. Exactly what constitutes a blueblood is debatable, but for the most practical purposes, it should be schools that have been impactful on the game over a long period of time and have been fairly consistent.

By just about every possible breakdown of college basketball, the Kansas Jayhawks are one of, or even THE most blue of the bluebloods. College Basketball Report disagrees.

Kansas basketball is the epitome of the bluest of bluebloods

Firstly, let's clear something up right away. Kentucky and North Carolina absolutely deserve to be on the line of the bluest of bluebloods. Kansas should be as well, and maybe even on a level ever so slightly above them even.

By just about every possible metric, Kansas is at least one of the bluest of bluebloods. If the argument is based solely on NCAA championships, then Kansas is behind some other schools, still, with four; they rank seventh all-time.

But so much more goes into being a blueblood than titles. UCLA has 11, but none before 1964 and only one since 1975. Kentucky has eight, spread out from 1948 through 2012. The Tar Heels have six from 1957 (beat KU in the title game) through 2017. Duke has five from 1991 (beat Kansas in the finals) through 2015, which is a fairly brief window historically. In an even smaller window, UConn has had six since 1999.

Kansas has four from 1952 through 2022. The Jayhawks were also tabbed as the national champions twice in the 1920s by the Helms Foundation, before there was an NCAA tournament.

Kansas' qualifications to be included with the bluest of bluebloods

• Four NCAA titles and two from the Helm Foundation
• Since 1940, KU has made it to the Final Four 16 times, with at least one appearance in every decade except the 1960s
• Played in 10 championship games
• 64 regular-season conference titles (a record) and 16 conference tournament record
• Kansas is second all-time with 2,438 wins (should be first, but that is a discussion for another day)
• 32 Consensus First-Team All-Americans awards by 25 players; both are the most in history
• 7 National Player of the Year winners
• Since 1898, Kansas has had only eight head coaches
• The inventor of the game, James Naismith, was KU's first coach, and the only one with a losing record
• Phog Allen is often referred to as the inventor of basketball coaching. He won 590 games at Kansas in an era when teams usually played fewer than 20 games a season. Only once did KU play 30 or more games when he was the coach (28-3 in 1951-52)
• Since the school's first season in 1898, KU has only had 18 losing seasons, nine of which occurred before 1920. That is nine losing seasons in the past 107 years. KU has not had a losing season since the 1982-83 season.
• KU last missed the NCAA Tournament in 1989
• Four of the eight Kansas coaches are in the Hall of Fame, which is named after a fifth coach and the founder of the game, James Naismith
• Five of the top 25 most winningest coaches of all time either played or coached at KU, and six of the top 45. All five are in the Hall of Fame. Dean Smith, Adolph Rupp, and Ralph Miller all played at Kansas, and Roy Williams and Bill Self both played at Kansas, and Phog Allen played and coached for the Jayhawks
• The arenas for both Kentucky and North Carolina are named for former Kansas players Adolph Rupp and Deann Smith
• Another Hall of Famer, inducted twice, once as a contributor and also as a coach, John McClendon attended KU in the 1930s, but wasn't allowed to play due to segregation laws at the time. He did, however, study the game under athletic director James Naismith and head coach Phog Allen. McClendon won 496 games as a head coach in college and coached an ABA team as well. He is credited with developing the fast-paced game that fans enjoy today. He is thought to have invented the fast break and full-court press.
• Kansas plays in the historic Phog Allen Fieldhouse on the James Naismith Court. It is generally considered the greatest college basketball venue and one of the best sports venues in the country

It would seem that no school can claim excellence for as long and as consistently as Kansas. The school's pedigree is beyond question, at least it should be. A brief look through the comments on the above tweet indicates that most sane college basketball fans agree, even those who don't necessarily support Kansas as fans.

To leave Kansas off the top line was asinine, and College Basketball Report should fix their egregious error. But they won't.

One interesting thing about the above list is how other schools are listed. Some schools like UCLA and Indiana had stretches of excellence and might be deemed as Old Blue Bloods. Schools like Duke, UConn, Villanova, and Florida could be called New Bloods. All have been excellent for the most part for 40 years. The question becomes, especially for Duke and UConn, how long does a school have to be exceptional and consistent to attain that top line?

In reality, Kansas should be on the top line. A case could be made for Duke and UConn, but there is certainly some recency bias with them. Still, it is challenging to argue with the level of excellence and consistency Duke has performed at over the last forty years. It is just as difficult to argue the fact UConn has won six titles since UCLA and Indiana won their last one. Still, while six championships in 27 years is incredible, it does not improve their history before 1999.

Regardless of how the discussion goes with Duke and UConn, there is absolutely no doubt thatKansas basketball should be on the top line, and a solid argument could be made that they should be at the top by themselves.

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