By Kevin Lonnquist
Publisher
On Tuesday evening at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, OK, No. 1 Baylor is looking for not only just another win but to make Big 12 history.
Since the conference’s creation in 1996, the Big 12 saw nothing like anything it had seen from that inaugural season when Roy Williams’ Kansas Jayhawks set a then-conference record 22-game winning streak.
Before tipoff, the No. 1 Bears (23-1, 12-0) share that record. They equaled it this past Saturday with their 70-59 victory over West Virginia at the Ferrell Center. A win over the Oklahoma Sooners sets the new mark.
The stories of these streaks are a little different from each other. Entering each team’s respective season, there were high expectations.
Baylor came into 2019-20, ranked No. 18/16. However, there were higher expectations for Kansas. The Jayhawks entered the season as the No. 2 ranked team and featured arguably the best roster in college basketball with center forward Paul Pierce, point guard Jacque Vaughn, off guard Jerod Haase and a front court of Raef LaFrentz and Scot Pollard.
It took until the third game of Baylor’s season for this streak to begin, a 72-63 victory over Texas State. Kansas’ streak began immediately. The Jayhawks won their first 22 and became the No. 1 team with a win over Cincinnati in early December.
Kansas’ streak had a couple of close calls. There was a 62-59 win at Kansas State followed by an 82-77 overtime win at Nebraska. In case you’re wondering, Kansas played Baylor only once back then and beat the Bears in the Ferrell Center, 87-68, in mid-January.
Everything else was pretty comfortable. The Jayhawks won those 22 games by an average of 20.2 points. They outscored their opponents by 446 points. That margin was ballooned by a couple of blowout wins over small D1 teams. Kansas’ streak finally came to an end in its then-border meeting at Missouri when the Tigers won in double overtime, 96-94, on Feb. 4. However, Kansas went on to easily win the Big 12 by four games over Colorado.
By comparison, Baylor has won these games by an average 12.9 points and outscored opponents by 284 points. The 67-55 win at Kansas on Jan. 11 nearly fits the margin.
The close calls have been the 53-52 victory over Butler in Dec. 10 at the Ferrell Center when Mark Vital blocked Butler star Kamar Baldwin’s game-winning shot attempt with 1.5 seconds to play. Right after Baylor climbed to No. 1 – after being ranked as low at No. 24 – the Bears faced Oklahoma and survived, 61-57, when Sooners’ guard Austin Reaves go-ahead 3-pointer was a bit long with six seconds to play.
While the Bears have been pushed in other games, they’ve come up with an important run or sequence that has allowed them to win stem the tide and keep this streak going.
What Baylor hopes doesn’t happen is that it doesn’t suffer the same postseason fate as this Kansas team did. The Jayhawks were upset by Arizona in the Sweet 16, 85-82, before the Wildcats went on to win the National Title. Arizona beat three No. 1 seeds in its run. Kansas finished that season, 34-2.
When Baylor meets Kansas Saturday at the Ferrell Center, it will either be owners of Big 12 history and still holding on to the Big 12 leads or it will be looking to start over with the top spot in the conference at stake. The Jayhawks have won 11 consecutive following Monday's 91-71 win over Iowa State.
The deeper any streak goes, the higher the stakes and the greater the impact.
Publisher
On Tuesday evening at the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, OK, No. 1 Baylor is looking for not only just another win but to make Big 12 history.
Since the conference’s creation in 1996, the Big 12 saw nothing like anything it had seen from that inaugural season when Roy Williams’ Kansas Jayhawks set a then-conference record 22-game winning streak.
Before tipoff, the No. 1 Bears (23-1, 12-0) share that record. They equaled it this past Saturday with their 70-59 victory over West Virginia at the Ferrell Center. A win over the Oklahoma Sooners sets the new mark.
The stories of these streaks are a little different from each other. Entering each team’s respective season, there were high expectations.
Baylor came into 2019-20, ranked No. 18/16. However, there were higher expectations for Kansas. The Jayhawks entered the season as the No. 2 ranked team and featured arguably the best roster in college basketball with center forward Paul Pierce, point guard Jacque Vaughn, off guard Jerod Haase and a front court of Raef LaFrentz and Scot Pollard.
It took until the third game of Baylor’s season for this streak to begin, a 72-63 victory over Texas State. Kansas’ streak began immediately. The Jayhawks won their first 22 and became the No. 1 team with a win over Cincinnati in early December.
Kansas’ streak had a couple of close calls. There was a 62-59 win at Kansas State followed by an 82-77 overtime win at Nebraska. In case you’re wondering, Kansas played Baylor only once back then and beat the Bears in the Ferrell Center, 87-68, in mid-January.
Everything else was pretty comfortable. The Jayhawks won those 22 games by an average of 20.2 points. They outscored their opponents by 446 points. That margin was ballooned by a couple of blowout wins over small D1 teams. Kansas’ streak finally came to an end in its then-border meeting at Missouri when the Tigers won in double overtime, 96-94, on Feb. 4. However, Kansas went on to easily win the Big 12 by four games over Colorado.
By comparison, Baylor has won these games by an average 12.9 points and outscored opponents by 284 points. The 67-55 win at Kansas on Jan. 11 nearly fits the margin.
The close calls have been the 53-52 victory over Butler in Dec. 10 at the Ferrell Center when Mark Vital blocked Butler star Kamar Baldwin’s game-winning shot attempt with 1.5 seconds to play. Right after Baylor climbed to No. 1 – after being ranked as low at No. 24 – the Bears faced Oklahoma and survived, 61-57, when Sooners’ guard Austin Reaves go-ahead 3-pointer was a bit long with six seconds to play.
While the Bears have been pushed in other games, they’ve come up with an important run or sequence that has allowed them to win stem the tide and keep this streak going.
What Baylor hopes doesn’t happen is that it doesn’t suffer the same postseason fate as this Kansas team did. The Jayhawks were upset by Arizona in the Sweet 16, 85-82, before the Wildcats went on to win the National Title. Arizona beat three No. 1 seeds in its run. Kansas finished that season, 34-2.
When Baylor meets Kansas Saturday at the Ferrell Center, it will either be owners of Big 12 history and still holding on to the Big 12 leads or it will be looking to start over with the top spot in the conference at stake. The Jayhawks have won 11 consecutive following Monday's 91-71 win over Iowa State.
The deeper any streak goes, the higher the stakes and the greater the impact.
