Musings at the Big 12 season midpoint

With 9 games completed after tonight (OKSt plays at OU at 8PM CT on ESPN2), I'm looking back and ahead and just kicking things around in my "little grey cells".

1. First thought -- and knowing the odds against it happening are astronomical -- if KU does not lose again the rest of this season and postseason the Jayhawks will have the same final record as last year's team, 36-4, and the same results a better record than last year’s team, but the same overall results -- Big 12 champs, Big 12 Tournament champs and National Champs.*

Aren't pipe dreams grand? Hmm, hmm, hmm...
You say you'll have what I'm having?
Alright then...

*(It sounded so much better in my head with the 36-4 being the same as last year’s team. Blasted facts interfering with a nice bit of wordcraft )

2. Second -- with 18 possible wins left this season (9 regular season, 3 B12T, 6 NCAAT... see above), it is not possible for Bill Self to catch up with Phog Allen's 590 wins as head coach at KANSAS this year. But if his guys continue to perform at his historical standard of KU Excellence, he will catch and pass Phog before the AY2023-24 Big 12 conference season games begin.

WON-LOST
at KU__ ( % )_ NAME________ CAREER ( % )
590-219 (.729) Phog Allen____ 746-264 (.739)
570-128 (.817) BILL SELF____ 777-233 (.769)
418-101 (.808) Roy Williams__ 903-264 (.774)

18 = Potential games left in AY2022-23 if KU makes the finals in both the Big 12 and NCAA Tournaments.
20 = Wins to tie Phog as winningest Head Coach in KANSAS history.
126 = Wins to tie Roy as THE winningest KANSAS Head Coach for TOTAL CAREER
Source: RCB pinned thread Bill Self W-L Record AY2022-23

3. Of those 9 regular season games that KU has left to play, 5 of them are road games, 4 are home.Source: Big 12 Sports.com Schedule and RCB pinned thread AY2022-23 SCHEDULE & RESULTS

After Saturday, KANSAS will be done with KState and ISU for the regular season, but will still have to play conference leading Texas home (this coming Monday) and away (season finale March 4th). Regardless of the results this Saturday in Ames -- and I know we all expect our Jayhawks to step up to the challenge and survive Hilton yet again (Johnny Orr, who never lost in Ames to Larry Brown in the 5 years Brown was at KU, is long gone) -- both Texas games look to be meat grinders. But that can truly be said for every remaining away game.

Assuming our Jayhawks defend The Phog the rest of the way (a very possible but far from certain result this season, but let's roll with it for now), they still have to face OU, OKSt (the bal-chatri!), TCU and Texas (season finale!) on the road. And after the beatdown OU gave Alabama on Saturday, NONE of those games are going to be anything but tough.

Have we *ever* seen it so consistently game to game rough for KANSAS?
I don't think so.

And both CorpusJayhawk's DPPI and kenpom.com both support that, both ranking the KANSAS Strength of Schedule #1 in Division 1 Men's Basketball!

For comparison, here's the kenpom.com SoS for the rest of the Big 12 as of 2023-02-01...
This really promises to be an exciting "second half", and anything is possible.
So "fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy (ride)."

Yes they did.

Senior moment.
That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
I’ll fix it.

And thank you!

LKF_HAWK wrote: HE, no worries. I like the thought thought of running the table, even if highly unlikely.

“You got to have a dream.
If you don’t have a dream,
How you gonna have a dream come true?”
-Rodgers & Hammerstein
“South Pacific”: “Happy Talk”