Despite being forced to navigate through a number of unforeseen obstacles — not the least of which being an even more competitive than expected Big 12 — Kansas has extended its streak of consecutive regular season championships to 14.
Kansas clinches at least a share of record 14th straight Big 12 regular season title
The Jayhawks locked up their record-setting 14th straight Big 12 title with an impressive road win over No. 6 Texas Tech.
Michael C. Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
The feat breaks a tie with UCLA for the longest such streak in Division-I history.
Appropriately, Kansas sealed the deal by taking down their toughest challenger. The 8th-ranked Jayhawks got 26 points from senior guard Devonte` Graham, including several key baskets down the stretch, and took down No. 6 Texas Tech, 74-72 in Lubbock Saturday evening.
In victory, Kansas (23-6, 12-4) moved a full two games in front of the Red Raiders in the Big 12 standings. With just a couple of games to go in the regular season, no other team in the conference is closer than two games behind the Jayhawks, meaning the best anyone can do is share the league title with Bill Self’s team.
Texas Tech (22-7, 10-6) pushed Kansas to the brink despite getting limited contributions from leading scorer Keenan Evans (17.6 ppg). The Big 12 Player of the Year candidate has been hobbled by a toe injury for the past weeks and scored just six points on 1-of-6 shooting from the field.
Picking up the slack for Texas Tech was Zhaire Smith. The freshman guard was everywhere for the Red Raiders, finishing with a team-high 20 points to go with five rebounds and his standard stellar effort on the defensive end.
Fourteen straight major conference championships is an almost unbelievable streak. Twitter reacted to the feat accordingly.
Kansas, which has now won four straight, wraps up its regular season this week with a home game against Texas and a road tilt at Oklahoma State. Texas Tech finishes with games at West Virginia and at home against TCU.
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