Just two weeks ago, it appeared Kansas’ record-setting Big 12 title streak might be in some serious jeopardy. The Jayhawks were blown out by a struggling Baylor team on the road and trailed Texas Tech by a game in the standings with six to play.
Kansas’ Big 12 title streak dates back to rookie LeBron and Trump’s first season of ‘The Apprentice’
The world was a much different place when Kansas’ Big 12 title streak started.
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Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
This looked like it might be Kansas’ most difficult road to a Big 12 title from the very start of conference season. The Big 12 was the toughest league in America, the Jayhawks didn’t have a projected first round NBA draft pick on the roster and front court depth was a major question mark after the departure of McDonald’s All-American freshman Billy Preston.
Kansas won the league anyway. Don’t act like you’re surprised.
With a 74-72 win over Texas Tech, the Jayhawks locked down their 14th consecutive Big 12 regular season championship. That breaks the record previously held by UCLA in a mark set in the ‘60s and ‘70s. You know it’s serious when you’re breaking a record that John Wooden helped set.
Kansas’ Big 12 dominance has gone on for so long that simply attaching a number to it like 14 doesn’t do it justice. Here are 14 things that were going on in the world the last time Kansas failed to win its conference.
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LeBron James was a rookie. The 2003-04 season that saw Oklahoma State win the Big 12 also doubled as LeBron’s rookie year. That was 30K points ago.
The Red Sox had no championships. Neither did the Cubs. All of those about the Warriors blowing a 3-1 lead in the NBA finals would have been even more delightful when applied to the Yankees’ 3-0 lead in the ALCS.
George W. Bush was still in his first term. John Kerry, we hardly knew ya.
Georgia Tech was in the Final Four. The Yellow Jackets have only three tournament since, never making it past the first weekend. Shout-out to Luke Schenscher.
“The Office” hadn’t started yet. The show premiered a month after Kansas started this streak in 2005. Fire John Morgan hadn’t started yet, either!
Kansas was still really bad at football. But then they got good! For a year! That 2007 Orange Bowl run remains incredibly confounding. Baby Mangino forever.
Donald Trump was in his first season as the host of a reality show on NBC. Now he’s famous for bad tweets.
No one knew what a podcast was. This was also the last time I regularly listened to sports radio.
Luol Deng became Duke’s second ever one-and-done. It’s possible the Blue Devils have four one-and-dones this season.
Kobe was still wearing No. 8. He didn’t change to No. 24 until the 2006-07 season.
You were quoting Napoleon Dynamite. Your mom went to college.
Lance Armstrong and Tiger Woods were still considered the pinnacle of individual athletic excellence. I miss Retief Goosen, though.
Destiny’s Child was still Beyonce’s main gig. On equal footing with Michelle Williams, really.
Svi Mykhailiuk was seven years old. And he had never had Chipotle.
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