Bill Self: Kansas is out of Big 12 title race, focused on postseason

No. 16 Kansas lost its fifth conference game of the season after falling to unranked Kansas State on the road on Saturday.

After the game, Jayhawks head coach Bill Self was asked whether or not he believes his team — currently tied for fifth-place in the conference — can run the gauntlet and claim a 64th conference championship in program history.

“I’ll pay attention to the race. We’re not in it to win it,” Self said. “We’ve got five losses now. So even if we were to win out, I don’t think you’re going to have two teams lose four times. So, no, I, I’m not looking at it like that. But I am looking at it as, not trying to minimize anything the way the college world is today in basketball, it’s the same way in football.

“The Big 12 conference race means a lot but in football if you don’t win the conference race, you don’t get in the playoffs. I mean, that’s the way it was and it’s not the same as it used to be. So what we need to do is get better over the next month, and then hopefully play our best when the postseason comes around.”

Winning the Big 12 isn’t impossible, however. In fact, the Jayhawks became regular season champions during the 2022-23 season when they finished 13-5 in conference play.

Kansas currently holds an overall 7-5 record through 12 games in conference play, which makes it tougher for them given they’d need to win out to match that last regular season championship squad.

The good news for the Jayhawks is that they won’t play a ranked opponent for the rest of February. Their schedule ramps up for their three regular season games in March, as they’re set to take on the three top teams in the current Big 12 standings: vs. No. 13 Texas Tech, at No. 5 Houston and vs. No. 20 Arizona in that order.

Those three games will be played during a one-week span to round out the regular season, feeding straight into the Big 12 Conference Tournament.

Kansas will look to move on from their loss to the Wildcats when they host Colorado on Tuesday night inside Allen Fieldhouse. Tip-off is set for Noon ET and will air live on ESPN2. The Buffaloes have lost 12-straight games and are still searching for their first win in Big 12 Conference play.