Thursday, January 24, 2008
Seven teams have gone undefeated and won the NCAA Tournament during the last century, with the most recent being Bobby Knight’s 1976 Indiana Hoosiers.
After last night’s 82-59 blowout against Iowa State, the Jayhawks now sit at 19-0 and are just three victories away from the Kansas record of 22-0 to start the 1996-1997 season. If you count the 12 remaining conference games, three games in the Big 12 Tournament and six in the NCAA Tournament, the Jayhawks have 21 games remaining to complete a perfect 40-0 season.
The Jayhawks have already won 19 games in a row to start the season, so why can’t they win 21 more games in a row and rewrite the history books? If they overcome three possible roadblocks including the showdown next Wednesday night in Manhattan against Kansas State and road games at Texas and Texas A&M, I think they can do it.
“I’ve been on undefeated teams before in my basketball career and you just have to take it one game at a time,” guard Russell Robinson said. “That’s the only way you can go about doing it.”
With the additions of Michael Beasley and Bill Walker to the Kansas State lineup, Wednesday night’s game in Manhattan seems to be the Jayhawks’ only test for another few weeks. Back at Big 12 Media Day in October, Walker predicted to me and Lawrence Journal-World beat writer, Gary Bedore, that the Wildcats would beat the Jayhawks in both games this year.
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Can you imagine the hype going into that game if the Jayhawks were a perfect 30-0 on the season? Besides the Kansas State and Texas games, I really don’t see anyone coming close to beating KU.
“I’m pretty sure we will win, I’ll predict it,” Walker said. “I’m not scared to say it. I am a man. I can live up to my word, and I’m saying we will beat them.”
Walker then joked and said not to put it in our stories because he was just adding fuel to the fire, but the confidence that Walker and his teammates are showing should make next week’s game a classic. Should the Jayhawks beat the Wildcats, they will probably take a 24-0 record into Austin, Texas for a Saturday primetime ESPN game Feb. 11. The only other stumbling block comes in the team’s final regular season game on March 8 at Texas A&M.
Can you imagine the hype going into that game if the Jayhawks were a perfect 30-0 on the season? Besides the Kansas State and Texas games, I really don’t see anyone coming close to beating KU. The Jayhawks seem to be men among boys in the Big 12 with the other 11 teams fighting for second place.
So with the Jayhawks halfway to perfection, is it time to start realistically thinking about this 2007-2008 squad as one set to rewrite history?
“Not yet,” Robinson said. “The Big 12 is too tough and we’re really not going to get any time to sit down and have a breather. We’ve just got to continue to take it one game at a time. As boring as that sounds, that’s what we have to do.”
One game at a time, only 21 more times. Seems doable, doesn’t it?
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