College basketball rankings: No. 3 Kansas closing in on another Big 12 title is incredible stuff

Kansas won on Saturday. Texas lost. So now here we are, entering the final week of the regular season, and Bill Self’s Jayhawks are alone atop the Big 12 standings, just one more victory (or one more Texas loss) from securing at least a share of what would be a 17th regular-season conference championship in Self’s 20 years at KU.

That’s incredible.

For some context, consider that Mike Krzyzewski won 13 ACC regular-season titles in 42 years at Duke — and he’s widely regarded as the GOAT of college basketball coaching. Again, Self is on the verge of winning a 17th Big 12 title in less than half of that time at Kansas, where he’s projected to soon earn a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year despite losing six of the top eight scorers, including two first-round NBA Draft picks, from last season’s team that won the national championship.

The situation is fluid, obviously. But, right now, I think Self would probably get my vote for national coach of the year. His Jayhawks have 15 Quadrant-1 wins, which is at least five more than every other team in the country. They also have zero losses outside of the first quadrant.

Kansas remains No. 3 in Sunday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings — but, I can acknowledge, the Jayhawks have a case to be No. 1 and could easily end up as the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. Regardless of what happens against Texas Tech on Tuesday, KU will secure Self’s 12th outright Big 12 title as long as it wins at Texas next weekend. A victory over Texas Tech on Tuesday, combined with a Texas loss at TCU on Wednesday, would also do the trick.