Under first year or under current Bill Self (including staff) in 2003-2004 Big 12 or current Big 12.
That team had 9 losses and were 5-5 in away games. Roster felt thin with a narrow trusted rotation, players were clearly not Self’s guys and offense sometimes felt one dimensional…
Also, those guys were hangovers from a deep run
Note: this should probably be 2004-2005 roster,
as @kjayhawks @wissox have brought to attention.
Most of that team hated Self and they completely gave up on him the following year. Had plenty of talent just didn’t mesh well with Coach Self, hard to move away from Williams whom had just got you to back to back FFs. The legends of the Phog book all of those players pretty much admitted to such even tho most like him now.
@kjayhawks yep! An accurate comparison?
@approxinfinity Yet they were an OT of making it 3 FF's in a row. I just looked at it and they had a road paved to that point with 13 seed, 12 seed and 9 seed to get to the EE against 3 seed Tech which actually was the higher seed. Had we won we'd have played OK State in the FF which beat OKie and played in the finals against UConn.
Ok so maybe i didnt frame the question right. 2004-2005 is the better comp. Same core.
Oh yes. 04-06 even were the back to back killer B's. Yet we were able to
@wissox yeah. We did recover and build into a championship team with kids who were freshman in 2004-2005.
I do think current Bill might have gotten the same out of that team (7 losses) but maybe one or 2 more. I wonder if that Bill would have lost this team as well. I know these are bookends to his career, but maybe leans in on the “same old Bill, not decline as the culprit” theory.
@wissox easily the most favorable road we have ever had IMO. Langford fouled out on a couple of BS calls if I remember correctly. @approxinfinity that team had played so much together and accomplished so much is why 2004-2005 was such a bad year. At this point it obviously several guys have quit and are just going thru the motions. The most noticeable are Hunt and Storr to me.
@kjayhawks 88 was paved with some favorable matchups too. Top 3 seeds all eliminated, #1 Purdue by 4 seed KState, #2 Pitt taken out by 7 seed vandy, and 3 seed NCState taken out by #14 Murray State. So we played an 11, 14, 7, and 4 to get to KC.
@kjayhawks Dam bud , you still a baby lol-- just messin with ya