NCAAB

College Basketball Preview: Will Kansas Win Another Big 12 Title?

Kansas is once again the class of the Big 12, but they'll only be happy if translates to an often-elusive Final Four appearance. Who else should we keep an eye on in this conference?

Since winning the national title in 2008, Bill Self's Kansas Jayhawks have won an incredible 83 percent of their games. However, with only one Final Four appearance since that title, the theme of Kansas coming into a season with unfinished business is about as repetitive as predictions that Kansas will, once again, reign supreme in the Big 12.

Despite coming up short in March, the Jayhawks' regular-season dominance deserves all the praise they receive.

Winning any conference title in college basketball is a notable achievement. Doing it 13 times in a row is insane. Add in that the Big 12 has been Ken Pomeroy's top-ranked conference based on a composite efficiency score of its member programs five times during that streak, and Kansas' achievements almost seem made up. Yet, because they've seen a 1 or 2 seed go up in smoke before the Final Four on a near-annual basis in recent memory, simply winning this deep and impressive conference won't feel like the achievement it should be if Kansas doesn't make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament.

Chasing Kansas this year is, once again, Pomeroy's projected top-ranked conference in the nation. Outside of the Jayhawks, four other Big 12 teams (West Virginia, TCU, Baylor, and Oklahoma) are ranked as top-25 teams in the country, per the site's Adjusted Efficiency metric projection. Self's squad makes winning the Big 12 seem easy, but anyone who watches this conference knows that it consistently offers some of the most competitive and entertaining basketball in the nation. This season should be no exception.