All Hail the Streak: Sit Back and Appreciate Kansas' Incredible Big 12 Run

LAWRENCE, Kan. — Bill Self called the people at the RPI on Tuesday in pursuit of a statistic to give to the naysayers.

Self was hours away from celebrating his 11th straight Big 12 title with a 76-69 overtime win over West Virginia, but before his team took care of business, he wanted to know where the Big 12 ranked on average in terms of league strength over the 12 years he has been at Kansas.

Somewhere along the line—maybe it was when KU was winning its fifth or sixth or seventh or eighth straight title—amazement turned to skepticism.

"I think the thing that I get a little upset with—of course, it's not worth getting upset over—but a little perturbed, a lot of people downplaying our league because a league can't be as good if one team has won this many in a row," Self said. "That's not true. Our league is terrific, and the RPI proves it."

The answer Self got was that the Big 12 on average ranked "3.1 or 3.2." This year it's No. 1.

Since I presume the folks at the RPI answered Self's call on a rotary phone, I went to the better and more modern metric at kenpom.com to run the numbers. The results were similar. 

Since the start of this conference title run by Kansas, the Big 12 is just decimal points behind the Big Ten and ACC (see chart) as the best league in America.

	Avg. Conf. Rank
ACC	2.9
Big Ten	3.0
Big 12	3.1
Big East	3.1
SEC	4.9
Pac-12	4.5

This year the league is the best, and this Kansas team might just be Self's worst, but one plus one equals two and Bill Self plus conference regular seasons equals rings. 

See, not only has KU won 11 straight conference titles, but Self has won the conference in which he's coached in 15 of the 18 seasons his teams have played in a league. (In his first four years as a head coach at Oral Roberts, the program was an independent.) Twice he finished second. Once he finished third. 

If you want to poke holes in the legitimacy of this run—like maybe Allen Fieldhouse is an unfair advantage—just don't.

KU's winning percentage on the road in Big 12 play over the last 11 years (71.4 percent) is better than any other Big 12 team's winning percentage in all league games. Texas, the second-best team over that stretch, has won 61.2 percent of all its Big 12 regular-season games since 2005. 

There are only three* Big 12 schools that have a better home winning percentage in conference games than KU's road record over that stretch—Kansas State (71.7 percent), Oklahoma State (72.5 percent) and Texas (78.0 percent).

*Missouri won 72.3 percent of its Big 12 home games from 2005 through 2012, but KU's road winning percentage in that time span was 76.9 percent.

The last two years the Jayhawks have been only one game above .500 in conference road games, so going 18-0 at home has been the difference, but in most years, Self's team has unequivocally been the best team whether you put it in Lawrence, Austin or on the moon.  

To give you a little more perspective on how hard it is to be that consistent every year, look around the rest of the country.

Since KU's run started, the longest streak in any other major conference has been three.

If Indiana and UCLA miss the NCAA tourney this year—a real possibility—four blue bloods (UCLA, North Carolina, Indiana and Kentucky) will have missed as many NCAA tournaments (11) as KU has won Big 12 titles since 2005. 

USA TODAY Sports

Self, or course, has not missed out on the NCAA tournament since his first year as coach at Tulsa in 1998. 

Since KU's run started, Duke has won two conference titles. For his career, Mike Krzyzewski has won only 12 conference titles—three, mind you, fewer than Self—and five was Coach K's best streak. 

Bobby Knight only won 11 conference titles in his career and Dean Smith won 17, but neither legend ever won more than four in a row. 

"I think you should win when you have really good players. I do," Self said. "We've been blessed with really good players."

Kentucky has been blessed with good players too. And the 'Cats have won only four conference titles since 2005. Syracuse has had some pretty good dudes come through town, and Jim Boeheim has just two conference crowns since KU's streak began. 

Self has won with no starters returning—in 2006, 2009 and 2014. He's won with a walk-on in the starting lineup—his first Big 12 championship in 2005 had that with Christian Moody at power forward. He's won with All-Americans and he's had conference players of the year, but some seasons, like this one, he's won with none of the above.

"To me, that's what's cool," Self said. "Faces change, but expectations don't."

No matter how you want to spin it, slice it or dice it, what KU has accomplished is the most impressive run in the modern history of the college game. 

It has not taken place in March, so it might not be appreciated that way, but that shouldn't diminish the feat. 

"We know postseason means more than regular season, but you don't play for four months or five months just to play for the NCAA tournament," Self said. "Nobody does that. You play for your season." 

You can criticize the man for not doing as well in March as he's done in January or February. The Jayhawks have had their years when they've underachieved in the tournament. It's hard to find a coach at a successful program who hasn't. 

But, again, don't even try to poke holes in the streak. 

If it were so easy, why haven't Arizona or UCLA done it in a league that hasn't been as good as the Big 12 over that time? They've won a combined eight league titles in the last 11 years. 

Jamie Squire/Getty Images

If it were so easy, how is it that no other team in any other league in the country is coming close to doing what Kansas is doing?

It's hard to fathom. Even, believe it or not, for Self. 

As the celebration went on around him with a tribute video on the big screen, 11 trophies lining center court and his players cutting down the net, Self sat on the bench late Tuesday night and just stared at the box score shaking his head.

Self's team had been down 18 to West Virginia with his best player (Perry Ellis) hurt in the locker room, down eight with less than two minutes left, without a three-pointer falling through the basket, with his starting center suspended and in street clothes, and yet somehow the Jayhawks scratched and clawed and won.

"Years ago the 2008 team was down nine with two minutes left (against Memphis)," KU point guard Frank Mason said. "They came back and made a run."

This team got blitzed by Kentucky. Got drilled by Temple. Temple! And it came back to win the best league in America. By the RPI. By kenpom.com. By any metric. 

Sometimes sports are improbable. Sometimes they're amazing. 

And it's best to just sit back and appreciate it when it happens.

C.J. Moore covers college basketball for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @CJMooreBR.