Kansas Basketball: Are the Jayhawks the No. 1 Team in the Country?

Kansas’ victory over Missouri last night puts it in an elite class, including Ohio State, Louisville, Duke, Brigham Young, North Carolina and Florida, of Top 25 teams that have broken 100 points during wins two times or more this season.

But with their field goal percentage, assists per game and points per game statistics ranking in the top 10 of the country, one has to sit back and wonder if their January 22 loss to the Texas Longhorns truly makes them the No. 2 team overall.

Ohio State currently stands in the spotlight as the No. 1 team, and deservedly so, as no one inside or outside of the Big Ten conference has been able to stop them in their tracks.

However, the Jayhawks have proved a lot of critics wrong with their high-speed offense and instinctive transition defense.

They may not have met this season and will not as the regular season comes to a close, but there are plenty of ways to compare the two to figure out whose team has a better makeup and a bigger chance of finishing No. 1.

Kansas’ average margin of victory exceeds Ohio State’s in the double digits, but these wins have only been delivered against one ranked team in Missouri. They broke their unbeaten stride against No. 11-ranked Texas in a loss by 11. OSU has competed against five ranked teams and has not lost to one yet, nor have the Buckeyes allowed a single game to be decided in overtime.

Some people may say a team’s success can only be rightfully determined by the amount of adversity it faces and how it handles said adversity each and every time it is thrown in its path. Kansas has rarely been in trouble at the half, and many of their games are decided before the clock for the second half runs out.

Ohio State has been consistently placed in situations where it was exposed for its lack of defense in the first quarter or first minutes of the second and has had to be its toughest critic. The humility that comes with trial is a characteristic of continued success.

The potential of Ohio State is also greater than that of the Kansas roster. Buckeye freshmen Jared Sullinger and Aaron Craft are important contributors to every OSU win, and with it being projected that they will remain put at least until the end of next season, the potential of the team has skyrocketed.

Kansas' younger players, such as Josh Selby, still have not found the consistency on the court in order to be major game-changers or playmakers. Not saying that Selby will never discover that unlocked potential; he just has not right now.

Kansas may not be a better team than Ohio State, but I am more than sure that they will be making a major presence in March.