Nick KrugKansas’ 72-69 victory over North Carolina in Monday’s national title game delivered the Jayhawks their sixth national championship and moved the program to 2,357-877 all-time.
For the first time in decades, the Jayhawks ended a college basketball season with the most wins of any program in NCAA history.
KU reached the top of the list by winning 34 games this season, surpassing 2021 leader Kentucky by eight games during the 2021-22 season alone.
The Wildcats, who fell to No. 15 seed Saint Peter’s in the first round of this year’s NCAA Tournament, finished the season at 26-8.
It marked the third consecutive season that Kansas made up ground on Kentucky, which has now watched its 19-game lead over KU entering the 2019-20 season disappear completely.
Overall, the Jayhawks have made up 53 games on the Wildcats in the 19 seasons since KU coach Bill Self took over the program before the 2003-04 season.
This year’s powerhouse Final Four featured three of the four winningest programs of all-time, meaning everyone else at the top of the list made up ground on UK this postseason.
Kansas finishes the season in first place on the all-time wins list with 2,357 victories. Kentucky still ranks second with 2,353. North Carolina sits in third place with 2,323 wins. And Duke, which fell to UNC in this year’s Final Four, rounds out the top four with 2,248 all-time wins.
According to oddsmakers at BetOnline.ag, the Jayhawks enter the offseason with the third-best odds to win the national title next season.
KU, which figures to have a drastically different looking team next season, is listed as a 14/1 favorite, joined there by North Carolina and Houston.
Arkansas, at 10/1, is the early favorite according to the site. Duke, Gonzaga and Kentucky are all listed at 11/1, just behind the Razorbacks and ahead of KU’s group.
A little farther down the list, three Big 12 Conference teams who battled the Jayhawks tooth and nail throughout the 2021-22 season are listed in the middle of the pack. Texas leads that group at 20/1, Baylor is next at 22/1 and Texas Tech follows them at 33/1. No other Big 12 program has odds better than 100/1.
It’s still two seasons away, but the Jayhawks now officially can start making plans for Maui again.
The Maui Invitational this week announced that Kansas would be in the 2023 field — Nov. 20-22, 2023 — at the beginning of the 2023-24 season.
The rules dictate that teams can only participate in the same exempt tournament every four years, and Kansas has been locked into that rotation in Maui for a couple of decades now.
Kansas last appeared in Maui in 2019. Before that it was 2015. Before that 2011. The Jayhawks, under Self, won the title in both 2015 and 2019, after finishing as runners-up in 2011.
KU also won the title in 1996, under Roy Williams, and made appearances in 1987, 2001 and 2005.
Kansas is part of a loaded 2023 field that includes Gonzaga, Purdue, UCLA, Tennessee, Marquette, Syracuse and host school Chaminade.
Next season, Kansas is slated to play in the Battle4Atlantis in the Bahamas Nov. 23-25. The Jayhawks will be joined there by Butler, BYU, Dayton, North Carolina State, USC, Tennessee and Wisconsin.
