The Kansas women’s basketball team is back to receiving votes in the Associated Press poll after it pushed its winning streak to five games with a 63-51 home victory over Kansas State on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.
The Jayhawks (17-5, 8-4 Big 12) earned a season-high 18 votes in Monday’s poll, good for what would be 27th place. They also earned votes in the polls issued on Jan. 17 and Jan. 24, but no voters put them on the ballot after they lost 77-62 at Iowa State on Jan. 26.
Until Saturday, KU had not had a five-game Big 12 winning streak since the 1999-2000 season and had not had an eighth conference win since 2012-13.
Kansas has not been ranked since Jan. 14, 2013, when it dropped to No. 23 in the poll after matching a season high at No. 17 the week earlier. That was the last season when the Jayhawks made the NCAA tournament; they were 20-14 that season and reached the Sweet 16 but lost 93-63 to No. 2 Notre Dame in Norfolk, Virginia.
What’s more important to the Jayhawks than any poll, though, is the NCAA’s NET Rating, which is used as a guideline for NCAA Tournament seeding. The Jayhawks were No. 34 in that metric on Monday morning, down from No. 32 a day earlier. There are 36 at-large bids to the 68-team tournament, meaning they are on the cusp of selection.
Coach Brandon Schneider has said that he believes KU will be in good shape if it’s able to win nine Big 12 games and should be guaranteed entry if it hits 10.
They can improve their standing with wins Tuesday against West Virginia and Saturday at Texas Tech, teams they have already defeated this season. The road from there gets rocky; they’ll finish the regular season with games against No. 6 Iowa State, No. 7 Baylor, No. 14 Texas and No. 15 Oklahoma.
Iowa State has not been ranked that high since Jan. 7, 2002.
