It’s obsessively tracked by Kansas basketball fans year after year. After each game. After each win. After each loss.
While the specifics of those games are always important — Who scored? What happened on defense? Can this player or that player really keep this up? — the one big-picture thing that so many people want to know after each one is simple: How far behind Kentucky is Kansas for first place on the all-time wins list?
The answer today, a little more than 48 hours out from their meeting at Allen Fieldhouse on Saturday is three games.
Kentucky, which topped Mississippi State in overtime on Tuesday night, enters this weekend’s blue blood showdown with 2,343 all-time wins. Kansas, which won a double-overtime thriller with No. 13 Texas Tech in its last outing, sits at 2,340 all-time wins.
It’s the closest the two have been in years and KU coach Bill Self is responsible for a lot of it. In his 19 seasons leading the Jayhawks, Self has presided over a stretch that has closed the gap by 45 games.
When Self took over for Roy Williams before the 2003-04 season, KU sat at 1,801 wins and Kentucky was at 1,849. Since then, Self has racked up 539 wins while the Wildcats have added 494 victories in that time, under Tubby Smith, Billy Gillespie and John Calipari.
Last season’s 9-16 record for the Wildcats helped KU make a major move — the Jayhawks won 21 games last season — and Kansas might even be in first place right now if not for the pandemic shutting down the 2020 NCAA Tournament and shortening the 2020-21 seasons.
KU’s +12 edge in the win column last season marked the second highest total for either program during Self’s time in Lawrence.
There was talk — also known as hope among Kansas fans — about their 2022 meeting 5 p.m. Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse on ESPN with College Gameday in the house — possibly being for the top spot, but they didn’t quite get there. Fifth-ranked KU enters the weekend at 17-2 overall and the 12th-ranked Wildcats are currently 16-4.
While those records matter a lot for the current season and the upcoming two-month stretch that will decide the 2022 national champion, thoughts of where these two programs rank on the all-time wins list likely will never be far from the minds of KU fans.
It remains a storyline each week, no matter what the gap is, and it will be a storyline moving forward no matter how many times the top spot is traded or how far ahead one team or the other gets. Especially when the two play each other.
*Here’s a quick look at the season-by-season breakdown of Kansas and Kentucky victories since Self took the reins in Lawrence.*
2003-04: UK +3 (27-24)
2004-05: UK +5 (28-23)
2005-06: KU +4 (25-22)
2006-07: KU +11 (33-22)
2007-08: KU +19 (37-18)
2008-09: KU +5 (27-22)
2009-10: UK +2 (35-33)
2010-11: KU +6 (35-29)
2011-12: UK +6 (38-32)
2012-13: KU +10 (31-21)
2013-14: UK +4 (29-25)
2014-15: UK +11 (38-27)
2015-16: KU +6 (33-27)
2016-17: UK +1 (32-31)
2017-18: KU +5 (31-26)
2018-19: UK +4 (30-26)
2019-20: KU +3 (28-25)
2020-21: KU +12 (21-9)
2021-22: KU +1 (17-16)… so far
