Bill Self had just watched his third-ranked Kansas team squander a 16-point lead to lose on the road to an opponent picked to finish last in the Big 12 Conference when the veteran men’s basketball coach was asked how he will remember the game.
“To be real candid with you,” Self told reporters in his postgame news conference, “I hope I don’t.”
It’s a sentiment that could apply to many of the headliners in the AP Top 25 poll after a bumpy few days.
Top-ranked Purdue and No. 2 Houston lost Tuesday. Fifth-ranked Tennessee and No. 9 Oklahoma joined Self’s Jayhawks in losing Wednesday. Each defeat came on the road to an unranked foe, offering an early end to the unbeaten watch for Houston and a reminder to everyone else that the sport’s natural order is very different in the era of older teams, the NCAA transfer portal and talent dispersed across the country.
If anything, it’s following the lead of last year’s chaotic season that included a record 54 teams cracking the AP Top 25 before the NCAA tournament ended without a No. 1 seed even making a regional final and no team seeded higher than fourth reaching the Final Four.