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  • No. 3 Kansas Faces No. 7 Texas In A Battle Of National Top 10 Teams For The Big 12 Title

No. 3 Kansas Faces No. 7 Texas In A Battle Of National Top 10 Teams For The Big 12 Title

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Basketball

In a battle of two Associated Press Top-10 teams, No. 3 Kansas (27-6) will face No. 7 Texas (25-8) in the title game of the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship, Saturday, March 11, at 5 p.m. CT. The contest will be televised on ESPN.

TIPOFF

  • 1 seed Kansas advanced to its 16th Big 12, 24th all-time, conference tournament title game with a 71-58 win against Iowa State, March 10, in the semifinals of the 2023 Big 12 Championship. No. 2 seed Texas defeated TCU, 66-60, on March 10 to reach the Championship game.
  • KU has won 16 postseason league tournament titles and 12 in the Big 12 era. KU (12), ISU (5), OU (3) and OSU (2) are active league members with multiple Big 12 tournament titles.
  • Kansas leads the overall series with Texas, 37-13, including a 5-1 record in the Big 12 Championship and a 3-0 record in T-Mobile Center.
  • Kansas won its 21st Big 12 and NCAA-leading 64th all-time conference regular-season title in 2023, the 17th under Bill Self.
  • Last season, Kansas became the all-time winningest program in NCAA Division I, currently at 2,384 victories.
  • Kansas is No. 6 in the NET Rankings through games played on March 10. Kansas is No. 1 in NET Strength of Schedule and its 17 Quadrant 1 wins are the most in NCAA Division I. Texas is next with 13, followed by Baylor at 11.
  • Kansas has appeared in the Associated Press top 10 in each of the last 37 polls, dating back to the 2021-22 preseason poll. The 37 consecutive is the longest active streak in men’s college basketball.
  • Big 12 Player of the Year and national player of the year candidate, redshirt-junior Jalen Wilson leads the Big 12 in scoring at 20.0 ppg, rebounds per game at 8.5 and double-doubles with 12.
  • Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, redshirt-junior Dajuan Harris Jr. leads the Big 12 in assist-to-turnover ratio at 3.4. He is second in the league and sixth nationally in assists per game at 6.3.
  • Redshirt-senior Kevin McCullar Jr. is second in the Big 12 in steals (2.1). He is third in the league in rebounds per game at 7.3 rpg.
  • Freshman Gradey Dick leads the team with 79 threes made, which are tied for first on the Kansas freshman all-time list. Dick’s 475 points are sixth on the Kansas freshman list and his 85.1 free throw percentage is second.
  • Kansas is celebrating 125 years of men’s basketball in 2022-23.

UP NEXT
Should Kansas win its Big 12 title game, Kansas would receive the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with selection Sunday on March 12. It would be KU’s 51st all-time NCAA Tournament appearance.

Since 1990, Kansas has made 32-consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances which is the longest active streak in the nation and best all-time.