On Monday night, the Kansas Jayhawks fell to the Florida Gators 67-61, dropping their record to 6-3. With Scottie Wilbekin and Kasey Hill back in the lineup, the Gators are now at full strength and it showed at home against the overrated Jayhawks.
All the hype surrounding Andrew Wiggins and the fact that Kansas is a blueblood in college basketball got them a No. 5 ranking in the preseason, which was way too high. Even Bill Self agreed with some comments he made prior to the game against Florida.
“We’re not playing very good. We’re not playing good at all,” Self said. “The pieces just aren’t quite fitting yet and we’re trying to find ourselves. We didn’t think we’d be a great team by Christmas. That’s being totally unrealistic. In the preseason ratings, they shouldn’t have had us there. What we could be, we could play there to that at the end. There is too much stuff to learn and get over and grow.”
Self is absolutely right. Kansas should have to earn their way into the rankings. The top-25 should represent where a team is now, not where people believe the team will be later in the season. With three losses in their last four games, the Jayhawks are not one of the 25 best teams in the country and certainly don’t have the resume of one at this point.
The bluebloods in college sports have too many advantages as it is — they don’t need preferential treatment from the poll voters as well. Rankings should reflect performance and not hype and team history. Their preseason ranking was understandable considering their perennial highly ranked recruiting classeses, but at this point Kansas has shown they aren’t worthy of the top-25.
Aaron Charles is a Kansas City Chiefs writer for www.rantsports.com. Follow him on twitter @aaroncharleskc or add him to your network on Google.
