Reese Strickland-USA TODAY Sports
On Monday night, the Iowa State Cyclones fell to the Kansas Jayhawks at home by a score of 77-70. A victory would have been huge for the Cyclones’ hopes of ending the Jayhawks’ run of nine straight Big 12 Championships, but Kansas is still in the driver’s seat with their big win. Iowa State also missed their chance to get the ‘Jayhawk bump’ every team seems to get after beating KU. Let me illustrate how the Jayhawk bump has worked this season.
Every team that has beaten the Jayhawks has shot up in the polls after doing so. The first benefactors were the Villanova Wildcats, who went from being unranked to 14th after beating KU. Next were the Colorado Buffaloes, who were also unranked and jumped up to 21st after a buzzer-beater win at home against the Jayhawks.
The Florida Gators only moved up from 19th to 16th immediately after their victory over Kansas, but have since climbed to a No. 7 ranking. And finally, the San Diego State Aztecs shot up to 13th from 21st after defeating a three-loss Jayhawk squad at Allen Fieldhouse. Iowa State currently sits at No. 8 in the polls, so they didn’t have very much room to move up, but the Jayhawk bump surely would have given them at least a little boost.
That boost is going to be hard to come by anymore, as KU is finally starting to play up to their talent level, and not a moment too soon. Kansas is currently in the midst of a brutal stretch in which five of six opponents are currently ranked in the AP Top 25.
The Jayhawks are now 3-0 in the Big 12 and alone atop the conference. If they defend home court against the Oklahoma State Cowboys and Baylor Bears in their next two contests, they’ll be well on their way to their tenth straight conference championship.
