For 14 consecutive seasons, the Big 12 ran through Lawrence, Kansas. Maybe this time, it'll run about 80 miles west in Manhattan. K-State not only ended an eight-game losing streak to rival Kansas, but the Wildcats dealt a severe blow to KU's chances at a 15th consecutive Big 12 title thanks to a 74-67 win Tuesday night at Bramlage Coliseum that ended in a court storm. DOWN. GOES. KANSAS! Kansas State makes a STATEMENT in the Big 12 with the W over No. 13 Kansas! #SunflowerShowdown pic.twitter.com/nH4RjyLtcO — NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) February 6, 2019 A K-State team that was only 4-26 against Kansas at Bramlage coming in is now going to sleep with its first win against the Jayhawks since Feb. 23, 2015 — and in first place in the Big 12 at 7-2. Kansas is 6-4 in the Big 12 and is now only 1-6 on the road. Kansas State's Cartier Diarra talks dagger dunk, statement win over rival Kansas RANKINGS: Tennessee is No. 1 in Katz's Power 36 Barry Brown Jr. scored 18 and fellow senior Dean Wade added 12 points, 9 boards and 5 assists for Kansas State. Kansas got 18 from Dedric Lawson, but the Jayhawks had 23 turnovers. The win is also the first for K-State's seniors, not that they were alone in the program's struggles against Kansas. The Jayhawks once won 31 in a row in the series, picking up wins from Feb. 12, 1994 to March 11, 2005. And Kansas' 196 wins against K-State are the most by one team over another in Division I men's basketball. But that's all in the past. Now it's K-State: Winning streak, 1. There are still nine conference games to play for Kansas State, with KU still facing another eight. Now at 7-2, the Wildcats have a half-game lead on Baylor for first and have a 1 1/2 game edge on Kansas — two in the loss column. K-State travels to Baylor on Saturday, with the winner picking up a huge head-to-head win as the Big 12 race heats up. The Jayhawks have a manageable stretch coming up: vs. Oklahoma State (Saturday), at TCU (February 11) and vs. West Virginia (February 16). But then things take a big turn, as KU must travel to Texas Tech on Feb. 23. Then, Sunflower Showdown No. 2 vs. K-State, this time at home. To win the Big 12, K-State might have to go through Lawrence after all.<doc-sep>Jerry Larson/Associated Press It is once again that time of the year when we foolishly try to convince ourselves that someone other than Kansas is going to win the Big 12. In one of the most ridiculous streaks at any level of any sport, the Jayhawks have earned at least a share of the Big 12 regular-season title in every season dating back to 2004-05. Even the New England Patriots failed to make the playoffs once during that time, and they don't have to deal with as much roster turnover on an annual basis as college basketball teams do. But Kansas has lost three of its last four games and is only 1-5 in true road contests this season. All of the Jayhawks' noteworthy wins have come by a single-digit margin. They are still going to make the NCAA tournament with plenty of room to spare, but this is arguably the worst they have been since 2000. There's no time like the present for someone to rise up and end the Jayhawks' Big 12 streak. What makes this year's top challenger to Kansas different from usual is that before the season began, Baylor was not expected to be good. Six weeks ago, we had already left the Bears for dead. Baylor narrowly missed the NCAA tournament last year and then lost all four of its leading scorers as departing seniors. Making matters worse, Tyson Jolly transferred in April, and Jake Lindsey—the projected starting point guard—was ruled out for the year following hip surgery in August. The only returning players who scored at least two buckets last season were role players King McClure, Tristan Clark and Mark Vital. Video Play Button Videos you might like Even with the additions of three solid transfers (Makai Mason, Mario Kegler and Devonte Bandoo) and two top-100 freshmen (Matthew Mayer and Jared Butler), growing pains were to be expected. And when Baylor lost its season opener to Texas Southern—a team the Bears had beaten by an average margin of 24.0 points over the previous four years—it seemed like things might be even worse than feared. Neither Mason nor Kegler was able to play against Texas Southern, so the roster was especially depleted. But there were problems even at full strength later. By mid-December, Baylor had added another terrible home loss to Stephen F. Austin and a disappointing road loss to Wichita State, and only one of its six wins (at Arizona) was anything close to impressive. When the Bears played Oregon on Dec. 21, they were ranked outside the top 70 on KenPom.com for the first time since the end of the 2010-11 season. Through 10 games, no rational person thought Baylor would make the NCAA tournament, let alone vie for the Big 12 title. But now that the Bears have played 20 games, there are only three teams in the country (Duke, Kansas and Michigan State) who entered play Tuesday with more Quadrant 1 wins. Suddenly, Baylor looks the part of a team that could put together a significant run in the NCAA tournament. The Bears are tied with Kansas State atop the Big 12 standings—one game ahead of Kansas in the loss column—and they may well get to 9-2 in conference play before they face their next stiff test. Naturally, this begs the question: What the heck changed? How in the world did Baylor go from Quadrant 4 losses to teams from the SWAC and Southland conferences to winning at Oklahoma by 30 and scoring more points against Texas Tech than any other team (including Duke) has this season? The short answer is that head coach Scott Drew is a wizard who gets underappreciated on a yearly basis. The slightly longer answer is that the shooting guards are finally doing what they're supposed to do. Baylor's opponents are shooting better from the field in the past 10 games (42.5 percent) than they did in the first 10 (38.8 percent), and they are also committing 2.7 fewer fouls per game. Moreover, opponents are blocking 1.6 more shots per game over that span and are averaging 2.5 more assists, too. If anything, you'd think from that Baylor would be losing more games now. But the team's three-point shooting has improved drastically. Through 11 games, Baylor was shooting 27.9 percent from distance and averaging 69.3 points per game. In the four losses during that stretch, the Bears were a woeful 16-of-83 (19.3 percent) from downtown. Over the past nine games, though, Baylor is shooting 37.2 percent from deep and is scoring 76.3 points per contest. Most of the credit belongs to Bandoo and Butler. They were averaging a combined 1.5 made threes through 11 games. Bandoo was shooting 29.0 percent, but that was better than Butler's poor mark of 21.1 percent. But since Christmas, Bandoo is 14-of-30 (46.7 percent) and Butler is 18-of-42 (42.9 percent). Rod Aydelotte/Associated Press Just like that, close losses to bad teams have become close wins (and the occasional blowout) against good teams. And while you always worry about hot streaks eventually fading, 37.2 percent is a sustainable rate of three-point success. Against D-I opponents, Baylor shot better than that in 2013-14, 2014-15 and 2015-16. The Bears struggled early while roles took shape and the new guys learned the offense, but they have scored at least 73 points in eight of their last nine games. It took nearly two months, but things finally clicked, and they have continued clicking through wins over Iowa State, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Alabama. Even the two losses (at TCU, vs. Kansas) have been competitive, as each were decided by two possessions. Had the Bears shot 37.2 percent from three-point range in those games instead of 27.7 percent (13-of-47), we'd be talking about a 10-game winning streak. But before we go crowning Baylor as the 2019 Big 12 champions, we need to discuss the remaining schedule. The Bears already have three road wins in conference play, but they still need to play at Texas Tech, Iowa State, Kansas State and Kansas. The games against the Red Raiders and the Cyclones are back-to-back in mid-February, and the game against the Jayhawks is the regular-season finale. If Baylor and Kansas are tied for first place heading into that game, the atmosphere in Allen Fieldhouse is going to be unbelievable. It is always next to impossible for the road team to win in that building, but factor in the threat of the Big 12 streak ending, and Richter scales in other states might feel that one taking place. There's an even longer streak in play between Baylor and Kansas, too: In 14 tries since they joined the Big 12 in 1996-97, the Bears have never won a road game against the Jayhawks. It's hard to imagine they could finish ahead of Kansas without winning that head-to-head showdown on March 9. They're getting closer, though. Since 1996-97, Kansas won 11 of its first 12 home games against Baylor by a double-digit margin, but the past two contests were decided by a combined margin of eight points. And when they met in Waco a few weeks ago, Baylor darn near erased a 20-point deficit in the final four minutes. The Bears won't be scared of the big bad Jayhawks. Not after all they went through to get to this point. Kansas fans figure to bookmark this so they can throw it in my face when the Jayhawks win the Big 12 by a multiple-game margin for the fifth time in the past six seasons, but this Baylor renaissance is more than just a feel-good story for January. If the Bears keep shooting at an above-average level, they could win a league title for the first time since winning the Southwest Conference en route to the 1950 Final Four. Kerry Miller covers men's college basketball and college football for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter: @kerrancejames.<doc-sep>
Kansas State's Cartier Diarra makes great defensive plays and puts on a show for the home crowd with a windmill dunk to finish a fast break. (0:58) MANHATTAN, Kan. -- Sure as the celebration launched by the rush of humanity that flooded the court as the seconds ticked away on Kansas State's 74-67 win over Kansas on Tuesday, the Jayhawks' remarkable streak of Big 12 dominance is in danger. This sixth KU loss in seven true road games felt different than the others, different than the rout at the hands of Iowa State and the late lead inexplicably blown at West Virginia. It felt different because Kansas can always -- well, almost always -- count on righting its wrongs against rival K-State. Not on this night, which marked the first win by Kansas State over KU in nearly four years and just its fifth over the Jayhawks in 31 games at Bramlage Coliseum. These Wildcats have hit their stride since the return of senior forward Dean Wade, the preseason Big 12 player of the year who missed six games in December and January with a foot injury. His absence turned K-State into a dark horse. But you might remember that coach Bruce Weber's team danced within one win of the Final Four a year ago and began this season as the most real threat to dethrone Kansas in the league. With five weeks to go, well, here they are -- alone atop the Big 12 standings at 7-2 as Baylor visits Texas on Wednesday with a chance to match K-State's mark. Iowa State is lurking, too, one back of the Wildcats in the loss column. Kansas State fans stormed the court after Tuesday's win over Kansas. AP Photo/Orlin Wagner No. 13 Kansas, meanwhile, sits tied for fourth with Texas Tech at 6-4. Fourth place after 14 straight regular-season Big 12 titles. The last time the Jayhawks won fewer than seven of their first 10 league games? It was 25 years ago in the Big Eight. KU has real concerns that extend beyond its conference record and the scoreboard in Manhattan. The Jayhawks remain without big men Udoka Azubuike, out for the season, and Silvio De Sousa, suspended for all of this year and next. Veteran guard Marcus Garrett did not play Tuesday because of an ankle injury. Lagerald Vick logged just four minutes in the first half and did not start the second half because of an undisclosed concern. As a result, a 15th straight Big 12 championship ought to rank down the list of Kansas' priorities. "We ain't even worried about that," forward Dedric Lawson said. "We're just worried about getting better." Good idea, coach Bill Self said. Despite the temptation to consider scenarios ahead of K-State's Feb. 25 visit to Allen Fieldhouse, the Jayhawks are better off staying focused on their own issues, according to Self. "We shouldn't even be concerned about the damn race right now," he said. "Are we in a great position to win the league? No. Do we deserve to be in a great position? Absolutely not. Can we flip the switch? It remains to be seen." Kansas possesses the skill, with Lawson and Vick as major scoring threats. Freshman Devon Dotson sparkled at times Tuesday, while fellow rookies Quentin Grimes and Ochai Agbaji struggled in their Sunflower Showdown debuts. The Jayhawks committed 23 turnovers, prompting Self to describe the performance as "one of the worst days of offensive execution" that he could recall. "It's leadership. It's toughness. It's inexperience," the coach said. Mental toughness and physical toughness. "This team doesn't have much of it right now," Self said. "Our young kids have never been in a situation like that. They ate us up pretty good. We were never, ever remotely comfortable. And that's a credit to them." Yes, credit Kansas State. With Wade, senior guard Barry Brown and sophomore Cartier Diarra, whose windmill dunk in the final minute nearly blew the roof off Bramlage, Kansas State isn't going away. "We could have come over here and played great tonight and still lost," Self said. "They've got a really good team." After Baylor goes to Texas, Kansas State is the only Big 12 contender with five league road games remaining -- starting Saturday at Baylor. The Bears also must still travel to Lawrence. "To me, the most important thing, we're in first place," Weber said. "Long way to go. I hope it's not finished." Kansas State surely doesn't look finished.