@BShark. That narrative was postulated by some of the recruiting experts because that was the only reason Self would’ve looked at a transfer like Maxwell in the first place. I never said Maxwell’s brother became a highly regarded recruit because he didn’t. His brother was all potential and never materialized. They gambled on the brother becoming a diamond in the rough and it didn’t pay off. Self has always been a gambler and sometimes you lose when you gamble and Self lost on the Maxwell gamble.

@BShark Maxwell wasn’t puzzling at the time. He had a younger brother who was thought to be a potential late bloomer in recruiting, but he never bloomed and Maxwell moved on because of that.

Whitman is definitely the much more puzzling addition because it forced Coleby out. Colby would either be starting next to Doke or first big off the bench had he stayed. I didn’t get the Whitman transfer at the time because it meant Coleby was moving on when it appeared that Coleby was the better player. Maybe there were personal issues with Coleby that we don’t know about and he would’ve left regardless, but that’s the biggest head scratcher transfer situation of the Self era to me.

3 of the 8 are double digit and a 4th is a 9 seed. Not exactly a lot of strength in the middle of the pack.

@drgnslayr This is the biggest difference between the Big 12 and ACC. The best team will always win the Big 12 because of the double round robin. In the ACC, you can have a team that’s not the best win the regular season because they lucked out on their schedule.

Would KU’s streak be at 13 if KU had Texas, OU, or OSU twice during early years of the streak when KU shared the league title? KU has definitely been the benefactor of some favorable schedules when the Big 12 still had divisions and avoided playing some of those really good UT, OU, and OSU teams twice in the mid to late 2000’s.

@justanotherfan Missouri was never a 1 seed during KU’s streak. They were a 2 seed once and lost in the 1st round that year.

@drgnslayr The biggest difference is the unbalanced schedule in the ACC. We know our conference opponents every year in the Big 12 because of the double round robin. In the ACC, you could be unfortunate enough to draw a brutal road schedule and suddenly, you’re struggling to contend even if you have a very good team because some decent, but not great team drew a much more favorable schedule than you did.

As for the original question, I think Duke would be the one with a chance and that’s it. Sure they haven’t won many ACC titles recently, but they also haven’t had true off years either like UK and UNC have. How far down in the ACC would the 2008-09 KU team have finished? The 2011-12 team that had no depth and was using Justin Wesley as a rotation player? The 2013-14 and 2014-15 teams that lost 10 and 9 games those seasons? Those are KU teams that don’t win the ACC and probably finish as far down as Duke has some years? Some of those Duke teams that have finished 5th and 6th I think we’re good enough to win the Big 12 those years, or at least good enough to not write them off.

Obviously hypothetical, but I think Duke is the one who could have done what KU has done in role reversal.

Something I would be curious to see is how many national titles KU would have if KU had the this run in the 60’s and 70’s and the Wooden era Bruins went on their run in this era. Prior to 1975 (Wooden’s final season), only conference champs made the NCAA Tournament so there was much less competition in the NCAA Tournament in the Wooden run. What could KU do in an NCAA Tournament with only conference champs in It? How many fewer titles would Wooden have wokn if UCLA had to run through 64+ teams that weren’t exclusively conference champs?

AAU is what’s wrong with basketball in the US right now. It doesn’t prepare players to succeed at higher levels and mostly serves to bring out the worst in players and coaches. There needs to be a major overhaul of prep basketball so that kids are learning skills that will gp them in college and the pros and so the coaches and players can be held accountable when they act like whiny little babies.

@Lulufulu Dog and cat meat is Asia. China, Korea, SE Asia, that part of the world.