With four seniors in the starting lineup and redshirt freshman Ben McLemore eligible to play, expectations were high for Kansas. The Jayhawks got off to a fast start, winning 19 of their first 20 games, including the CBE Classic in Kansas City. But then they hit a 3-game skid, losing at home to Oklahoma State, at TCU and at Oklahoma. Following the Jayhawks' loss to a TCU team that had been winless in Big 12 play to that point and would finish last in the league, Self made national headlines when he called his team worse than James Naismith's teams that lost to the Topeka YMCA. KU recovered from its 3-game skid and went on to share the Big 12 championship with Kansas State, and then won the Big 12 Tournament by beating KSU 70–54 in the title game. The team earned a 1-seed for the NCAA Tournament's South Region and picked up wins against Western Kentucky and North Carolina to reach the Sweet 16 for the fourth straight year. However, the team's tournament run was cut short when Kansas blew a 14-point lead in the final minutes and lost to eventual national runner-up Michigan in overtime, finishing the year 31–6.