Kansas Basketball: Ranking the last 29 NCAA Tournament teams

24. 1989-90 (30-5) (11-3 Big 8)

Back during the 1989-90 season, the Jayhawks were members of the Big 8 Conference under head coach Roy Williams. This where their tournament streak began.

Led by a rotation of Kevin Pritchard, Mark Randall, Rick Calloway, Terry Brown, Pekka Markkanen and Jeff Gueldner, the Jayhawks were a Top 5 team in the AP Poll for much of the season, despite entering the preseason unranked.

Victories during the opening week of the season over the No. 2 LSU Tigers, the No. 25 St. John’s Red Storm and the No. 1 UNLV Running Rebels boosted them to No. 4 in the AP Poll by Week 2.

They began the season 17-0 before losing their first game to the rival Missouri Tigers on Jan. 20, 1990. They lost twice to Missouri in conference play, the first and last time the Tigers have swept the Jayhawks during the regular season.

Kansas finished third in Big 8 play during the regular season, though they finished No. 5 in the final rankings. The Jayhawks lost in the conference tournament semifinals to the Oklahoma Sooners, 95-77. Their performance during the season earned them a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament and in the first round, they faced the No. 15 Robert Morris Colonials.

They beat Robert Morris 79-71, in the opening round of the tournament behind 22 points from Rick Calloway and 43 points combined from the rest of the starting five. In the second round, they faced the seventh-seeded UCLA Bruins.

The Bruins pulled off the upset over the second-seeded Jayhawks behind 18 points apiece from Trevor Wilson and Darrick Martin in a 71-70 victory. Offense was a lot harder to come by, even though Terry Brown put up 15 points on five made 3-pointers off the bench. It began their current streak of runs to the NCAA Tournament, either way, though this run ended quite early.