Kansas Basketball: Ranking the last 29 NCAA Tournament teams

22. 2009-10 (33-3) (15-1 Big 12)

The 2009-10 Jayhawks entered the season with much promise, but things didn’t end quite as planned in March. Head coach Bill Self had a roster of eight future NBA draft picks, though only six were contributors during this season.

Cole Aldrich, Markieff and Marcus Morris ran the frontcourt, while Sherron Collins and Xavier Henry ran the backcourt. For the most part, it worked to perfection during the regular season. The Jayhawks went 27-1 during the year not losing their second game of the year until Feb. 27, 2010, against the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

Kansas finished 15-1 in Big 12 play, taking home yet another regular season crown and entering as the favorite to win the conference tournament.  They would go on to win the Big 12 Conference title over the Kansas State Wildcats 72-64, earning a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament in the process.

In the first round of the tournament, they made easy work of the Lehigh Mountain Hawks, despite allowing 26 points from future NBA All-Star CJ McCollum. In the second round though, the ninth-seeded Northern Iowa Panthers were too much for them.

The Panthers pulled off the 69-67 upset over the Jayhawks thanks to 16 points from Ali Farokhmanesh and 14 points from Jordan Eglseder. The loss marked the first time in six years a No. 1 seed was knocked out in the early Round of 32. It proved to be a valuable lesson for this group, as they would return the following season to make a deeper run.