Bill Self has been the Kansas basketball coach for 21 seasons, and in that time, the Jayhawks have only finished one season with 10 or more losses. Self has won 81 percent of his games as the Jayhawks head coach — the best win percentage in Kansas history — and his 556 wins are second-most in program history, only trailing behind Phog Allen's 590. This is all to say that at Kansas in the Bill Self era, expectations are perennially through the roof.

So when the Jayhawks drop two games on the road to unranked opponents in a span of two weeks — 65-60 at UCF, and 91-85 at West Virginia, a team that has been a thorn in the side of Self — whether warranted or not, alarm bells are going to start to ring. But when Self was asked about the status of his team, who are 16-3 and ranked 7th in the country in the latest AP Poll, there wasn't the slightest bit of panic that came through in his response.

“I've thought about this a lot. We've dropped a few and we're gonna lose some games again. It's too good a league,” Self said, per Matt Tait of R1S1 Wave The Wheat, referencing the Big 12, which has nine teams in the 2024 NCAA Tournament field according to my most recent Bracketology projections. When asked if there was a feeling that Kansas was facing some must-win games coming up on their schedule, Self replied, “I'm not buying it.”

So if they're not must-win games, what do we call the Big 12 gauntlet that Kansas has to run the rest of the way? Seriously, just look at how brutal this upcoming schedule is, courtesy of ESPN.com:

Kansas Jayhawks upcoming schedule

For the record, I agree with Bill Self. A 16-3 squad that is ranked 7th in the country doesn't play “Must-Win games” in January. Big games? Sure, let's go ahead and stick with that, because there's no doubt that the Jayhawks schedule is littered with those. But by season's end, my bet is we'll be in a familiar position where Kansas is in the running for a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. And only then will the games truly be considered “must-win.”