No. 1 Baylor made history on Tuesday night, breaking a Big 12 record that had lasted since the first season of the conference's existence with its 23rd straight win in a 65-54 victory at Oklahoma on Tuesday night.
Baylor entered the game tied with the 1996-97 Kansas team for the longest winning streak in Big 12 history at 22 games. The Jayhawks also hold the third-longest winning streak in Big 12 history thanks to 20-straight wins from the national champion 2007-08 team, but the top spot in the record book for the conference that Kansas has dominated since it was founded now belongs to another team.
And not just any team, but the same Baylor team that is standing in the way of Kansas reclaiming a share of the Big 12 regular season title after seeing its historic streak of conference championships come to an end in 2019.
Baylor is 24-1 overall and 13-0 in conference play with an absolutely massive top-five matchup against No. 3 Kansas coming up on Saturday in Waco, Texas. The Jayhawks are 12-1 in league play and need a win to have a shot at keeping the league race interesting during the final two weeks of play. If Baylor is able to win and sweep the regular season series, the Big 12 championship and top seed in the conference tournament will be close to locked up for the current No. 1 team in the country.
The challenges of winning consistently in the Big 12 are not lost on Scott Drew, who has been with Baylor building towards this season's success since his arrival in 2002.
"I know the history of the Big 12 after 17 years [at Baylor], the great coaches, the great players the great fans, it means a lot," Drew told ESPN after the game when asked about the record. "God's really blessed us, our guys play with a lot of joy and we've taken it one game at a time and it's a great accomplishment."
