Kansas made a late-season push to clinch its record 14th straight Big 12 title a year ago. The Jayhawks may need a similar run to make it 15 in a row.

The Big 12 race has tightened up heading into the final month of the regular season, with five teams within a game of the lead. The 11th-ranked Jayhawks are looking up in the standings after splitting their two games last week.

"We've just got to kind of figure it out. We're a different team than we were a few weeks ago," Kansas coach Bill Self said. "It doesn't mean worse. It doesn't mean better. It means different. But we've got to figure it out. We haven't played well this last couple of weeks."

The Jayhawks were forced to make a big adjustment when center Udoka Azubuike suffered a season-ending hand injury in early January. Kansas (17-5, 6-3 Big 12) has been good at times without its big man but struggled in others.

The Jayhawks dropped out of the top 10 of the AP poll last Monday and lost to Texas for the first time since 2014 on Tuesday, their third loss in four games.

Kansas received bad news from the NCAA on Friday, when Silvio De Souza was declared ineligible the rest of this season and next after it was revealed that his guardian was paid to steer the athletic forward to Lawrence.

The decision infuriated Self, who called it "mean-spirited" and "vindictive."