Lubbock, Texas ? Most of the time you look at the box score of a Kansas University men’s basketball game, you expect to find Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich were the Jayhawks’ leading scorers.

Sometimes, though, you don’t find what you’re looking for.

Yes, it’s true Collison and Hinrich, KU’s two locks for the All-Big 12 Conference team, combined for 23 points and 10 rebounds in Monday night’s 65-56 win over Texas Tech, but who would have believed the Jayhawks’ two native Texans would outdo them?

Keith Langford (Fort Worth) and Bryant Nash (Carrollton) combined for 24 points and 10 rebounds. OK, it isn’t much. One measly point. But it’s worth mentioning if anyone tries to tell you Kansas is a two-man team.

At the same time, would anyone have believed Kansas could win on the road if point guard Aaron Miles contributed just one assist?

Just win, baby … and that’s what the Jayhawks did this season. KU has clinched no worse than a tie for the Big 12 Conference regular-season championship, and that’s really noteworthy considering the Jayhawks lost Drew Gooden and Jeff Boschee, two of the most dependable offensive weapons on last year’s NCAA Final Four team.

I remember back in October when both the coaches and the media predicted Kansas would repeat as conference champion, and KU coach Roy Williams quickly reacted by noting the departure of Gooden and Boschee, while Oklahoma had lost only one player, Aaron McGhee, off its Final Four squad.

Of course, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Kansas and Oklahoma could tie for the league’s regular-season championship, but Kansas would have to lose in Sunday’s finale at Missouri, and OU would have to win tonight at home against Nebraska (count on it), then dispatch Texas Saturday in Norman, Okla.

Then again, Texas could forge the tie by knocking off Kansas State Wednesday in Austin (book it) and stunning the Sooners in Norman.

If Kansas does have to share the title, no doubt the Jayhawks would prefer it be with Texas, because they knocked off the Longhorns in Lawrence and thus would earn the No. 1 seed in next week’s Big 12 Conference tournament. If it’s a KU-OU deadlock at the top, the Sooners would earn the No. 1 seed based on their head-to-head win a little more than a week ago in the Lloyd Noble Center.

Sometimes it’s more difficult to win a championship when you are favored to win it. Remember those two years when KU was favored, and Iowa State came out of nowhere to upset the peach baskets?

About a month after the coaches and media predicted Kansas would repeat, the Jayhawks turned rotten in the Big Apple, losing to both North Carolina and Florida in Madison Square Garden and making people wonder how Kansas could possibly capture back-to-back league titles without the firepower of Gooden and Boschee.

Then came the loss to Oregon in Porland, and the Jayhawks’ record was a mediocre 3-3 with one of the victories coming against Central Missouri State, an NCAA Div. II team.

Kansas persevered, however, battling pluckily along, overcoming even the loss of Wayne Simien to a shoulder injury.

It’s no secret Kansas was helped by having a weaker league schedule than both Oklahoma and Texas. The balance of power in the conference clearly tilted to the south, and Kansas had the advantage of playing Oklahoma and Texas just once, while those two title contenders had to meet twice.

Still, the watered-down angle doesn’t really mean that much when you consider you still have to go out and do it, and in 15 league games the Jayhawks failed to do it only twice — at Oklahoma and at Colorado.

Thanks to the vagaries of the schedule — two road trips to end the season — Kansas won’t be able to cut down the nets. Don’t put away the scissors, though. There are plenty of other nets ripe for the clipping in March.