The University of Kansas basketball team’s dominance of the Big 12 Conference is a remarkable achievement that brings tremendous national recognition for the university.

Last week, the Jayhawks wrapped up their 13th consecutive Big 12 Conference championship, one of the most amazing runs, not just in college basketball, but in all of sports.

It’s a run of success that has only been matched by the great UCLA teams from 1967 through 1979. And an argument can be made that UCLA’s streak doesn’t measure up to KU’s. UCLA’s streak was accomplished under three head coaches (John Wooden, Gene Bartow and Gary Cunningham) and in a conference (the American Association of Western Universities which became the Pac 8 and then the Pac 10) that never had the depth and strength of today’s Big 12.

KU’s sustained success since the 2004-05 season has come under the direction of one head coach, Bill Self, in one conference, the Big 12, that is perennially considered among the top two conferences in the country. Self is a deserving finalist this year for induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. When he is inducted, the streak will be remembered as his most amazing, if not greatest, accomplishment.

When Kansas’ Big 12 title streak began, George W. Bush was beginning his second term as president and Kathleen Sebelius was midway through her first term as governor. Facebook was barely a year old and had fewer than 5 million users. The iPhone was still two years away from being announced and the Big 12 still had 12 teams.

Wayne Simien, Aaron Miles and Keith Langford led the 2004-05 team that began the streak. Frank Mason III and Devonte Graham, leaders of the current Jayhawk squad, were just 10 years old. Jayhawk junior guard Sviatoslav “Svi” Mykhailiuk was a 7-year-old in the Ukraine who had never heard of Kansas.

During the streak, the Jayhawks have won 83 percent of their games, going 388-77 overall. In the conference, the team also has won 83 percent of its games, compiling a record of 181-37. Kansas has lost just nine conference games at home since the streak began. During the run, the Jayhawks have made eight appearances in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament, five in the Elite Eight, two in the Final Four, and made two trips to the national championship game, winning it in 2008.

Thirty-eight coaches and 16 All-American players from the Big 12 have tried to stop Kansas’ streak. Bob Knight, Bob Huggins and Lon Kruger tried. Kevin Durant, Michael Beasley and Marcus Smart tried. All came up short.

Instead, Self and the Jayhawks, competing with just two first-team All Americans — Simien and Thomas Robinson — finished first in the conference every single year for 13 consecutive years.

It is — as every commentator from Dick Vitale to Seth Greenberg has said — nothing short of amazing. Congratulations to KU basketball on an incredible run of Big 12 titles. May there be many more to come.