photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas head coach Bill Self lays into an official during the second half on Friday, Dec. 29, 2017 at Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas.

First, St. John’s, winless in the Big East, knocks off Duke over the weekend in Madison Square Garden. Then the Johnnies beat No. 1 Villanova on the Wildcats’ home court.

And Villanova was just one of four schools ranked in the top 10 to drop a game this week. No. 3 Purdue lost at home to Ohio State. No. 8 Auburn lost at home to Texas A&M. And Duke lost at North Carolina.

Surely, this season is the greatest example ever of parity in college basketball, right?

Wrong, but it does continue the recent trend of more parity in the game. In Self’s first 12 seasons schools ranked in the top 10 averaged a combined 23.8 losses in the Week 14 poll, compared to an average of 30 the past three seasons.

The cause of increased parity?

More players leaving early, which has the effect of the most talented teams often being the least experienced. Also, talented players are less likely to wait to crack the rotation and are more likely to transfer than in earlier eras.

I looked up how many total losses the top 10 schools in the Week 14 rankings had each year during Bill Self’s tenure at Kansas.

The most interesting revelation was that KU has been ranked in the top 10 in each of the past nine seasons. During that nine-year span, Villanova was next with seven, followed by Arizona and Michigan at four apiece.

A look at total losses from teams ranked in the top 10 at the Week 14 mark during the Self era: