KANSAS JAYHAWKS
* Record: 19-2 (7-1 Big 12) * AP ranking: 3 * RPI: 3 * Coach: Bill Self, 14th year at Kansas, 404-84 (.828). * Best win: 79-73 at Kentucky * Worst loss: 85-69 at West Virginia * Best stat: In the era of one-and-done rosters, especially at blueblood programs such as KU, the Jayhawks count two seniors and two juniors among their top five players. * Best player: Freshman Josh Jackson is KU’s brightest NBA prospect, but senior point guard Frank Mason III is the player who makes the Jayhawks’ wings flap in unison. Though only 5-foot-11, he leads Kansas in points (19.9 pg) and assists (5.1) and is hitting better from the 3-point line (51.6 percent) than overall from the field (51.1 percent). And he’s hitting 72.3 percent of his free throws. * Can be dancin’ in the desert if: They hit their 3-pointers during March Madness at the same clip they’re hitting them during the regular season (41.2 percent). With four juniors or seniors in the starting lineup, Kansas has both talent and experience. Beyond that, given last season’s narrow loss to eventual champ Villanova in a regional final, the Jayhawks are focused and driven to make the Final Four this time around. * Prediction: Elite Eight * Coachspeak: “We’ve seen some pretty good teams, but they’re clearly a cut above anybody we’ve seen. Their guards are really terrific; they’re athletic on the wings. When you add that athleticism in transition, wow!” – Nebraska coach Tim Miles after an 89-72 loss at Kansas
It would be more than 40 hours before the nation would learn that Saturday night’s Kansas-Kentucky game inside Rupp Arena had become ESPN’s most-watched college basketball game of the season, but anyone looking closely could immediately see why the Jayhawks became 79-73 winners.
“We don’t normally lose here,” said losing coach John Calipari, “but Kansas, you’ve got to give them credit, they came in here and made all the plays they had to make in the second half.”
Added winning coach Bill Self as his veteran team improved to 19-2 heading into Wednesday night’s Big 12 Conference home game against No. 2 Baylor: “I thought our experience – Frank and Devonte’, and Josh plays much older than his years, and Svi and Landen – I thought those guys played with pretty good poise down the stretch. Really good.”
The experience of guards Frank Mason III and Devonte’ Graham, wings Josh Jackson and Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk and center Landen Lucas might make the Jayhawks the most experienced Top 10 team in the land heading into the NCAA tournament. Mason and Lucas are seniors, Graham and Mykhailiuk are juniors and Jackson is arguably the most talented freshman in the country.
And just as both Calipari and Self noted, the five of them play with tremendous poise and purpose when it matters most, as witness their six wins by seven points or less, including a neutral-site victory over Duke and Saturday’s road triumph over UK.
“Their backcourt – it’s a big-time backcourt,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said after his team lost by two to the Jayhawks early in the season on a Mason game-winner. “Those two kids (Mason and Graham) are just so solid.”
In a sense, at least against Kentucky, KU became four guards of varying heights wrapped around the 6-foot-10, 240-pound Lucas, who may average only 7.6 points but pulls in 7.9 rebounds a game. Graham, a 6-2 junior, scores at a 13.6 clip and dishes out 4.5 assists per game.
The 6-8 Jackson averages 15.7 points, 6.7 rebounds and 3.1 assists. Not known as a terribly strong outside shooter, he nevertheless buried two 3-pointers early in the second half at UK to turn the tide against the Wildcats.
But it is Mason who makes Kansas special, and not only because the 5-11 senior leads KU in both scoring (19.9) and assists (5.1), as well as hitting 51.6 percent from hehind the arc, 51.1 percent overall and 72.3 percent from the foul line on a team that struggles mightily (62.9 percent) overall on free throws.
“I told Frank after the game that if it ended today, he would be the national player of the year,” first-year Oklahoma State coach Brad Underwood said after an 87-80 loss at Kansas. “He refuses to let them lose.”
Of Jackson, Underwood added, “And Josh’s stuff is legendary. He stood out at the AAU circuit because he played hard. He’s talented, but he plays hard. He’s loaded up.”
And looking to return to basketball Oz in early April.
But with sophomore forward Carlton Bragg in and out of Self’s doghouse these days (he was suspended for the Kentucky game) and an investigation ongoing into the possible rape of a 16-year-old girl inside the basketball dormitory (though no players have yet been mentioned as suspects), do the Jayhawks have what it takes to load a fourth NCAA championship trophy into the school’s hardware collection?
Or will they have to make do with adding to their 12 straight Big 12 regular-season titles, which just might be the most remarkable achievement in college hoops over the past 25 years?
Think about it. Self is in his 14th season at KU and he’s gunning for his 13th straight conference crown and second NCAA title.
“He’s smart,” Georgia’s Mark Fox said after a 65-54 loss to Self’s team in Kansas City. “We were able to score against their man (defense) and draw fouls. So he’s a smart coach, one of the all-time best, and he goes zone.”
That same savvy surfaced late in the first half at Kentucky. With the Jayhawks twice down 12 in the opening period, Self went to a 2-3 zone and a triangle-two defense and they whittled the deficit to five by intermission. When Jackson hit his twin treys, Kansas was back on top and was threatened rarely the rest of the game.
But Mason, ever the coach on the floor, sees room for improvement.
“We have to improve on the defensive end,” he said last week. “We have to improve our free throws. A lot of games will probably come down to a free throw. Just those things – rebounding, free throws and the defensive end.”
At this time of year, the NCAA tourney a shade over six weeks away, everyone’s looking to improve somewhere.
But as Duke’s Coach K noted in November of the Jayhawks: “They’re going to be one of the best teams in the country throughout the whole year.”
Come the end of the season, they might even prove to be the best for the first time since 2008.