Kansas basketball’s 4-5 record in the last nine games had some college basketball analysts thinking the Jayhawks would fall from a No. 4 seed to a 5 in the eyes of the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee.
Despite losing all five of those games by double figures and winning three by 10 or more in a stretch from Feb. 14 through Friday, the Jayhawks (23-10) managed to secure a 4 seed in the tourney’s East Regional and will take on No. 13 seed Cal Baptist on Friday night in San Diego with the winner meeting either St John’s or Northern Iowa on Sunday for a spot in the Sweet 16.
“I like our team,” 23rd-year KU coach Bill Self said on Sunday. “Are we on a serious roll that you could say momentum is (there), we’re rolling down the mountain, and we’re just gaining steam? I don’t feel that, but I also know what a win in the NCAA Tournament automatically does for you from a momentum standpoint and everything. So I don’t think we’re much different than anybody else in the tournament right now, to be honest.”
In other words, a win over Cal Baptist and the country’s No. 5 scorer (Dominique Daniels Jr.) could conceivably be enough to bring momentum back to KU’s side as the Jayhawks seek a long tournament run.
“I actually like our guys and our guys have played really well at times, maybe as well as we’re capable of playing at times, and then at other times have really played the polar opposite in my opinion,” Self said.
The fact remains that KU can point to its strength of schedule — No. 1 in the country according to Ken Pomeroy — as something positive to point to in preparing for the first weekend of the NCAAs.
“I will say this, we played seven games out of 33 that were teams that were ranked in the top 5 in the country at the time when we played them and that does not include an Iowa State team that was like seventh. I don’t know how many teams go through a gauntlet like that,” Self said.
His Jayhawks did indeed play eight teams ranked in the top 5 at time of tipoff. KU went 3-5 in those contests.
KU played the top-2 seeded teams in the East Regional in the regular season, falling to No. 1 seed Duke 78-66 on Nov. 18 at the Champions Classic in New York and to No. 2 seed UConn 61-56 on Dec. 2 at Allen Fieldhouse. KU also played the No. 6 seeded team in the East an exhibition. The Jayhawks downed Louisville 90-82 way back on Oct. 24 in Kentucky.
“There are different philosophies,” Self said. “One is that type of gauntlet can wear a team down, but it prepares you. And there’s the other school for thought that your team should be fresher if you didn’t have to play the gauntlet.
“I want to choose we’ll be more prepared, and our team will be fresh, but it’s a hard league,” Self said of the Big 12. “The team that we played the other day (Houston, which beat KU 69-47 Friday in the Big 12 semis) played great, and we played … gosh, what did we miss, 20 shots in a row? Seventeen in a row? It’s hard to look very efficient offensively when you do that of course. A lot of it was poor shots and bad offense. But give Houston credit,” Self stated. “Houston, Arizona, Iowa State, (Texas) Tech and you saw BYU finished 9-9 in the league and they’re still a 6 seed. So that that tells you there’s certainly respect for our league.”
By beating TCU (78-73) in the Big 12 quarterfinals on Thursday, but then losing to Houston Friday, KU was idle Saturday and did get an extra day’s rest for the NCAAs rather than play an intense Big 12 title game.
“The fact that we didn’t win, even though it was a decisive loss — you always want to play better — but if you’re going to be a Pollyanna type guy, which I always am, I actually think the extra day was good for us, especially for one player more than anybody else,” Self said, noting that he gave ironman Melvin Council Jr. the day off Sunday whereas the rest of the team practiced.
As far as the team’s mood entering the NCAAs … “I think they’re excited,” Self said.
