On the vulnerability of Kansas following a Texas-sized drubbing in Big 12 championship
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Follow The Star’s analysis and predictions as the 2023 NCAA Tournament bracket is revealed and KU, K-State and Mizzou are seeded for March Madness.
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Norm Roberts walked into the Kansas locker room Saturday evening and kept his speech rather brief. There was no post-game phone call from head coach Bill Self on this night, and for the first time in his seven games as an interim coach, Roberts stood in front of a losing team.
His message?
You didn’t play well, but, hey, it’s one game. It’s been an awesome year, and you’ll move on to the next one.
Might be true. All of it. But one snapshot inside the Jayhawks’ locker room after Texas drubbed them 76-56 in the Big 12 Conference Tournament final speaks to the bigger picture on the eve of Selection Sunday.
The Jayhawks still have the best full-season resume in the country, inclusive of three more Quadrant 1 wins than any of their counterparts.
But they’re vulnerable — no matter the draw that awaits. And that’s because of the unknown. Well, partly.
A year ago at this time, KU left downtown Kansas City not only with a trophy but with stability. The conference tournament provided the first evidence that it would all come together, or at least that it could. Roles were settled. Remy Martin finally happened. No one knew with certainty what would come over the next three weeks, but they were more certain than ever as to what they were. They knew what they had.
Late Saturday night, the Jayhawks departed Kansas City with more questions than when they arrived just four days earlier. Heck, more questions than they’ve had all season.
They played without Self in this tournament, and even as Roberts said Saturday he expects Self to return for the NCAA Tournament next week, when KU will surely receive an assignment in Des Moines, we’re days removed from the reminder that lacks a guarantee. It’s not a certainty. Self has spent the past three nights in a hospital following what the chief medical officer termed a standard procedure.
KU also played without Kevin McCullar, who would’ve been the best defender in the conference if he didn’t share a room with Dajuan Harris. McCullar is dealing with back spasms, and his absence Saturday was more than precautionary. He could not have played even if his team needed him, Roberts said.
Which returns us to the punchline.
Vulnerability.
It’s a bit bad luck in the timing off March Madness’ commencement, though that’s merely part of the equation, albeit a big part of it.
Look, Texas is a really good team, worthy of No. 2 seed that will likely arrive Sunday, but it’s clear the Longhorns are a better team than they were a month ago. That whole flavor of KU finding its stride this time a year ago? It’s seeped into the Texas locker room. Or maybe it’s been swiped from the opposing one Saturday. The Longhorns have outscored KU by 36 points in the last eight days. Blown the doors off them twice.
As it embarks on a journey to become No. 1 of 68, how can Kansas be confident it was simply on the wrong end of an upset? That it wouldn’t need an upset for this all to fall into place over the next month?
That isn’t only the nerves that one-and-done March Madness provides, but rather it’s illuminating of the thin margin for error this particular team has, even if it also has a 27-7 record and yet one more regular-season conference championship. KU has five guys you trust in crunch time, and, yes, I know Joseph Yesufu scored 11 points Saturday. Subtracted one of the five against Texas, Kansas collapsed. Couldn’t rebound. Couldn’t defend. Couldn’t keep the Longhorns out of the paint.
The Jayhawks didn’t lose a close game in crunch time Saturday. They looked as though they didn’t belong on the same floor.
It’s too simple to put a lot of stock into the game preceding the biggest of games — we do it far too often in our big-picture judgments. I’ll mention one more time that the Jayhawks’ resume stacks up well against any other, and I’ll add this time that the game could have been different had either Self or McCullar been part of it.
But the worry with KU is that whatever your concerns about this team might’ve been before the game only amplified after its conclusion. The offense has been stagnant at times throughout the season, without a spark off the bench, but this team gets by because of its defense. McCullar is a significant piece of that.
Mostly, though, they are not deep enough to overcome an injury and make a prolonged tournament run. (Few teams are, but they are the team battling one of those injuries.) And no one is replacing the strengths of a Hall of Fame coach in a moment’s notice. (Few teams can, but they are the one that may or may not be asked to do so.)
It doesn’t mean the Jayhawks can’t win in March. Doesn’t mean they can’t repeat. They are in in the thick of that mix. Jalen Wilson can put a team on his back for spurts, and Harris can control the tempo of a game on both ends of the floor.
But it does mean they are more susceptible to a night like Saturday than a No. 1-overall seed would like to be. We can’t know. And that’s kind of the point.
A year ago, we knew they had something. The question was whether it would be enough. The vulnerability was a product of the nature of the tournament.
Now, it’s the product of the last 72 hours.
And so we wait.
This story was originally published March 11, 2023 at 8:55 PM.
