Sitting in Florida looking across the vast expanse of the NCAA men's basketball tournament Kansas once again has laid claim to a number one seed and expectations are running high for a run, at the very least into the Final 4. Just three months ago I wrote about the comparisons between this team and the one that made its run to a title in 2008. Guard play wins national championships. Kansas has the best back court in the country and the most depth.
Yet as I suggested before, the lack of interior toughness could be the Jayhawks undoing. The lone light in the front court came from an unsuspecting source. Landon Lucas has stepped into the shoes that Sasha Kahn once inhabited on that championship team at Kansas. The man can flat out rebound. I wouldn't have believed it if you would have told me that someone
other than Cheick Diallo or even Jamari Traylor would step up and show
some intestinal fortitude.
The three things I know are this if Kansas is going to make it to the Final 4. 1. Wayne Seldon can't pull a disappearing act as he has shown a propensity to do for major stretches of this season. 2, The Jayhawks will need a nice dose of Carlton Bragg when Lucas gets into foul trouble. Bragg's offensive game is far beyond anything any of K.U.'s other interior players can offer outside of the team's MVP, Perry Ellis. 3. Kansas will live and die by the 3 point shot. That means Devonte Graham, Frank Mason III, Seldon and Ellis will have to hit at least 45% of their long shots because defensively this team is just so-so.
Kansas can win it all. Kansas should win it all. They will lose only if they run into a team that shots out of its mind from behind the arch or if an individual talent like Michigan State's Denzel Valentine takes the Jayhawks apart.
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