By KEN DAVIS
NEW ORLEANS – Validation is not a word that coaches toss around easily. Missed opportunities are not a topic of discussion with most college basketball teams.
The Kansas Jayhawks are not “most” college basketball teams. KU recently moved to the top of the charts in college basketball with the most victories of any program in history. The Jayhawks can finally say that they chased down Kentucky and North Carolina and moved past both elite programs.
But critics point to the fact that Kansas has only three NCAA championship banners hanging in Allen Fieldhouse .Phog Allen won the first in 1952. Larry Brown, coaching Danny Manning and the Miracles, produced the second in 1988. Kansas waited 20 more years to win it all again, downing Memphis in overtime in 2008 after Mario Chalmers forced the extra period with his historic shot at the end of regulation.
Coach Bill Self has had tremendous success since his first title. He has been enshrined in the Naismith Hall of Fame and Kansas has made history with its regular-season and conference tournament championships
Bill Self looks for his second national title Monday night against North Carolina (NOLA.com photo)
But KU is still waiting for No. 4. And Self is still pursuing his second, an accomplishment that raises the legacy of any coach.
Monday night in the Superdome, Kansas and Self have the opportunity to put all of that to rest – and more. The Jayhawks face North Carolina, a program linked to Kansas through Dean Smith and Roy Williams, in the national championship game
And who knows when Kansas will pass this way again? Prior to this season, Kansas exited the tournament with second-round losses in 2019 and 2021. In 2020, the Jayhawks were about to become the overall No. 1 seed and the heavy favorite when COVID cancelled the tournament.
Winning the NCAA championship is hard. Just ask Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who needed five Final Four appearances to win his first championship back in 1991. Saturday night, Coach K’s retirement victory tour came to end with a semifinal loss to rival North Carolina, putting an end to the storybook final chapter of the coach many consider the greatest of all time.
Just ask Gonzaga coach Mark Few, who piled up victories over the last decade but still doesn’t have a championship trophy.
Winning four games in the tournament to reach the Final Four is difficult enough. Finishing the task with two more victories on the biggest stage is an even bigger obstacle.
That’s why Self spent Sunday talking about validation. That’s why he has spent the past couple of weeks saying Kansas needs more championships. That’s why he says fans don’t talk about conference championships or nice runs through the tournament.
They talk about cutting down the nets.
“We’ve had some really terrific seasons and some great teams that came up short,” Self told the media Sunday. “And I do think that when you have as many good teams as we’ve had — at most places winning one national championship would be quite an accomplishment — I think as many good teams as we’ve had, one’s not enough.
“And so I don’t think that I personally feel pressure that we have to win. But I do know that when you have a chance to coach at a place where you have an opportunity to be in the game most years, you need to take advantage of that more than we have.”
So, the Jayhawks now have the perfect setup. They’ve won 10 straight games. They were the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Regional. Kansas cruised past Texas Southern in the first round, then stopped two of the best teams in the Big East in Creighton and Providence to reach the Elite Eight. The Jayhawks put together perhaps the most dominant halves of the tournament in beating Miami (Fla.) to reach the Final Four.
And Saturday night big man David McCormack and first-team All-American Ochai Agbaji combined to gain a measure of revenge against recent nemesis Villanova to complete a sweep of Big East teams.
Kansas the No. 3 overall seed in this field. Gonzaga and Arizona were ahead of the Jayhawks and dropped out early. Baylor, Auburn, and Kentucky didn’t live up to expectations. Saturday night Villanova and Duke fell out of contention.
North Carolina, led by first-year coach Hubert Davis, is the only team standing in the way of a fourth banner for Kansas. The Tar Heels are playing as well as anybody lately. But they were the No. 8 seed in the East Regional and the No. 30 seed overall.
Kansas should win.
Toss out the seed numbers. They are only important on Selection Sunday. North Carolina is confident and talented. Neither team is expected to win easily. But the Jayhawks are now the favorite and they have played loose even though an enormous fan base places high expectations on Self and the program every season.
“This is the moment that every kid dreams to be in, to play for a national championship for their school, to represent their school on the highest stage of basketball itself and play in front of all these people,” Agbaji said Sunday.
“I think that’s just a dream come true for me and all the guys on my team.”
Agbaji, who was 6-for-7 from 3-point range, and McCormack, who had 25 points and nine rebounds, combined for 46 of KU’s 81 points against Villanova. Starters Jalen Wilson (11 points, 12 rebounds), Christian Braun (10 points, two huge 3s) and Dajuan Harris (three 3s, four assists, two steals) contributed in their own ways.
With a second strong performance McCormack could be the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Plaeyer (NOLA.com photo)
“I remember the days of watching every game in March Madness and watching the finals and you’re raving about it with your friends [and] what team you’re picking,” McCormack said. “Now I get to play a part in that.
“We’ve fought all this way, battled this way to make it to the biggest stage in college basketball. And there’s no better feeling,”
Except for the feeling of winning it all, standing on the podium with the confetti falling down, and raising the trophy in front of 70,000. That’s the dream. And that’s the scenario that could set Kansas and Self apart.
They’ve earned the opportunity with a terrific season.
If Kansas wins, the trophy presentation will become an enormous subplot. The thought of NCAA president Mark Emmert handing the trophy to Self intrigues many. And, in some ways, it motivates Self in the form of a defiant statement.
It has been more than 900 days since the NCAA delivered a document to KU charging the program with five Level 1 allegations and calling out Self as a cheater, based on the outdated rules of amateurism set forth by the governing body of college athletics.
The case has dragged on and on. Ask Self his thoughts and he generally has no comment other than to say he expects a resolution “soon.” It’s anybody’s guess as to what will happen, but the general feeling is that it won’t be positive for Kansas.
Self and Kansas have fought hard against the allegations. One national columnist recently referred to Self as Teflon Bill throughout a piece detailing the case. An Adidas representative revealed texts from Self and then entered into a plea deal by admitting he had paid people connected to two former Kansas players.
This is known to be a widespread problem in the dirty world of college basketball, something that happens behind the scenes in most elite programs. The charges can be disputed. Some say the NCAA is out to “get” Kansas. But the bottom line is that the NCAA drags its feet in so many of these cases. And, in this case, it appears Kansas got caught.
This one has dragged on way too long. Many believe the penalty will come down this offseason. Kansas could be banned from postseason play in 2023 or more. Self could be suspended. The players at Kansas next season could pay the price for something they aren’t involved in And there is the possibility Self could move on from Kansas despite the “lifetime contract” he has signed.
It is a mess.
This has been hanging over the Kansas program for three seasons. Monday’s game is not about the NCAA situation, but it lingers in the shadows as the backdrop to a championship game.
What happens after Kansas adds another title? That remains to be seen. Nobody has the answer as the game prepares to tip-off.
That is a shame, especially for the players who have worked so hard to get to this point.
“You know, it’s common knowledge,” Self said Sunday. “We’ve been dealing with some stuff off the court for a while. But there was never a doubt that we didn’t have the potential to get back here because two out of the last three years we’ve been arguably as good as anybody.”
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