Volume 124 Issue 113
kansan.com
Thursday, March 8, 2012
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because they are more motivated and ravenous when they play teams that BCS schools.
It's hard for a big name program like Kansas to get motivated to play against a mid-major team even if it's for a trip to the Final Four, as fans saw last season. Not to discredit VCU's performance against Kansas, but Kansas played its worst game of the season, shooting 35.5 percent from the court, 9.5 percent from behind the arc and a paltry 53.6 percent from the free-throw line. Statistically, Kansas was awful, but the team's effort and energy was just as bad. The Jayhawks were simply flat and lethargic. They simply overlooked and undermined Cinderella.
Edited by Tanvi Nimkar
If Kansas played against a BCS school instead of a mid-major in last year's Elite Eight game, I firmly believe that they would have played much better and advanced to the Final Four.
The Jayhawks have what it takes to go all the way, but they also did last year. Cinderella is waiting, and Jayhawk Nation hopes that her slipper won't fit this time around.
The Jayhawks earned the tournament's top seed for the ninth time in its 16-year existence and are looking to capture their 13th Big 12 tournament championship.
on Kansas City and the big 12 tournament.
"Going into the season, a lot of people didn't have faith in us because we lost so much last year," junior guard Travis Releford said Monday afternoon. "But if you think about it, all the guys that are playing, we've been here a while. We know what coach wants and we know how to run the system."
Releford said the team has had something to prove since the beginning of the season because of doubting fans.
A head-scratching loss to Davidson in December made Bill Self question just how good his team was, but a 16-2 league record and eighth consecutive conference regular season championship re-assorted Kansas as the cream of the crop in the Big 12.
The team is 19-2 since that loss to Davidson but Self thinks the team still has room for improvement heading into postseason play.
"I haven't been defending how I was at the start of the season and I feel that going into post-season that I can step it up a lot more," Releford said. "He knows that I can be that guy that can step up and stop someone on the opponent's team."
He's stressed the importance of finding a "defensive stopper" on numerous occasions and admitted his words were a message to a few players.
Self said great defense was all about a person's mindset, not something a team can just decide to practice one week and magically get better at. He thinks Releford, junior guard Elijah Johnson and senior guard Tyshawn Taylor can all improve defensively.
But the month of March brings more than just on-court adjustments.
"I think distractions have
"It would be great," Self said. "Because that means we won two games."
things I probably worry about more than anything else."
Edited by Katie James
In the short term, the biggest distraction might be the talks of a possible meeting between Kansas and Missouri in the tournament championship Saturday night.
Use our bracket to keep track of wins and losses
FOLLOW THE JAYHAWKS IN THE TOURAMENT
PAGE 10
CHRIS NEAL/KANSAN FILE PHOTO
Junior guard Travis Releford drives into the lane during the second half of a game against Missouri earlier this season. The Jayhawks could face the Tigers again in the Big 12 Tournaments.