Kansas Basketball: First round upset talk ridiculous
By Stan Unruh
The Kansas basketball team will open NCAA tourney play with Penn. The game is generating upset discussion far and wide.
The Kansas basketball team is the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Midwest Region of the NCAA Tournament. The Big 12 Champion Jayhawks will face No. 16 seed Penn on Thursday afternoon at Intrust Bank Arena in Wichita. The matchup is generating a wide variety of discuss on television, radio and social media. As a matter of fact, a number of so-called experts suggest that Penn is poised for an upset.
I know most Jayhawk fans are surprised at even the suggestion that the Ivy League champs could beat Hall of Fame coach Bill Self’s team. No number No. 16 seed has ever upset a top seed in the opening round of the tournament. Over the years, there have been fifteen first round games where the top seed survived by just a point.
There is a first time for everything, but I don’t understand why this Penn team is generating this much attention. Last season, the top seeds won their games by an average of almost 30 points. The Jayhawks blew away U.C. Davis 100-62.
Not that I pay attention to such things but I see Kansas is -15 1/2 over Penn. A little small for a 1 v 16, no? Maybe it's not your father's 1 v 16?
— Seth Davis (@SethDavisHoops) March 13, 2018
Most likely potential upset in the 16 vs. 1 seed line: Penn over Kansas.
— Jeff Eisenberg (@JeffEisenberg) March 12, 2018
Jayhawks likely win, but this is a brutal draw. Penn is KenPom's highest-rated 16 seed in six years. It hails from a league with a recent history of big upsets. Quakers can slow tempo, defend 3-point arc.
Penn coach Steve Donahue took Cornell to three straight NCAA tournaments. The last one in 2010. That Donahue coached team faced the Jayhawks at Allen Fieldhouse. They shot the lights out and lost a thriller.
This Jayhawk team continues to improve
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This season, Donahue’s Penn team shot 35 percent from three and only good for 5th best in their league. In their final two games March 10-11, the Quakers hit 15 of 40 threes in wins over Yale and then Harvard. In a narrow win over a mediocre UMKC team, Penn hit just 5 of 19 threes.
This year’s version of Kansas basketball is far different than the 2016-17 team. On the other hand, this year’s team seems to be tougher and is reaching a peak at the right time. They faced a good shooting team Saturday night in the Big 12 tournament title game. Penn will hit some threes but not enough to stage an upset.