Kansas basketball: Big 12 Champs tougher than Villanova
By Stan Unruh
Kansas basketball is in San Antonio for the Final Four. The Big 12 champions face the second-best team in the Big East Conference.
The Kansas basketball team won their 14th straight conference championship this season. When nobody believed in them, this Jayhawk team found a way to overcome a variety of obstacles to win a championship in the nation’s best college basketball conference. Bill Self’s guys went 13-5 in the Big 12 and won some incredibly difficult games in Morgantown and Lubbock.
Their opponent in Saturday’s Final Four National Semifinal didn’t win the Big East. Villanova has been ranked nationally all season. They are without a doubt, one of the very best teams in the country. On the other hand, they didn’t win their conference title. After winning the conference title the past four seasons, the Wildcats went 14-4 in the Big East and finished a game back of Xavier. They did beat the Musketeers twice but lost another crucial game.
What does that say about these two teams? One team is a champion. The other is very good but not as mentally tough as the conference champ. This winter, Villanova lost conference games to Providence, Butler, St. John’s and Creighton. Those are good but not great teams. Kansas State without their best player manhandled the Blue jays in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
In addition, the Jayhawks cruised to a win over the Big East’s Seton Hall in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. As a matter of fact, the Pirates finished third behind Villanova in their conference standings. Villanova beat the Pirates twice. In early February the Wildcats won easily 92-76. The Wildcats had to hang on to beat the Pirates by one point in overtime in their second meeting.
On Saturday night, Villanova will face their third straight Big 12 team. West Virginia played the Wildcats tough but as we saw often this season, Bob Huggins guys could not finish. The Wildcats were impressive in their Sweet 16 win over Texas Tech. The Red Raiders shot just 25 percent from three and were dominated on the glass 51-33.
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The Jayhawks showed Sunday they can rebound too. Malik Newman, Devonte Graham, Lagerald Vick and Svi Mykhailiuk will also shoot better than Tech did against the Wildcats. Last weekend, Villanova proved they are more than prepared to compete with the best of the Big 12 Conference. Now we will find out if the runner-up in the Big East is better than the Big 12 Conference champions.