Kansas Jayhawks - NCAA Basketball Betting

How would one describe this Kansas team? Good. Young. Talented. Deep. Fast. Big. Versatile… Unlucky? How else to explain how this great team, in back-to-back seasons, gets ousted from the NCAA tournament in the first round?

Last season, KU shared the Big 12's regular-season title with Texas and then won the conference tournament, but the 'Hawks got beat by an underrated Bradley team 77-73 in the first round of the Big Dance. The season previous, it was unheralded Bucknell that bounced Kansas from the post-season, also on opening night.

This year, thanks to the sting from that loss to Bradley, the Jayhawks returned all five starters and their top seven scorers from a season ago, including sophomore Brandon Rush, who has now played one season more at Kansas than many thought he would.

Rush, who made the call to come back for a sophomore campaign while still in the locker room after the Bradley debacle, is easily one of the best small forwards in the country. He can handle it, he can shoot it, and he can board it.

Junior point guard Russell Robinson does it on both ends of the court, although his outside shooting is suspect. Sophomore Mario Chalmers is the shooter who completes this fine backcourt. Sophomore forward Julian Wright can play almost every position on the court very well, and freshman Darrell Arthur, another in the continuous cache of high school All-Americans to hit the KU campus, contributed nicely.

The 'Hawks have won about 100 games in four seasons now under head coach Bill Self, but two of those seasons, as mentioned above, have ended very prematurely.

Now, expectations are very high for this team, which ranked in the Top 30 in offense and in the Top 10 in defense.

In November, KU beat Florida, but also somehow lost to Oral Roberts, in Lawrence, no less. In February, the Jayhawks blew a double-digit lead in the last seven minutes to lose to Texas A&M, also at home.

This team is undoubtedly one of the most talented in the country, but is it soft? Leaderless?

The Jayhawks are certainly capable of making a run through the tournament, and are obvious Final Four possibilities.

If they can get out of the first round, that is.

Brandon Rush – Good ball handler, can shoot the three, future NBA-er.

Russell Robinson – Junior point guard might be best defender in Big 12.

Julian Wright – Sophomore leaper coming along very nicely.

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