Look. Down there at the end of the tunnel. Isn’t that a light? By golly, I think it is. Or is that a train? Nah.
If this is late February, then the days of the college basketball season are dwindling to a precious few.
Kansas University’s men’s basketball team has only three regular-season games remaining at Nebraska on Sunday, at Kansas State next Wednesday and Senior Day on March 4 against Missouri.
Most people would agree this year’s KU edition is an improvement over last year’s club even though it contains virtually the same personnel.
However, injuries and illness over the last few weeks have removed some of the luster of what was shaping up as a Top 10 team. With Drew Gooden out, Luke Axtell ailing and Nick Collison battling the flu, the Jayhawks are basically at the same point they were in 2000.
Last year, with three league games remaining, the Jayhawks’ record was 20-7. Now it’s 20-5. KU won two of its last three league games and went into the Big 12 Tournament with a 22-8 record.
It’s certainly possible the Jayhawks could win their last three league games this time particularly if Gooden returns and go into the tournament with a 23-5 record. Then, regardless of how the Jayhawks fare in the league meet, they’d be assured of landing a higher seed in the NCAA Tournament than last season’s No. 8.
At one time Kansas looked like a potential No. 1 seed. No way now. Perhaps the Jayhawks can secure a No. 3 or a No. 4, however. Anything but a No. 8. It’s nice to be an underdog, but not nice to have to play the No. 1 seed in the second round.
NCAA pairings will be announced two weeks from Sunday, and, of the eight sites for this year’s first and second rounds, the least likely to have Kansas in its field, I think, is Kansas City.
Kansas is eligible to go to Kemper Arena because it is not the host of that Midwest sub-regional the Big 12 Conference is but I don’t believe the NCAA would send Kansas to KC unless the Jayhawks were the No. 1 seed in the Midwest a berth Michigan State has all but locked.
If KU is assigned to the Midwest, Dayton is more of a likelihood. Kansas was sent to Dayton twice in the ’90s and history has a way of repeating.
Then again, Kansas has also been to the two South venues the Pyramid in Memphis and the Superdome in New Orleans. KU was in the Big Easy, in fact, just two years ago and in Memphis four years ago.
Kansas’ most recent NCAA trip, however, was to one of the East sites. Sort of. Greensboro will play host to an East sub-regional and that’s where the Jayhawks flew last March before making the short drive to Winston-Salem, where they came within five points of derailing top-seed Duke.
The other East sub-regional will be at the Nassau Coliseum on New York’s Long Island. I’ll be shocked if the Jayhawks are sent there. The NCAA has never sent a Kansas team to the northeast part of the country.
You can probably scratch the West sub-regional sites, too. Kansas has been assigned to the West just twice Eugene, Ore., in 1978 and Tempe, Ariz., in 1996 and an assignment to San Diego would be too good to be true. Then there’s Boise. For some reason, I have the feeling KU will be sent to Mars before the Jayhawks ever land in Idaho.
Still, as former St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Joaquin Andujar often said: Youneverknow.
