Nick KrugConsidering it takes two victories over a Final Four opponent to cap a six-game winning streak and win a national title, not many schools can simulate conditions that difficult during the regular season.
Plus, three of the NCAA Tournament victories must come in games that are the second ones played in a three-day span, a test of depth and endurance.
Tough to simulate, but not impossible.
As loaded as the Big 12 Conference is this season, Kansas can point to multiple bunched pairings in its schedule that represent difficult sweeps. Kansas has four Monday night games, all of which follow Saturday contests. Going 6-0 in the first three pairings presents an even greater challenge than winning a national title, even though nothing definitive is at stake on the former, everything on the latter.
Pairing No. 1: vs. Baylor in Allen Fieldhouse, 3 p.m. today, and vs. Oklahoma, 8 p.m. Monday: Both games are at home, an advantage the NCAA Tournament doesn’t offer, but a sweep will require sharp play from Kansas twice in three days.
Rico Gathers (14.1 points, 11 rebounds), Taurean Prince (15.5 points, 5.9 rebounds) and Lester Medford (6.83 assists) make Baylor a squad capable of pulling off big upsets.
Oklahoma shoots three-pointers (.462) and defends them (.281) even better than Kansas and boasts the conference’s best player in senior guard Buddy Hield (24.4 points, .529 three-point shooting percentage). Hield has performed up to first-team All-American standards so far.
Pairing No. 2: vs. Texas in Allen Fieldhouse, 1 p.m., Jan. 23 and at Iowa State, 8 p.m., Jan. 25: Defeating Isaiah Taylor-led Texas and then winning at jacked-up Hilton Coliseum two days later would be an impressive double. It must seem to the rest of the Big 12 that KU’s Perry Ellis and Iowa State’s Georges Niang have been in the Big 12 for about a decade. Niang is off to a great start (18.8 points, 6.7 rebounds, .404 three-point pct., .884 free-throw pct.).
Pairing No. 3: at Oklahoma, 1 p.m., Feb. 13 and vs. Oklahoma State, 8 p.m., Feb. 15: Defeating Oklahoma on the road might be tougher than defeating any opponent in the nation on a neutral floor. Unlike in the NCAA Tournament, where the easiest game comes first, it arrives last in this six-game study.
There isn’t better preparation this season for playing in the NCAA Tournament than grinding through the Big 12 schedule that tips off for Kansas today.
— Sports editor Tom Keegan appears on The Drive, Sunday nights on WIBW-TV.
