Nick KrugRested and ready for one final run at the Final Four before his career ends, Kansas forward Landen Lucas is leaving no stone unturned.
During last weekend’s unexpected days off, Lucas spent part of his down time watching film to make sure his mind was right for the road ahead.
First, Lucas started with clips of last year’s team, which reached the Elite Eight before losing and played with purpose, focus and tenacity during the tournament’s first three rounds.
Not fully satisfied by what he saw there, Lucas dug deeper and watched clips of players named Chalmers, Robinson, Rush, Arthur, Collins, Aldrich, Jackson and Kaun.
“I tried to go back and find as many games from like the ’08 team and some of the past teams,” Lucas explained of KU’s most recent national championship squad. “Not to compare 100 percent, but just to kind of see how they went about things, you know. Just kind of get a vibe for what made them so good.”
What did he discover?
“They were a tough team,” Lucas said. “If they were ever down in games, they quickly got it turned around. When they went on a run, their defense was unbelievable. They were flying around. They were all on the same page. I’ve seen flashes of some of the stuff that they’ve done from us, but the flashes are a couple minutes long, and I felt like they did a good job extending those.”
So good that the 2008 squad became the last team standing in the only Final Four in history to feature all four No. 1 seeds. Lucas, of course, does not know what the future holds for this year’s team or the 2017 tournament as a whole, but he does believe the Jayhawks can replicate that team’s success if they stay locked in from start to finish each time out.
“That’s how we have to be,” Lucas said. “Because if one or two people aren’t on board, then we’re not going to be able to advance…. It’s fun because I picture us doing the same things they were able to do. It’s cool to watch those games and really kind of see what made them so good.”
As for their leader, Kansas coach Bill Self said being slotted as the No. 2 overall seed in this year’s NCAA Tournament was a nice start but that this team still has work to do to make the 2016-17 season truly memorable. As Self always says, you can have a real good year without getting to the Final Four, but you can’t have a great year without making it to the final weekend of the season. And Self believes Kansas is poised and ready to make a run.
“I’m not sure what it means now,” he said of being the No. 2 overall seed. “But the guys certainly played at a high level, for the most part, all year long. Of course, we didn’t play particularly well in our last game and didn’t guard. I’m not sure that that’s the worst thing that happened to us either. Because it’s been my experiences sometimes it’s not a bad thing to be able to refocus your guys going into the tournament.”
KU will play the winner of Wednesday North Carolina Central-UC Davis First Four match-up at 5:50 p.m. Friday at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla.
