If you think Kansas, ranked No. 13 in the Associated Press college basketball poll, hasn’t earned the No. 2 seed it was assigned in the CBS mock selection show, you won’t get an argument from coach Bill Self.
“I don’t know that we played to either one of them here in the last couple weeks,” Self said. “I mean, I would say right now, I should be probably happy with both of those.
I think we have a chance to certainly solidify and maybe improve on at least our ranking. It would be hard to improve on a 2 seed. That’s not going to happen. That’s the best we could probably hope for. We have also opportunity to definitely slide based on who our opponents are coming up.”
Self went on to say Kansas has the potential to play far better than it has so far.
“I think if you looked at us back in December, late November at times, you thought the team had a ridiculously high ceiling,” Self said. “I do not feel we have played to that. When we were playing to that, it’s primarily because our five starters were playing well, we were shooting the ball well. … You could see that the ceiling is still pretty high if we can get everybody on the same page and playing well. I mean, my thoughts have always been the same. We got a chance to be in every game. We got a chance to win every game. Why should we settle for anything less than that.”
In a 16-point loss at Baylor, Malik Newman, Lagerald Vick and Svi Mykhailiuk, shooting with one-and-a-half eyes open, combined to go 2 for 19 from 3-point range.
In a six-point victory at Iowa State, Kansas overcame Devonte’ Graham and Svi combining to shoot 3 for 13 on 3-point shots and 3 for 13 from inside the arc.
“The reality is, I think there’s potential to play a lot better than we have in the last two or three weeks without question, if we can just get everybody playing well at the same time,” Self said. “It’s amazing to me that we’ve won some games,” Self said. “If you said we were going to go to Ames, those two would go 6 of 26, we would have no shot.”
A month-by-month look at the percentages of KU’s four 3-point shooters:
| Player | Nov. | Dec. | Jan. | Feb. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Devonte’ Graham | .361 | .508 | .350 | .414 |
| Svi Mykhailiuk | .564 | .382 | .507 | .182 |
| Malik Newman | .500 | .265 | .381 | .280 |
| Lagerald Vick | .519 | .464 | .273 | .278 |
