Kansas City, Mo. — Winning the program’s 13th consecutive conference championship — by four games, no less — veteran Kansas guard Devonte’ Graham will tell you, was not easy (see: KU’s average margin of victory of 5.5 points in league play). Still, Graham also doesn’t mind sharing the Jayhawks enter the Big 12 tournament at Sprint Center virtually worry-free.
“Coach (Bill Self) keeps telling us there’s no pressure on us,” Graham, the Big 12 tourney’s reigning Most Outstanding Player, said Wednesday. “We just gotta go out and play. Just try to validate what we did in the regular season and come out and just play with a free mind.”
No. 1-ranked Kansas (28-3) knows how to do that by now, after winning all three games following their regular-season crown. That’s why no one should misinterpret Graham’s assessment that this team won’t — and shouldn’t — stress about the outcomes of this weekend’s games. The Jayhawks have big plans for the rest of the month, and what they accomplish in Kansas City will impact the fashion in which they enter the NCAA Tournament.
Graham said he and his teammates should have fun at the Big 12’s postseason showcase, because doing so also will fuel the players going forward.
“We don’t have Josh (Jackson) tomorrow, so guys gotta step up,” Graham said, referencing the one-game suspension of KU’s freshman star, “and we just need everybody to come from this tournament with a lot of confidence on the floor.”
A 6-foot-2 guard from Raleigh, N.C., Graham never lacks boldness on the floor, but he seems to be improving his offensive output just in time for the postseason, having nailed eight 3-pointers in KU’s final two regular-season wins (4-for-8 in each). And he definitely buys into the idea of Kansas gaining speed, strength and positive energy for March Madness.
“We get these couple wins and win the (Big 12) championship,” Graham said, “I think it’s big momentum going into the NCAA Tournament.”
An All-Big 12 second-team selection averaging 13.2 points and 4.3 assists, Graham knows Kansas should be prepared for whatever it sees and whomever it faces this weekend, due to the competitive nature of the conference and the round-robin schedule.
“We actually got a lot of people saying, ‘Why aren’t you blowing teams out?’ And it was just because a lot of the teams that were at the bottom of the league,” Graham would retort, “were really good teams. And it’s hard to play away from home. And we just found ways to win.”
KU opens the 2017 postseason Thursday afternoon (approximately 1:30 p.m., ESPN2) against TCU, which beat Oklahoma 82-63 Wednesday night.
