Busting Brackets
Fansided

Kansas Basketball: Three keys for the Jayhawks to avoid a first round upset

KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 10: Silvio De Sousa
KANSAS CITY, MO - MARCH 10: Silvio De Sousa /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 3
Next
KANSAS CITY, MO – MARCH 10: Lagerald Vick
KANSAS CITY, MO – MARCH 10: Lagerald Vick /

2. Shoot Well from Deep

Kansas is one of the best three-point shooting teams in the country. They shoot 40.3% from deep, which puts them just outside the Top-10 in the country.

When they’re hitting their three-point shots, the Jayhawks are unstoppable. Literally.

In the Jayhawks’ seven losses this season, they’ve shot worse than 37% from deep every time, including:

  • 25% against Washington
  • 23% against Texas Tech
  • 31% against Oklahoma
  • 19% against Baylor

Kansas boasts three starters that shoot above 40% from beyond the arc, led by Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk’s 45.3% clip. He’s more likely to hit a three than anyone else is to pronounce his name correctly.

On the flip side, Penn is second-best in the country at three-point defense, sitting only behind Grand Canyon. They hold opponents to just over 29% shooting from deep.

This is one of those hypothetical situations between the unstoppable force and the immovable object. It’s the elite three-point shooters against the equally elite three-point defenders.

The only real chance the Quakers have of shocking the world comes from keeping the Jayhawks cold from beyond the arc. It would hold the high-powered Kansas offense in check, turning this into a defensive battle.

And as mentioned before, defensive battles aren’t the type of games that favor the Jayhawks.