Kansas Basketball: Ranking the last 29 NCAA Tournament teams

29. 2005-06 (25-8) (13-3 Big 12)

The Jayhawks made the NCAA Tournament during the 2005-06 season with a roster of four freshmen and four sophomores as their key contributors. This spoke to Bill Self’s ability to coach young talent, but in the end, their youth came to bite them at the worst possible time.

Kansas flew through the regular season unranked until the middle of February. They started the season 4-3 before reeling off seven victories in a row. They hit a few roadblocks in Big 12 play, but finished the conference regular season winning 12 of their final 13 games led by freshmen Brandon Rush and Mario Chalmers and sophomore Russell Robinson.

Rush led the team in scoring in conference play with 15.1 points per game, to go along with 8.3 rebounds and 1.2 steals per game on 49.1 percent shooting from behind the arc. Chalmers put up 14.2 points, 4.4 assists, 3.3 steals and 2.8 rebounds per contest as the floor general. Robinson was also quite the two-way player as a sophomore, averaging 10.7 points, 5.6 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 2.2 steals per contest.

In the conference tournament, the Jayhawks ran through the competition, avenging an early season loss to the Texas Longhorns with an 80-68 victory in the championship game to secure an automatic bid in the NCAA Tournament. They earned a No. 4 seed when it was all said and done, facing the No. 13 Bradley Braves in the first round.

The Jayhawks would go onto lose to the Braves 77-73 in the opening round. While future NBA pick Patrick O’Bryant had eight points and 10 rebounds for Bradley, Marcellus Sommerville went off for 21 points on five made 3-pointers. It marked second-straight year the Jayhawks were bounced in the first round, though, in this one, they looked unprepared from the start.