Kansas Basketball: Ranking the last 29 NCAA Tournament teams

27. 1999-00 (24-10) (11-5 Big 12)

The 1999-00 season marked the freshmen seasons for Kirk Hinrich, Nick Collison and Drew Gooden, all familiar names in Jayhawks history. Back in 1999-00, Roy Williams was the head coach and it was a season a growing pains for a young, but experienced group. Hinrich wasn’t a starter initially given the backcourt.

Junior guard Kenny Gregory led the team in scoring with 12.8 points per game, but Collison and Gooden were both solid frontcourt contributors, putting up 10.5 and 10.6 points per contest, respectively.

Kansas started the year 6-0 but some ranked opponents were solid foes, as they entered Big 12 play with an 11-2 record. They won their first seven games in conference play, but three losses in four games in the middle of the schedule would move their No. 11 preseason ranking to No. 24 by the beginning of March.

The Jayhawks finished fifth in Big 12 play with an 11-5 record and were unable to win the conference tournament championship for an automatic bid. They fell in the semifinals to the Oklahoma State Cowboys 77-58, but still managed to earn an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament as a No. 8 seed.

They opened the NCAA Tournament against the No. 9 DePaul Blue Demons. DePaul pushed them to overtime behind 21 points apiece from Quentin Richardson and Paul McPherson but in the end, Kansas won 81-77 in the extra frame.

In the second round, they faced the Duke Blue Devils in Winston-Salem. It was a close back and forth matchup, as both teams remained tied at 35 at halftime, but the Blue Devils were able to pull away in the end behind 21 points from Shane Battier and 15 points and 13 rebounds from Carlos Boozer.