Kansas Basketball: 2019-20 season review of the Jayhawks
By Neil Adler
Kansas basketball went on a magical odyssey in 2019-20, an expedition chock full of terrific highs and several ugly lows. Here’s what transpired.
Kansas basketball may have experienced a boatload of drama off the court during the 2019-20 campaign, but that didn’t prevent the Jayhawks from putting forth one of the finest terms in head coach Bill Self’s remarkable tenure in Lawrence.
The sudden halt to the 2019-20 stanza, the result of the novel coronavirus pandemic, will naturally leave Kansas fans wondering what-if for many years to come as it pertains to this Jayhawks crew.
Without a doubt, the health and safety of people in the United States and around the globe are really all that matter right now. But it’s not hyperbole by any stretch of the imagination to suggest that Kansas would have entered the 2020 March Madness as the clear-cut favorite to cut down the nets in early April.
The recently, and abruptly, concluded collegiate-hoops season amounted to a roller-coaster ride over the past few months. The No. 1 team in the major polls lost frequently. Top-25 squads fell to unranked foes repeatedly.
Filling out a bracket for the NCAA Tournament would have equated, in many match-ups, to throwing darts at a wall without looking or, frankly, flipping a coin to determine which party would continue to dance.
Despite the amazing level of parity, the Jayhawks began to separate themselves from the pack as 2019-20 worn on, and Kansas finished its abridged campaign with an astounding resume.
Prior to the cancellation of the Big 12 Conference Tournament, the Jayhawks checked in at 28-3. Kansas attained near-unanimous No. 1 ratings in the AP top-25 and coaches’ polls, placed No. 2 in the NCAA NET system, and arrived at No. 1 via kenpom.com.
Assuming that they fared admirably in their league’s postseason tourney, the Jayhawks almost certainly would have earned the No. 1 overall seed in the Big Dance. For my money, I expected Kansas to journey through March Madness and reach the Final Four in Atlanta.
The Jayhawks just owned a tremendous number of quadrant-one successes, and even their setbacks proved “good,” if you know what I mean. Self simply had a golden opportunity to claim his second national title.
In that spirit, let’s reflect on the main Kansas narratives in 2019-20, and sneak a peek toward the future.