NCAA Basketball: Buy or Sell Alabama, Gonzaga, and Kansas as title contenders?
By Bryan Mauro
Kansas Jayhawks – Buy
The 2007 Florida Gators were the last team to complete the Back-to-Back National Championships. Duke was the team to do it before Florida in the early 90’s. There is a very real shot that the Kansas Jayhawks become the next repeat champion as they are still loaded this year and are entering the tournament playing their best basketball of the season. The Jayhawks are once again legitimate title contenders heading into the tournament.
Earlier this season, Kansas lost three straight games in Big 12 play and everyone was questioning if they were as good as everyone thought. Turns out that was just a blip on the radar and Kansas got stronger because of that mini-losing streak. The Jayhawks have the most quad 1 wins in the country, play in the deepest league in the country, and have one of the best coaches in the country. They will always be in contention for the National Title. Kansas is battle tested and is another team who likely won’t have to break a sweat until the second weekend of the NCAA tournament.
Jalen Wilson is the All-American, but no player is more important to their team than DeJuan Harris is to the Jayhawks’ success. He is just like Marcus Garrett on the defensive end of the floor. Harris is not usually going to hunt shots. Harris is a distributor first and a scorer later.
Head coach Bill Self had a health scare earlier in the week. That will likely motivate Kansas to perform well. Coach Self’s status for the NCAA tournament is up in the air, and Kansas is disciplined enough but could you imagine if they won it without the hall-of-fame coach on the sidelines? Kansas will be a one-seed and likely the top seed in the tournament. They are already going to be one of the favorites.