The regular season slate determines which teams are the best in college basketball, only a large sample size can do that, but March is pure win-or-go-home chaos. That doesn't just apply to the NCAA Tournament, which gives rise to everyone's favorite Cinderella, because many of those lower-seeded teams need to win their conference tournament to even get into the big dance.
Some of the automatic bids from the mid-major conferences have already been decided, but the Power Six conferences are just starting to kick off their league championships. Most of the top teams in the country have earned the coveted double or triple-byes to minimize the opportunity for an upset, but these five highly-seeded teams should still be on high alert this week.
It’s not exactly a stretch to say that the sixth seed in the Big 12 Tournament could lose, especially when that team will be without its two leading scorers. However, when that team is the Kansas Jayhawks, their inclusion seems warranted.
Bill Self said tonight on Lawrence radio that both Hunter Dickinson (shoulder) and Kevin McCullar (knee) will miss this week's Big 12 Tournament.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) March 12, 2024
A significant development for this week in Kansas City.
The Big 12 Tournament has become known as the Bill Self Invitational for good reason. The Jayhawks have taken home the title 12 times since the tournament’s inception in 1997 and Self has led Kansas to nine of those.
However, this season, Kansas has dealt with injuries, struggled to establish a consistent bench, and was pushed around by Houston, the new kid on the block. The Jayhawks are 108th in offensive efficiency this year and have obvious deficiencies on the other end of the floor with the ground-bound Hunter Dickinson anchoring their defense for most of the season.
Self will be in unfamiliar territory playing the second round of the tournament, instead of earning the double-bye. Without McCuller and Dickinson on the floor, the Jayhawks may not even make it out of Round 2.