College Basketball: Kansas Will be Wary of Soft Road in Southwest

Once again the Jayhawks have a #1 seed and an apparently safe route to the Final Four. This time however Kansas will be on full upset-alert.

Statement of intent
The Jayhawks’ run through March Madness ended in disappointment last season. A loss to Northern Iowa in only their second game meant Kansas went home after just one weekend. This time around we can expect Kansas to take care of business early. The Boston University Terriers won’t provide much of a challenge in the opening round but UNLV or Illinois will demand more respect. Neither outfit however will catch Kansas cold. The Jayhawks remember Ali Farokmanesh and they won’t allow lightning to strike twice.

Solid test in Sweet Sixteen
The four teams that Kansas could face at the start of the middle weekend of March Madness all have legitimate hopes of making the Sweet Sixteen. Vanderbilt and Louisville provided the greatest threat, with the Cardinals in particular looking strong in the Big East tournament. Morehead State would need to pull off two huge upsets to make it through to face Kansas but the #13 seed can’t be ignored. Richmond looks the more dangerous threat of the two high seeds. Having won the Atlantic 10 tournament, the Spiders haven’t received the same recognition as their contemporaries. College Basketball betting fans know that could provide substantial motivation to the #12 seed.

Purdue can go deep
The bottom half of the region is stacked. Georgetown, Purdue, and Notre Dame will all have legitimate hopes of making it to Houston. The winner of Texas A&M and Florida State’s game on Friday will also be confident of hanging around in the tournament for a while. Realistically the only teams with the consistency to make it to the Elite Eight are the #2 seed Fighting Irish or #3 seed Boilermakers. Much as I have been impressed by Notre Dame’s play in 2011, the talent on Purdue is too great to ignore and they must be favored to face Kansas for a trip to the Final Four.

While I am wary of picking a third #1 seed to make it to Houston, I’m going to pencil the Jayhawks in to my bracket. The blend of talent is right, the experience is there, and this is a team with the mental strength to contend for the title. That should be enough to push Kansas past Purdue and into a loaded Final Four.