Kansas coach Bill Self has had deeper and more well-rounded teams during his tenure with the Jayhawks.
But has he ever done a better coaching job? Kansas battled through a fair amount of adversity to reach the Final Four and its semifinal showdown against Villanova. This may be Self’s signature effort.
The Jayhawks overcame the loss of elite recruit Billy Preston to eligibility issues that eventually inspired him to turn pro. Forward Silvio De Sousa joined Kansas in midseason as the team was still struggling to find its identity.
While this season was just business as usual for Villanova coach Jay Wright, it was anything but for Self.
“We didn’t even know who was going to finish the season with our roster a couple of months ago,” Self said during his team’s news conference Sunday in Omaha. “I mean . . . we had some hard lessons to learn, and I had to do a better job of motivating and coaching and pushing the right buttons.
“We were winning but I didn’t think we were a very good team even though we were winning. Sometimes when you win that camouflages what you don’t do well. When we got exposed, visually and by losses, I think that that helped us in the long run and changed our mindset.”
Self adapted to the players he had, opting to run some four-guard offensive looks. Kansas rode terrific three-point shooting to another Big 12 title, a conference tourney title, a No. 1 seed and a shot at the national title.
Somehow the Jayhawks negated Duke’s inside strength to win their thrilling regional final 85-81 in overtime.
“We haven’t beat anybody on the glass all year long,” Self said. “We win the rebounding battle by 15 or whatever today. So I couldn’t be happier or more proud and certainly very proud to be a part of that game. That was an epic game, one of the best ones if not the best I’ve ever been a part of.”
THE WRIGHT STUFF AT VILLANOVA
Once a Cinderella team in the Final Four, Villanova is now an established power under Wright. And this might be his best team yet, better than even the 2016 national champion.
The Wildcats went cold against Texas Tech, missing 20 of 24 shots from three-point range, and they still muscled out a 71-59 victory in its regional final. They pounded the glass, earned second chances and converted free throws.
They also defended well, which was not their strength earlier this season.
“I’ve learned a lot from these guys, this group, because we were not a good defensive team for most of the year,” Wright said during his team’s Sunday news conference. “I really questioned, I thought, all right . . . some things we didn’t do well as a staff early with this team that we normally do, and at some point we say, hey, we’ve got to go back to the basics defensively, and these guys really bought in.”
RAMBLING ON TO GLORY
The fun story of this NCAA Tournament is, of course, No. 11 seed Loyola Chicago. The Ramblers used grinding defense and their ever-efficient offense to rout Kansas State and punch their Final Four ticket.
“Our defense dictates everything,” Loyola coach Porter Moser said during his team’s Saturday news conference. “We say it all the time. Our defense dictates our offense.”
On Saturday the Ramblers defended well from the start, which helped them settle in quickly at the other end. “I think they knew right away that our defense was dictating our offense,” Moser said, “and just the confidence was just growing, moving and spacing the ball, because they knew they were getting stops.”
Now they run into a similarly well-oiled Michigan machine. This game could should be a coaching clinic.
MAKING A BEILEIN TO SAN ANTONIO
Like Loyola, Michigan got rolling in its conference season and just kept going in its conference tourney and the NCAA Tournament. The Wolverines are totally in sync and as confident as they can be.
“I think we lost in early February to Northwestern (61-52 in Chicago). Had a really bad second half against them. They took us out of a lot of things we were trying to do,” Beilein said. “And I don’t think we’ve lost since then.
“I’ve never seen a team work so hard and be so connected on both ends of the floor, even when things do not go right on the offensive end.”
The early line established Villanova and Michigan as favorites, but little has gone according to script in this tournament so far.
