The Jayhawks cruised to the Final Four in an impressive win over 10th seeded Miami 76-50, a team thought to give the Jayhawks trouble due to their stellar perimeter shooting and solid defense. While these troubles plagued the Jayhawks early, Bill Self (we can assume) turned purple from his halftime speech and the Jayhawks came out firing in the 2nd. In the end the Hawks finally recognized their game of physicality and stingy defense, along with high energy offense, to explode out to a lead as high as 26 points. They cut the nets down as Midwest champions.
Now a new, but also not so new challenge presents itself, and that problem is the Villanova Wildcats. The Wildcats have given the Jayhawks tournament woes in year's past, as both in 2016 and 2018 Villanova was responsible for eliminating the Jayhawks. I still have PTSD from all those threes they made in '18... The question is this though, can the Jayhawks show how good they CAN be on perimeter defense but not allowing this once again hot shooting Villanova team to breathe on offense? Villanova averages 72.6 points per game, 43.7% average field goal percentage, and a 35.3% average 3-point percentage, which in summary means that they can shoot the ball, and shoot it well. This will be the Jayhawks' biggest test of the tournament, and this includes IF they make the national championship. They can not have the slow start they had today against a Villanova team that will jump at any chance for them to bury their opponent. If the Jayhawks can have a full team effort, and can play their game to a tee, this is a Jayhawk win. If not, the Jayhawks could run into potentially severe trouble once again with a Villanova team they have a score to settle with.
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