Kansas’ miserable year; NC State moves on

When Kansas got arguably the No. 1 transfer in the portal in Hunter Dickinson this past offseason, it was clearly a national title favorite and was rightfully the No. 1 team in the USA TODAY Sports preseason coaches poll.

The result? One of Bill Self ’s worst seasons coaching the Jayhawks.

A promising start to the season was met with a disappointing end, as injuries and simply being outplayed resulted in an 8-9 record to finish the season and a second-round exit in the NCAA Tournament after the Jayhawks got thumped by Gonzaga.

Kansas looked far from the team it was expected to be when its downfall began in late January, and it got to the point where there were some games you knew Kansas wasn’t going to win before tip-off. In the end, the 11 losses this season are the most Self has had in his 21 seasons at the helm. Given the dismal finish to this campaign, the highest-paid men’s basketball coach in the country admitted after the loss to the Bulldogs he was already done with this year.

“For the last month, I’ve been thinking about next season to be honest,” Self said.

At least he wasn’t the only person who already wrote off the Jayhawks. The disappointing end to the season highlights the winners and losers from Day 1 of the second round, where teams that survive the first weekend advance to the Sweet 16 beginning Thursday.

WINNERS

North Carolina State

Seven wins in 12 days.

N.C. State is still alive after it beat Oakland in an overtime thriller to continue its magical postseason journey. The Wolfpack didn’t let tournament star Jack Gohlke beat them, holding the sharpshooter to 6 of 17 shooting from 3-point land thanks to constant switching on defense.

With one tournament star gone, the country should give its full attention to big man DJ Burns Jr. A major catalyst to North Carolina State’s postseason run, Burns was a menace to the Golden Grizzlies defense with 24 points, 11 rebounds and four assists.

Give Kevin Keatts credit for what he’s been able to orchestrate when there was a very real chance he could’ve lost his coaching job once the season was over. Now, the Wolfpack are giving their fans a run just like the 1983 team.

Gonzaga’s second half

There aren’t many teams in the country that could survive what Gonzaga did in the second half on Saturday; it just happened to be Kansas that was the victim.

The Bulldog offense was unstoppable when it went on a remarkable 32-4 run to open the second half; it made its first five 3-pointers of the half to put the game out of reach before Kansas could blink. The game got to garbage time early and it hurt Gonzaga’s overall second-half stats, but it finished the final 20 minutes 16for-24 (66.7%) and 5-for-6 (83.3%) from 3-point land. Gonzaga outscored Kansas 46-24 in the second half.

Gonzaga is a great shooting team, coming into Saturday second in Division I in field goal percentage at 51.6%, but even it needs to be im

pressed with what it did against Kansas. If the Bulldogs continue to shoot lights out, they could make what would be one of the school’s most impressive Final Four runs yet.

Rick Barnes

Maybe this is the year Rick Barnes does it. It had all the makings of a being an upset loss, but Barnes’ team showed resiliency when it fended off an upsetminded Texas to move Tennessee back into the Sweet 16. The offense didn’t look great, but when the buckets aren’t going in, good teams make adjustments and don’t fall apart. Instead, the Volunteers weathered the storm and held off the late rally from the Longhorns.

LOSERS Upsets

So far, no underdog has been able to pull through in the second round.

The only higher-seeded team to win on Saturday was Gonzaga, but it was the betting favorite against Kansas, so it doesn’t really count. Dayton, Michigan State, Washington State, Duquesne and Texas were all outmatched in their defeats, and Oakland fell just short of becoming the first No. 14 seed since 1997 to make it to the Sweet 16.

This year’s first round was exciting with eight double-digit seeds advancing, but it hasn’t carried over into the second round – yet.

Everyone on Oregon not named Couisnard, Dante

Oregon was so close to becoming the second No. 11 seed to advance to the Sweet 16 this tournament, but it fell just short in double overtime. You can’t blame Jermaine Couisnard or N’Faly Dante, but you can blame everyone else.

The Oregon duo left it all on the court for the Ducks, as they scored 37 of the team’s last 39 points in the loss. In total, they scored 60 of Oregon’s 73 points.