This is the first of hopefully two mock drafts I'll be running at RCT. For the record, this is what I think the teams will do not what I think they should do, though I imagine some personal bias will creep through at some point.

Before I get started with the actual points, I think I've decided that this draft is weaker than last year's. Anthony Davis is the guy everyone wants, for good reason, but is he going to have a better career than Kyrie Irving? I'm not so sure. Irving is already a top 10 point guard in the league, and I think could be a top 5 guy before long, whereas I have questions about how Davis's offense will develop unless he adds some serious bulk to his frame. Beyond that, there aren't any sure bets in this draft, but I will say there is a much better shot to grab a long term starter at pick 15 or so than in last year's draft. More on that in the actual mock:

(Note: as commenter Connor Moylan pointed out, I left out Jared Sullinger. There's a simple explanation for this: I'm an idiot and forgot to put him in. It will be fixed in the next mock as well as my rankings. Sorry for the mistake.)

1. New Orleans Hornets - Anthony Davis, F, Kentucky

Davis is the surefire number one pick, and showed the ability to dominate a game on the defensive side of the ball only, but his offense has been limited to dunks and putbacks only to this point. He's a great player and a future All-Star and if his offensive game improves he has massive upside. I do think his first couple years will be rough as bigger NBA bodies push him around a bit, but once he adjusts to the NBA game he should do great.

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last week I looked at games 10-6 of last year, and now here is the much anticipated conclusion:

5. vs. Kentucky, April 2

Though they lost by 8, Kansas fought back from another early deficit to make it just a 5 point game with a minute and a half left, yet another testament to the spirit of this year's team. Kansas withstood terrible offensive games from both their bigs (and really a terrible offensive tournament by Thomas Robinson), but Jeff Withey showed he was really the best interior defender in the country, setting the record for blocks in an NCAA tournament and limiting Anthony Davis to just one field goal, a baseline jumper. Had Kentucky not shot 42% from three, or not shot as well as they did on jump shots period, the game would have been a lot closer late. And I know which of the teams and coaches I'd take late in a close game. But as it was it was a chance for the Jayhawks to end their season with their heads held high, and give a great fanbase something to be proud of.

4. vs. North Carolina, March 25

With no Kendall Marshall, Kansas was actually a favorite in the game, but the absence of the (undeserving) Cousy Award winner didn't stop the Tar Heels from scoring 47 points and shooting 73% from two in the first half. Fortunately, Kansas was able to score 47 in the first half as well, setting up one of the dominating second halves of the year. Midway through the second half, Bill Self switched to a triangle and two and UNC's once potent offense was neutralized. With 12:05 left in the game, Carolina scored their 61st point. They scored just 6 more the entire game, and only made two field goals in the final 12 minutes. For a team that scored almost 1.15 points per possession in the regular season, it was an unprecedented drought. For the Jayhawks, it was a stifling defensive effort that came seemingly out of nowhere, and it propelled them to a 2-0 record over Roy Williams, and an unthinkable return to the Final Four.

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For the third summer in a row, realignment seems to be all the rage in college sports. But, after seeing Nebraska, Colorado, Missouri and Texas A&M leave over the past two seasons, the Big 12 is poised to add rather than subtract this year, with Florida State, Clemson, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech and Notre Dame all mentioned as possible additions in reports of varying trustworthiness.

While a couple of those appear to be longshots at best, I nevertheless thought it would be a worthwhile exercise to examine the programs of those schools to see what they would add to the Big 12 as a whole and how they would affect the Kansas program specifically. Below is a master chart of the KenPom rating of each school for the past five seasons, with a closer look at each after the jump:

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a few more good ones this week. Remember if you want your question answered email RCTmailbag at gmail dot com

Q: With Jeff and Kevin lacking beef and stamina, which of the youngsters will be first to develop consistent defense and rebounding? Can any of them learn help defense without excessive fouls? Might we have as many as five bigs getting ten or more minutes a game?

Will it be necessary to play with natural wings doing more than their share of the heavy lifting, or will someone get footwork and positioning down by mid-season (Jan-Feb)? How much dancing and shuffling will Andrea need to include with lifting and sprinting?

-from John R.

I think Ellis is going to be starting for sure alongside Withey, and given that he practiced second semester and got a semester of college level weight training I bet Traylor will get a lot of minutes off the bench early in the season. The rest will depend on whether Landen Lucas or Zach Peters can show more basketball ability than Wesley (almost a guarantee) or whether they can add enough pounds of muscle to overcome the experience that Wesley has that we know HCBS is a huge fan of.

I would guess that we'll see one of Peters or Lucas redshirt and we'll get Withey, Ellis, Young, Traylor, Wesley and one of those two all getting pretty decent playing time. Ten a game is probably a stretch, but I definitely think we will see almost all of those guys playing ten or more minutes in any one game. Like our guards, we don't know exactly what we have up front but we do know there is a lot of talent there and both Self and Hudy have shown the ability to take raw talent and mold it into great players.

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a tad light on questions this week, so help a guy out and email rctmailbag at gmail dot com to get yours answered.

Q: Rank Tharpe, Adams, White and Frankamp in terms of guards you're most excited about over the next couple years.

-from Michael R.

This is an interesting question, which I will most assuredly mess up because I have only seen Tharpe play. Obviously I am a bigger Tharpe fan than anyone at RCT (I think), but I was also a bigger Tyshawn fan than anyone and you see how that turned out (/toots own horn). That said, everything about Conner Frankamp reminds me of Jeff Boschee, and that is the ultimate trump card in my book. Being 6'0" and, let's face it, white, there are going to be questions about whether he has the athleticism to get his shot off at the college level, but even if he turns into a three point shooter only his shot is so good that he will be a valuable college player with that skill alone.

Adams and White are tougher to discern between because they're two different players. Adams is more of a slasher type while White figures to be more of an outside shooter. My answer would probably be Frankamp, Tharpe, White, Adams, which I'll partially address in the next question:

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With the summer in full swing, I thought looking back at one of the most memorable seasons in KU history would be a good way to pass the time. Today a look at the top 10 games of last year. Feel free to leave yours in the comments and also remember to be mailing the mailbag at RCTmailbag at gmail dot com.

This year's Kansas team played in more big games - and more close ones - than any I can remember, and they actually lost quite a few of them, which made this list even tougher than normal to compile. Do I rank losses higher than wins because the game was better? Or should the top few games all be wins? Let's find out:

10. vs. North Dakota, December 31

We'll start off with a game that meant more to me than probably any other college basketball fan out there as my alma mater and current institute of higher learning squared off in an epic grudge match. Or maybe it was a 26 point blowout victory for KU. Either way. Thomas Robinson had a 30-20 game in the win, and it was fun to drop some knowledge about the Sioux and hopefully help show Kansas fans how great my home state is.

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I'm moving out of my apartment starting today, and my last final was yesterday so it was a long night, so let's get right to it.

Half of these are sent in under pseudonyms, and I'll let the actual author reveal himself in the comments if he so chooses:

Q: Out of all the KU basketball players from the past decade, which has surprised you the most in that they didn't make it in the NBA? I always thought Wayne Simien was gonna be a pro fa sho.

From T Cash

I wouldn't say I'm terribly surprised at who made it and who didn't from the last decade or so, but one guy who I'm surprised never got more of a look than he did is Russell Robinson. He was one of the best on ball defenders in college basketball and he really improved his jumpshot in the D League when he went there. He's bounced around Europe the past couple years, spending 2011-12 in Turkey with Trabzonspor, where he averages 13.4 ppg and is shooting almost 40% from three. One thing that I suspect hurt him is his tendency to turn it over a bit much without being able to make the spectacular play to make up for it, but (and I certainly am biased) I have a tough time thinking he wouldn't do better at defending a lot of the league's point guards than the people currently trying to do it.

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REMINDER: if you want to be featured in the RCT mailbag, email us at RCTmailbag at gmail dot com.

Week 2 of the mailbag features a handful of questions from an esteemed commenter as well as a couple KU football questions that I take a stab at, as well as (hopefully) our esteemed editor.

All of these questions come from commenter fizzle406. I'm burning them all now because there aren't a ton of other ones in the queue (you guys are lazy)

Q: A crazy billionaire will pay you $1,000 for every day you spend in maximum security prison. How long do you last?

It depends on the situation. If I'm in general population or something I would last exactly 0 days. If it was one of those situations where I was in my cell for 23.5 hours per day I could probably last awhile before boredom made me wanna leave. It would be interesting how the mindset of knowing I could leave anytime would affect how long I'd last. If I was in jail for real I am sure I would break Shawshank style relatively quickly, but if it was just relax on the cot and get comfortable I'd like to think I could make it a month or so.

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Welcome to the first ever Rock Chalk Talk mailbag! Hopefully if this goes well and it is entertaining and informative enough we'll be able to turn it into a weekly (or semi weekly) feature here. Most of this week's entries come via emails, which you can send to RCTmailbag at gmail dot com, but there are a couple of tweets in there as well. My lead in for this week's mailbag was going to be talking about Tony Parker's hat ceremony commitment to UCLA, upping the streak to not picking KU to about 349824 (though to be fair he didn't even have a KU hat on the table), however....

Q:Bill Self obviously has had some good recruiting classes and gotten his fair share of good players. However, why does it always seem that any player that does a self promotion type deal on EPSNU, a hat ceremony etc. never chooses KU?

-From David

Honestly I have no idea, and it's gotten to the point where it's more hilarious than anything to me. Without doing a ton of research (because hey this is a mailbag) it seems to me that most of the prospects who did a hat ceremony to then not pick KU turned out to be pretty disappointing (most recent case: LeBryan Nash). I have gone on record, even when he was considering KU, of not being a Tony Parker fan, so we'll see if he keeps it up.

David has a couple more after the jump:

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Just a reminder that sometime this week (probably Wednesday) I'm going to be running the first ever RCT mailbag. Obviously most of my writing here is based on basketball, but you are free to ask about football (though you either will get a not very good answer or get the question answered by someone else) baseball, any other KU sport, non KU college sports, the NHL playoffs, etc. etc. etc. In addition you can ask nonsense questions, such as what is the best movie of all time (answer: Airplane!), whether muffins or cupcakes are better (answer: muffins) or any insane hypothetical you can come up with.

Remember, there are three main ways to get in touch:

The first is to email the official email of the mailbag: rctmailbag at gmail dot com

The second is to tweet RCT if you're hip and on twitter: twitter.com/rockchalktalk

The last is to tweet me personally: twitter.com/fetch9

As of right now we have enough for one but I'd like to get a couple more so we can split it up and make sure we have two weeks covered. So be sure to send in those emails. See you on Wednesday.

It's been said that the mark of a lazy writer is doing a mailbag. Well, guilty as charged because I am doing a mailbag. I am fighting off depression from the season being over (not just KU's, but college basketball in general), already excited about next year, and trying to distract myself from studying for finals as much as possible.

So that's where you, the reader, comes in. Next week we are going to run our first mailbag, and hopefully it will continue every week throughout the summer, as long as there is enough interest.

Even though I am the "basketball guy" so to speak, don't feel like the questions need to be limited to that sport. If there is a football question I'll punt it to the boss or PenHawk or AC or anyone who wants to take it. And, don't tell anyone (especially the boss) but if you want to ask about the NBA or NHL (please?) or even non sports questions, feel free.

So how to ask? The easiest way would probably be to email us at RCTmailbag [at] gmail [dot][com] or if you have twitter and your question can be condensed into 140 characters just tweet it @fetch9 or @rockchalktalk.

Hopefully, given that i am not terribly sure what I should write about now, this can be both entertaining for you and help me figure out what you, the RCT reader, wants to read about.

First off, as a personal note I feel like I need to explain how uncomfortable I am writing things like this. I consider myself a writer first, an analyst second, and a newsbreaker/reporter/ third, or never. Secondly I should note that this is not a done deal (hence the word possibly in the title) and I get that if it turns out not to be true it could reflect badly not only on me but Owen and SB Nation as a whole, and I want that 0%.

That said, I got multiple emails/texts from people whom I know at KU and elsewhere, including from one of the people who told me about the Charlie Weis hire before it happened, that this was a real possibility. Asking around for confirmation I had multiple people who told me that while it's not for sure, the wheels are in motion so to speak. So I have a handful of people whom I trust saying it could happen, and then there's this quote from the KC Star's website:

But the Jayhawks remain thin at point guard, and Self, who is not able to discuss recruits specifically because of NCAA rules, said he’d like to address that through recruiting or a potential transfer.

Read more here: http://campuscorner.kansascity.com/node/2554#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://campuscorner.kansascity.com/node/2554#storylink=cpy

So while it's not official, and no one is going to confirm it until it is, I think it's appropriate to say that there is a better than 50/50 chance that Alabama guard Trevor Releford will join his brother Travis at KU.

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It always ends with a loss. Those words are the ethos of the Mid Majority, but they apply neatly to the rest of college basketball as well. 344 teams in college basketball end their season by not winning a national championship. It always ends with a loss.

Except for when it doesn't. Last night the Kansas Jayhawks went out and represented themselves, the school, the fans and the sport the way they all deserve to be represented. The team, which I had called terrible on a number of occasions early in the year, went toe to toe with a group of soon to be NBAers and held their own for the entire game. And what's more, I think they did every thing they needed to to win the game. Kansas held the best offense in the country to just over a point per possession, and if not for Kentucky making some jumpers they normally wouldn't, and Kansas missing some layups and dunks, who knows what might have happened.

But this isn't just about last night. It's about this entire season. It's about how the coaching staff molded a group of young men into a team, and how those young men accepted their roles. The 2002 team will always be the hardest goodbye I've ever had because it was Boschee's last year, but the 2012 team is right there with them. At Kansas we have become a victim of our own success - this six year stretch is the winningest such stretch in college basketball history - and it was liberating to cheer for a team that faced no expectations and instead kept winning games despite having seemingly no reason to. While it's disappointing that they didn't come away with the ultimate prize they don't deserve any anger, any shoulda, coulda, woulda. They deserve our admiration and above all our gratitude:

Thank you to Kevin Young, who gave up the opportunity to be a star at Loyola Marymount to come to Kansas and come off the bench. Young went from a player who probably would have had trouble staying in front of me defensively to helping out on Jared Sullinger in the final four. He made some head scratching plays at times, but at all times played with the energy every fan thinks he would play with if lucky enough to wear that uniform.

Thank you to Conner Teahan for giving up scholarships to Missouri Valley schools to come to Kansas and sit for years, hoping it would pay off. This year it finally did, as Teahan hit huge threes in both of KU's biggest wins of the season.

Thank you to Travis Releford, who after scoring over 20 points in the first two Big 12 conference games of the year could have demanded the ball more and tried to be a main scorer. But he had the maturity to realize he was at his best when he was the team's best perimeter defender, a garbage man on the glass, and efficient scorer who was most valuable taking a handful of shots per game. Releford shot 60% from two this year, and had the 94th best offensive rating in the country. He will have to handle more of the offensive load next year, especially early in the season, but there's no doubt he can handle it.

Thank you to Elijah Johnson, who could have transfered to find more playing time, or complained that as a 5 star recruit he should have been getting the ball more. But he bided his time, stuck it out, and became probably KU's best all around player in the tournament. He shot 58% from two on the year, and over 40% from three in the tournament, and is not only one of the nicest kids to ever come through the KU program, but probably the prohibitive favorite for 2013 Big 12 player of the year. Unless....

Thank you to Jeff Withey, who went from gawky 7 footer who sat behind the Morri and Robinson to, well gawky 7 footer who dominated basketball games. Withey broke the record for blocks in an NCAA tournament as well as blocks in a season for both a KU and Big 12 player. Withey's 15.4% block rate was the best in college basketball, and he held Anthony Davis to just one field goal, a deep jumper, in the title game. In short, he was the best interior defender in college basketball, and he's only getting better offensively. Perhaps it is he who is the prohibitive favorite for 2013 Big 12 player of the year.

Thank you to Thomas Robinson, who overcame unthinkable personal adversity to post one of the best seasons in KU history. Robinson may not have won the official national player of the year but he was my player of the year and he was the person of the year. If there is a young man who deserves to make millions of dollars playing basketball, it's him. It won't bring back his mom, but hopefully he and his sister live as happy of lives as they possibly can.

Thank you to Tyshawn Taylor. Taylor was, unless I am mistaken, the first player to start all four years at KU under Bill Self, and he has become one of my favorite players ever. He treated playing at Kansas like a privilege, and every time he walked onto that court I got the sense that it was his favorite place in the world and he was happy to just be playing basketball. Tyshawn wore his emotions on his sleeve and for better or worse it seemed like I could always tell how he was feeling or what he was thinking. Tyshawn made some of the most athletic plays I've ever seen anyone make in a Kansas uniform, and embodied this year's team: tough, resilient, and willing to do anything to win. He's matured on the court, he's matured on the court and I feel privileged I've gotten to watch him do it. Both while he was shooting his final free throws at home against Missouri and in the final four against Ohio State I whispered, just before he went to shoot, I love you Tyshawn, and I'll say it again today. There will never be another Jeff Boschee, but it won't get any closer than Tyshawn Taylor.

Thank you to Bill Self and his staff. You've proven you can take teams loaded with lottery talent and get them to defend and play within your system, and now you've proven you can take a team at a talent and/or depth disadvantage in almost every one of their NCAA tournament games and make it all the way to the championship. Kansas could be stuck with an intramural team and I would feel confident that by season's end they would be a number 2 seed and be on their way to the final four. It's no coincidence that Kansas was at its best in the second half, and that in every game in the tournament they were able to take away what their opponent does best. Bill Self is no doubt the best coach in the country, and he deserves every single nice thing ever said about him.

And finally, thank you to Coach Manning and Coach Hinson. Each of your efforts have been indispensable to this program and you will be sorely miss. I hope each has tremendous success and hopefully we will see Tulsa and Southern Illinois on the schedule soon so you can each get the ovation you deserve.

A few assorted game notes are after the jump:

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Tonight, Kansas takes on Kentucky in the national championship game as the Jayhawks pursue their second title in five years.

Key 1 - Attack Marquis Teague

Teague has improved over the course of the season, but if there is a weakspot on Kentucky, it is him. He uses a lot of possessions (21.1%) and takes a lot of shots (19%), but he has just a 45% eFG on the year. He doesn't get to the rim a lot, and is shooting just 26% on two point jumpers, via hoop-math.com. Teague also is subpar at shooting threes, shooting just 31% on the season. As for the other skills a point guard should have, Teague has a fairly paltry assist rate (especially when considering who his teammates are) of 25.7%, and a turnover rate of 24%, which for the record is higher than Tyshawn Taylor, whom is supposedly the most turnover player in the history of college basketball.

Key 2 - Avoid the foul trouble trap

One key that is often cited as a way to beat Kentucky is to get Anthony Davis in foul trouble. This is a bad idea. Davis commits just 2.4 fouls per 40, which is historically low for someone with as high of a block percentage as he has. Whether that is due to him being that good at avoiding fouling or whether it is because he is getting the benefit of the doubt on some calls due to being Anthony Davis (I'd say a mix of both) is up for question, but it is also irrelevant. If Kansas goes right at Davis they will shoot as poorly as they have all tournament, without the added benefit of getting Davis in foul trouble.

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With about 8 minutes left in the game, Kansas trailed by three and after looking like they were barely hanging on all night were just starting to find themselves. I too had just started to find myself. All first half I was on pins and needles and was so nervous I wanted to not move and yet jump around all at once. But at that moment I entered a sort of fan nirvana: I realized that this team had come so far from the team that wasn't talented enough to overcome their indiscipline. They had morphed into a team that can't be put away no matter how large the deficit, no matter how impossible it seems for them to make a shot. At that point I realized that no matter what happened in the next 8 minutes, they were winners for just how far they had come, and we were winners for getting the opportunity to watch them grow.

Watching Kansas in the NCAA tournament is a gut wrenching experience for me, win or lose. It ties my stomach in knots, and when that clock hit all zeroes I couldn't have been more excited to have 40 more minutes of it on Monday night. This group has gone out and earned it more than any team I can remember, and they deserve one more game. Let's hope they make it count.

Before the game I mentioned that Kansas's offensive rebounding would be huge. Due to their poor shooting they needed to get second chance points as much as possible. The only problem was that Ohio State was the 2nd best defensive rebounding team in the country, allowing opponents to grab only about 25% of their misses. Kansas, however, grabbed an astonishing 37.5% of their own misses.

Ohio State won the three point lottery a bit in the first half - particularly Buford and Craft who were 3-5 and 2-3 for the game respectively - but cooled off in the second half, allowing Kansas to come back. Meanwhile, Kansas continues to struggle from the three, as they shot just 27.3% from beyond the arc.

If there's one thing Kansas needs to shore up for Monday it is the turnover battle: they forced turnovers on just 17.9% of Ohio State's possessions and turned it over on over a fourth of their possessions. Fortunately Kentucky's defense doesn't depend on forcing turnovers, so they probably will see their turnover rate dip down around 20%.

KU's nation best two point defense held the Buckeyes to just 32.4% shooting from two, lowering KU's season rate to 39.8% allowed. They'll face the second best two point defense, just decimal points behind, on Monday.

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On Saturday Kansas will meet Ohio State in their first final four game since winning the 2008 National Championship.

Key 1 - Pack it in on defense

Ohio State's two best scorers are no doubt Jared Sullinger and DeShaun Thomas. Each has the ability to shoot the three (and deep twos) but both would prefer to make their living inside. Not to mention that as a team Ohio State is very reluctant to shoot threes: they were 311th nationally in taking threes this year, and they were 223rd in three point percentage. They can no doubt get hot from outside, but daring them to beat Kansas from outside would lessen the defensive pressure on Withey and Robinson, and would allow the Jayhawks to double team both Thomas and Sullinger.

Key 2 - Offensive Rebounding

Kansas isn't really a great shooting team, despite being 13th in two point percentage this year. But they do lead the NCAA tournament in second chance points. The Buckeyes, meanwhile, are the 2nd best defensive rebounding team in the country this season. They're second in AdjDef as well, but are just so so at forcing turnovers (22.4%), and allow opponents to shoot 45% from two. They really rely on rebounding to keep opponents off the scoreboard. I'm not saying Kansas should go all out on the offensive glass but a little extra attention to that area could garner them some free buckets and be the difference between a win or a loss.

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Even though we are in the midst of final four week, current events have mandated a quick recess to discuss Barry Hinson and Danny Manning leaving the program for next year:

First, as to Hinson. Hinson had a bit of an up and down tenure at Missouri State, but was also a victim of circumstance as well. His 2000 and 2006 teams were left out of the NCAA tournament field despite RPIs in the mid 30s and mid 20s. And this was back when the RPI meant something. Hinson made the NIT 4 times in his 9 years at Missouri State, though he didn't make an NCAA tournament appearance. His teams did have the best APR in the conference as well.

Obviously I am rooting for him to do well, and I think he will. For one, he is going to a league he is familiar with and a situation where he will be taking over a Southern Illinois program that has a lot of recent success. He's had the opportunity to work with perhaps the best college basketball coach in the world and has done an unbelievably good job as Director of Basketball Operations.

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In both the second round win over Purdue and the Elite 8 win over North Carolina, Kansas has gone to a triangle and two defense later in the game, and both times it has worked swimmingly. North Carolina made just one field goal in the final 5:46, and just three in the final 12:41. But will it work Saturday, if needed?

The triangle and two's main function is to typically shut down a perimeter player by forcing him to beat the man guarding him as well as an established zone inside the paint. Harrison Barnes mentioned after the Elite 8 game that no matter what he did it always seemed like there was another Jayhawk waiting for him.

But does Ohio State have the type of personnel that could take advantage of a KU triangle and two?

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On Saturday, Kansas will join Ohio State, Louisville and Kentucky as the final four teams competing for the national championship. Here is a brief look at some of the numbers involved in this year's final four. In addition, if anyone has any topics they want to see covered this week, please suggest it in the comments, send a tweet to either @fetch9 or @rockchalktalk, or email.

Note: most numbers are from KenPom.com

Best offensive team: Kentucky (123.1 AdjOff Rating)

Best defensive team: Louisville (84 AdjDef Rating)

Worst offense: Louisville (105.1 AdjOff Rating)

Worst defense: Kentucky (88.6 AdjDef Rating)

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As Kansas fans, we are rarely afforded this opportunity. Not to go to the final four; that is an opportunity we are thankfully afforded a lot. But the opportunity to watch a team with more question marks than sure things (you could even say all question marks) grow into a league champion, and then in three consecutive NCAA tournament teams where they could have easily lost, pull out tough wins. This Kansas team didn't out talent everyone. They out toughed, out fought, and out competed everyone. (of course it didn't hurt to catch a couple of big breaks along the way).

At the start of the year, the Final Four was my personal ceiling for this team. But that was, in my mind, only if Thomas Robinson had monster performances to get them there. And while Robinson did play well enough to be named region MOP, this trip is everyone's. It's Jeff Withey, who went from playing in 10.6% of the team's minutes last year to Big 12 defensive player of the year, and who had a pair of big blocks in the waning minutes to start two fast breaks. It was Travis Releford, who helped force Harrison Barnes into just a 5-14 shooting day. It was Elijah Johnson, who has gone from disappointment to on the shortlist for 2013 Big 12 player of the year in a matter of weeks. It was Conner Teahan, who worked his butt off to go from walk on to three point specialist to an ever improving guy on the defensive end. It was Kevin Young, who gave up being a star at Loyola Marymount to come to Kansas and provide energy off the bench, changing games with his effort and athleticism.

But more than anything, it's Bill Self's. The man who had won 8 straight Big 12 titles and could wind up perhaps the best coach of the modern era was still overlooked nationally thanks to some NCAA tournament losses, but the way he adjusted all tournament, whether it be going to the triangle and two or managing foul trouble or just simply knowing how to motivate the team was nothing short of amazing. This team's bench is Conner Teahan, Kevin Young and Justin Wesley. Nothing against those three but it is a far cry from bringing Robinson off the bench last year. And somehow Self guided them to the final four. It may end on Saturday, it hopefully will end on Monday, but either way the ending will be far more sweet than bitter for the first time since 2008.

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Today Kansas takes on North Carolina for the second time since they hired Roy Williams in their first NCAA tournament meeting outside the Final Four. A win will put Kansas in the Final Four for the first time since 2008.

Key 1 - Attack the point guard

Whether or not Kendall Marshall will play right now is unknown (though I personally would be surprised if he doesn't) but either way the plan should be the same. Tyshawn Taylor needs to attack the lane, because neither he nor Stilman White can stay in front of him. Obviously the half court runs much more smoothly when Tyshawn can get into the lane, as he has become very good at shooting the little floater and he can easily dump it off or kick it out. Defensively, Stilman White isn't going to hurt Tyshawn. A full strength Kendall Marshall probably could, but one with only one good wrist? Probably not. I'm no Bill Self, but I think that it wouldn't be too difficult, in the half court at least, to push Marshall to his right and basically take him out of the game. Even though it is his non shooting hand I'd have to think that would affect his shot as well.

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Yet another game where Kansas might not have deserved the win, and tried their damnedest to give it away, but toughed out a squeaker to move on to face North Carolina in the elite 8. It was, in the words of Yogi Berra, deja vu all over again, as NC State had a heave at the end of the game and then a three to try to tie it, but it fell short as Kansas escaped. Again I think Kansas should have fouled, and this one would have been easier as the NC State player made the catch going away from the basket and had to turn around to give a heave. Fortunately for all of us he missed a wide open Scott Wood who was standing just a few feet away.

In what must have been the worst offensive game I have ever seen (hyperbole alert!), neither team cracked even .9 points per possession, with Kansas scoring .896 and NC State at .851 points per trip. Though Kansas had a slightly better eFG than NC State, that didn't mean they had a great night, as their eFG was just 38.3% and according to the KU shot chart referenced by Coach Self in the postgame they made just two shots outside of 5 feet. One of them was a big three by Elijah Johnson to open the second half, but it was KU's only bucket from deep, as they finished just 1-14 from three.

KU shot ok from two (46%), and were great on the offensive glass (43.5%), but gave up an astounding number of offensive rebounds as well, allowing the Wolfpack to grab 41.2% of their misses. To be fair to Kansas on this one though, Withey was going for (and getting) a lot of blocks, which takes him out of position, and as good of a defensive rebounder as Robinson is he can't be expected to nab every rebound.

The pessimist can point to KU's subpar offense lately as a sign that we are most assuredly doomed in the Elite 8, but the optimist can point to the fact that KU hasn't gotten it going and won three games, two of which most certainly would have been losses by a number of teams in the past. The best (and worst) part is that I have no idea whether they will come out firing from the start against North Carolina or if they will get blown out. But if it makes you feel better, they had to withstand a three at the buzzer from a North Carolina team wearing red the preceding game the last time they faced UNC as well.

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