[Mr. Plow]

Decent read....


National Title Stakes

1. Kansas
The Vegas favorite to cut down the nets is coached by a man who has won an average of 29 games per season over the course of the past 18 years yet has also coached in the same number of Final Fours as Bill Guthridge. Take a second to reread that sentence and drink it all in. It truly is remarkable.

I’m of the opinion that Bill Self doesn’t choke in the NCAA tournament any more than other coaches, and that the only reason it feels like he does is because his teams are always seeded high, and that any time a high seed loses before the Final Four it’s framed as a choke job. But when you lay it out like that, it’s not hard to see how people arrive at the “Self is a choker” conclusion. That’s why these next two weeks are MASSIVE for Self, who could make this season his magnum opus if everything goes right. He’s already changed his approach to the game by implementing a four-guard lineup that sacrifices a little bit of defense for a lot of offense, which is a significant diversion from Self’s typical defensive-minded approach that relies on an inside-out offensive philosophy. And while this change was brought on by the limitations of his roster more than by anything else, history will nonetheless look back on it as a stroke of genius if it proves to be the difference between Self’s “choke jobs” and his second national title.

That’s why I’m power ranking Kansas as the team with the most to gain from winning the 2017 championship. It would give the Jayhawks one more title than Louisville, which in turn would strengthen their advantage over the Cardinals in landing recruits who are being funneled to Adidas schools by handlers. Most importantly, though, Self is four wins away from having a complete reputation overhaul. When you win one national title, people can argue that you were lucky. When you win two, nobody can tell you shit.