Kansas...Waiting to Take a Dump on Your Bracket

You have KU in your bracket? Ahhhhh!

I'm prepared to eat my words if I'm wrong, but I don't understand why the masses continue to fill out brackets year after year assuming a deep run by Kansas. I would argue that Kansas has by far been the most consistent tournament flop in their 8 years under Bill Self. Under that span, the Jayhawks have more first round exits (two- once as a #3 seed and once as a #4), than Final Four appearances (one). They've reached the Elite 8 three times in the last 8 years, which isn't bad, except that's exactly the same number of times they've failed to advance past the first week. And these have all been highly seeded Kansas teams. Remember last year? I do, since I correctly picked the Jayhawks to lose in the 2nd round. In full disclosure, I had UNLV over Kansas in my bracket, but I felt either team in the UNLV/Northern Iowa matchup was good enough to pull the upset, especially on a suspect Kansas team that had done this before.
Interestingly, a first round victory by both teams this year would create a UNLV vs. Kansas second round matchup. I think UNLV would have a good shot in that game. But just like last year, I think almost any team Kansas draws has a shot at pulling the upset. In fact, I don't have Kansas advancing past the sweet 16 in any of my brackets. I believe UNLV is good enough to beat Kansas. If instead Illinois beats UNLV in the first round, I believe they are good enough to beat Kansas. And if nothing else, I think Louisville will knock them off in the Sweet 16. Even if I'm wrong, there's still a possible Notre Dame matchup looming in the Elite Eight. In any event, I would not pick Kansas to come out of their region, and history is on my side.
One last prediction- If I'm right on this and Kansas gets upset early in the tournament again, all of a sudden everyone will pick up on the "Kansas goes out early" theme and then it's all we'll hear about. You've been warned.....


Like his doppelganger, Jon Arbuckle, Bill Self doesn't come out on top very often.