Whoot whoot whoot!

Guy is an elite rebounder, especially offensively. Can't defend worth a shit yet, but that will come. Hitting on all cylinders going into the tournament.

Idk how many years this kid is gonna stay, but man oh man, he could be an absolute beast.

Newman had a few games down the stretch where he played very well. But yeah, he hasn't played this well.

He needs improvement on defense but I still think he's a better man on man defender than Lightfoot. Mitch is just really good at coming off his man and blocking someone else's man.

you think Mitch should play over DeSousa in the tournament?

No, I would prefer DeSousa to play over Lightfoot.

Jesus God I hate watching WVU play basketball. I mean I respect the hell out of Carter and Kanote is really ****ing good but they are truly unbearable.

They should take Vick’s minutes. Mitch is the better defender and shot blocker Silvio is a far better rebounder and moving without the ball.

It should be about matchups moving forward.

1 seed in the Midwest. Is that the Thursday/Saturday slot?

sounds like Self has him a keeper.

De Sousa on Konante: "Once he dunked that ball, I said, 'Oh, it's not going to happen again'"

Yeah, they've played some games that are just excruciating to watch... by the end, I barely even cared if KU won, I just wanted the game to end. WVU is more talented now though, so IMO the games aren't nearly as bad overall.

thats for next year. Self is going to have at least 4 talented big men. He will go back to his traditional high/low offense.

I don’t see any scenerio that Self sits Vick on the bench in the NCAA’s.

Hot take: KU is a better team with De Sousa and not Azubuike playing the majority of the minutes at the 5 spot.

As much as I would love to just bench Vick, I don't think they can at this point. The team has really only played and practiced with four guards. It's too late to make that kind of big change.

no coach in their right mind would bench an all year starter for non disciplinary or injury reasons before the NCCA’s.

I wasn’t saying bench him. But without looking it up it seems like Vick’s minutes have been down since that ridiculous slump he went into midseason.

I think you give Silvio some of those minutes and a few of Mitch’s. But Mitch needs to be on the floor. He does too much positive.

After watching the last 3 games, it's hard to argue with that.

Huggy doesn't think so?

no way Doke gets to some of those rebounds.

Doke is a starter. No change can be made now. But, Mitch is a totally different situation. DeSousa can take Mitch’s minutes without disrupting the team on the eve of the NCAA’s.

I'm willing to let Self figure out playing time and combinations, I think he's earned it.

As awesome as Silvio was, and he was awesome today, let's not forget he doesn't draw quite the attention Udoka does yet. Its great to see him starting to click, though, it relieves so much pressure regarding our depth.

If we're blowing out the 16 seed, I could see Self possibly going with two big for a bit, but he's not changing the formula now. There are still things Silvio doesn't know yet, but if he can come in and rebound like he did, he'll be a huge help.

Is Silvio De Sousa the next big thing for Kansas?

BY BLAIR KERKHOFF| BKERKHOFF@KCSTAR.COM
1 hr. ago

The occasion clearly was too big for the newest Kansas Jayhawk, Silvio De Sousa.

In his debut on Jan. 13 against Kansas State in Lawrence, De Sousa committed a foul and a turnover and KU was outscored by eight points while he was on the floor. He looked like the high school player he was only weeks earlier.

Spin ahead to Saturday. There was De Sousa flying toward the rim to flush an offensive rebound, going up strong on the defensive glass and — this may have been the best part to teammates — not taking any grief from West Virginia muscleman Sagaba Konate.

Add it up, and De Sousa’s best game as a collegian resulted in a stat line of 16 points on 8 of 8 shooting, 10 rebounds, a steal and two fouls as the Jayhawks captured the Big 12 Tournament title with an 81-70 victory over the Mountaineers at the Sprint Center.

Kansas needed the production. Without 7-foot center Ukoka Azubuike, out for the tournament because of a sprained MCL, the Jayhawks relied on De Sousa and Mitch Lightfoot to plug the hole. Lightfoot was solid in the first two games, but was held without a point and had two rebounds Saturday.

De Sousa was a revelation.

“He did a great job sticking with it, coming to practice every day, learning the plays, and it’s finally paying off,” Kansas guard Devonte' Graham said.

With the Jayhawks’ perimeter prowess, West Virginia and Konate needed to bull KU in the paint. But De Sousa allowed Kansas to hold its own and not be intimidated.

“Whoever talks to me, I don’t listen to them,” De Sousa said. “I’d rather listen to my point guard than anybody else. (Konate) was talking to me, but I acted like I wasn’t listening to him.”

De Sousa said he once tried to engage in conversation with Konate, but didn’t get a response.

“I was getting in his head,” De Sousa said.

Konate dunked on Lightfoot about 90 seconds into the game, and the chirping started, but De Sousa made a vow to himself.

“I was going to make sure it didn’t happen again,” De Sousa said.

Konate finished with 18 points and five rebounds, and the Mountaineers held the rebounding edge 37-27. But Kansas got more than they ever expected from their freshman playing in his 15th game.

“Silvio was fabulous, I mean fabulous,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “I mean he doesn’t know what he’s doing but he showed everybody he can catch lobs, he can rebound, he can compete.

“Konate definitely hurt us ... but Silvio did a much better job keeping him off his spot.”

After the game, De Sousa said there was no grudge. In the handshake line he said he and Konate exchanged congratulations and the West Virginia sophomore from Mali learned that De Sousa was from Angola.

In the victorious locker room, De Sousa said Self told him he was a star. De Sousa blushed.

“I don’t know, but I think should be good with him,” De Sousa said. “Tonight I proved to him that I can play.”

Yeah DeSouza is really good around the rim and rebounds well.

He’s pretty strong for being so young.

He’s probably not the offensive player doke is yet but will or could be pretty quick.

I’d actually be interesting in a lineup with Silvio at the 4 and dole at the 5, similar to what they did with the Morris twins

Sign me up for a march coming out party.

Depends on the matchup. Traditionally good guard play wins in March and I guess I’m good with the guys we have.

If the matchup is there, roll a big lineup out. But I’m not seeing much for teams that have a lot of size.

Man this league sucks

Wish we could leave it

I'm not worried about DeSouza's offense. But he isn't the post defender and rim protector that Doke is. For me, that is DeSouza's biggest limitation at this moment.

But Souza's ceiling is really high. There is no reason to think he can't be a good defender. After he adds 20 or 30 lbs in the weight room he might be quite the power forward.

The committee couldn't have handed this team a worse matchup in the first round considering its style. Penn's statistical profile looks more like a 14 seed than a 16 and Penn is also one of the best teams in the country at guarding the three (teams only shoot 29.6% from 3PT and they are top 30 in the country in limiting 3PT attempts).

They could actually really use Udoka for this one.

Not worried about this first round match at all.

You probably should be. Penn is the best #16 seed by KenPom in 6 years since UNC Asheville. That team only lost by seven to a #1 seeded Syracuse.

Was Norfolk higher in KenPom?

They were worse. 2012 Norfolk was a far worse team than 2018 Penn (and 2012 Missouri was far better than 2018 Kansas).

This is very much the scenario I warned about, except Penn is a worse matchup than I could have ever imagined for such a low ranked team. Their entire identity is built around preventing 3PT shots.

l don’t get this attitude. DeSousa and or Doke will tear them up inside if they focus on defending the 3 pointer. Am I off base here?

What attitude? It's not some gimme game no matter what history says about 1/16s.

De Sousa doesn't exactly have a developed post game yet, so I also doubt he will be doing that. Udoka could conceivably destroy them down there in the post, but there are always ways to neutralize him that smart coaches could employ (he's the worst foul shooter in the NCAA and he can't pass out of doubles effectively).

So instead of focusing on the three, we can drive the lane. We have the guys to do it.

I suppose they could play employ hack a Dok from the beginning of the game and see if KU panics when they send him to the line every trip down the court to try and build a first half lead.

KU just played their best 3 games in a row all year. DeSousa proved he can positively contribute in our weakest area. And your worried about the #16 seed?


you think Penn is going to be better than West Virgina inside? DeSousa will tear them up if they try hack a Doke. They can’t hang with those two big bodies.

We are not making the final four but losing to a #16? Not happening.

Don't watch college basketball. Has KU been eliminated yet?

Ha. No, that's next week

its already been decided according to KC connection. First time in history, #1 loses to #16.

You should watch a bullet go into your head.

KU opens as a 14.5 favorite on 5Dimes

https://www.5dimes.eu/livelines/livelines.aspx#al_11

This is silly. How do you respond to Villinova blowing them out shooting a crisp 50% from 3?

Nobody chokes in the NCAA like MIzzou, so don’t even try to compare a KU 1-16 matchup. Besides, all you have to do is poke Penn’s best player in the eye in the first minute of the game, and you’re in like Flynn.

Or just buy the officials like they have the players on their team

Did everyone remember to send their checks to the officials for the first 2 rounds?

Did I read Penn has a matchup advantage against KU? Goodness.

Of course i did. I actually doubled my contribution, because we are playing the best 16 seed of all time.

:eek: what does Vegas know that KC Connection doesn’t?:Poke:

ROFL

Absolutely. I'm worried about any team that can beat this Kansas team and Penn is entirely capable of it.

They could easily do both.

I swear to God you guys are the worst KU fans. Really worried about Penn?

Not that KU couldn't lose, but I don't see it happening. I don't think they've seen the level of outside shooting KU brings to the table in the Ivy. The one team remotely at KU's level that Penn played was Villanova. Whom they gave up 50% from 3, and got smoked by 28.

#1. Villanova is much, much better than Kansas.
#2. That was a true road game.
#3. That was over three months ago in November.
#4. They also limited Villanova to only 16 threes attempted (way below their season average), so they actually succeeded in taking them out of their normal offense. If they do the same to Kansas, Kansas doesn't have the same kind of multidimensional offense that they can fall back on.

You better start getting your hopes up for something historic at the expense of Kansas because Missouri fans may never have this kind of opportunity again.

Oh no, that's exactly the line I would have expected for such an overrseeded #1/underseeded #16. Gives Penn about a 10% chance of winning this one, which sounds about right.

Quit being a drama queen. Jfc

You're like the pgm of Kansas fans.

Nobody is worried. We all know it's a crap-shoot

Sounds like you might need a diaper change gramps

KenPom gives Penn an 11% shot at pulling off the first 1/16 upset in history.

Both? Lose to a 16 seed and make the Final Four? I’m rooting for that.

Now that's a line that would provide a payday in Vegas.

I don't understand people who can't use empirical information instead of feelings, and then just get upset when people post solid arguments with sound data.

This team could win the National Championship, it could also lose to Penn. Now is there a good chance KU could lose to Penn? Absolutely not. But COMPARED to previous #16's and match ups, is as difficult of a match up a #1 seed can have.

I'm sure KCCONNECTION would even agree KU has a 85-90%+ chance to win the game, but as we all know anything can happen in March.

1 seeds are literally undefeated against 16 seeds all time.

It ain't happening

Because it hasn't happened before, therefore it can't happen, is not a sound argument. That is ignoring every other piece of presentable information.

If this team lost to Washington at the Sprint Center. They CAN lose to Penn. Will they? Almost assuredly not. But if they played 20 times, I bet it might happen once.

True. It hasn't happened yet. But it will have to eventually. And with KU winning so many regular seasons, and tournaments that don't matter, it seems that they would have really good odds to be the number one seed that will be the one to fail

Seth Davis has already been running his mouth about if there was ever a 16 seed poised to take down a 1 seed it's this Penn team. I'm sure that same sentiment is going to be regurgitated 100x over the next four days and then KU lights them up 84-59.

Based on that spread I'd say Vegas and KC are thinking the same thing,the other three number 1's are 22.5 favorites and up.

They only beat Penn because of an absolutely horrible reffing call on the final play of the game and then they crush the rest of the competition to win it all.

Hmm, it's almost like I might know what I'm talking about.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Stop predicting Penn will beat Kansas. It won&#39;t happen if people keep predicting it.</p>&mdash; Ken Pomeroy (@kenpomeroy) <a href="https://twitter.com/kenpomeroy/status/973057892193480704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

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http://worldonline.media.clients.ell...167d6870b19a92

It's 2018. That's good mojo...

But, we always seem to Rock Choke.

Impressive win against a gritty West Virginia team. Kansas seems to be peaking at just the right time. Would be nice to see all of the Big 12 teams in the tournament step up and represent the league. Good luck to everyone with their brackets.

Those heroic one seed underdogs ROFL KenPomConnection has lost it

To be fair, it’s a shame we couldn’t be lucky enough to play a cupcake like Georgia.

Usually They are kupcakes...like the Farm League.

I'd love for you to be right,a small ML wager in Vegas,a bigger spread wager and the countless number of times I could bust jayhawkers balls on The Strip this weekend.

Oh and before anyone chimes in I already know MIZZOU sucks and lost to Norfolk State,Georgia etc. etc.

That's why mizzu won it so many times.

They got tired of being farmed, so they tried to take their ball and go home.

Except, KU took that ball, too. So now they're emo.

Didn't spend enough. Finally tried this year and went from bottom of barrel to the tourney without their key acquisition.

Appreciate the props, dude. I too don’t know how we did it without Preston.