NCAA Tournament: Storylines For Every Sweet 16 Team

Kansas Jayhawks: Is This Finally It?

This feels like an odd question to ask for a team that’s won 12 straight regular season championships in one of the toughest conferences in college basketball, but given recent history, it’s a fair question.

Kansas enters its second Sweet 16 in the last four years. Prior to this run, the Jayhawks made it to the national championship game in 2012, where they fell to the Anthony Davis-led Kentucky Wildcats. Since then, it’s been a run of four straight years of NCAA tournament games featuring good games and bad results.

In 2013, the Jayhawks fell to eventual runner-up Michigan in the Sweet 16. In 2014, they fell apart late and dropped a three-point contest to Stanford in the second round. In 2015, they were out-dueled by the one team they had been avoiding for years, Wichita State, in a second-round classic.

Thus far, 2016 seems to be unfolding differently for Kansas, taking down Connecticut in a game that never felt all that close though the final score was just a 12-point victory for the Jayhawks.

Now that they’ve gotten past the second round, Kansas feels like the safest bet to win it all. After all, they got past the one game that has kept them from fulfilling their potential the last two seasons.

Kansas certainly has the veteran leadership, the depth and the Bill Self to get the job done.

Is this finally the year Kansas puts it all together, winning their second national title under Self? Or is it just delaying the story we’ve seen in past years?

Next: Will Maryland's Talent Get It Together?