By WHITNEY MATHEWS
Special To One Great Season

While I'm smarter than the average girl bear when it comes to college hoops, I'm completely irrational when it comes to the Kansas Jayhawks. Just ask JPW.
 
Last year I told him (with a straight face) that he was a total idiot for not coming to one Kansas football game during his One Great Season college tour. KU went on to lose seven games in a row and our coach "resigned" for being too fat and grouchy to recruit effectively. Whatever.

So, every year I fill out two brackets, one with Kansas as the national champion and the other a little more realistic. Speaking as a somewhat educated yet ridiculous fan, both of my brackets this year have the Jayhawks victorious on April 5.

Why will Kansas win? The level of talent is just unfair. Similar to the 2008 title team, there is an answer for every question on the court. Take it anywhere near the rim, and you'll see the Minnesota Not-So-Nice of Cole Aldrich. He's changed the game defensively in the Big 12 since his KU fans got a glimpse of his capabilities during the 2008 national semifinal against North Carolina. (P.S. - As a KU fan, was that a great night, or the greatest night? I go with the latter.)

Here are two words: Sherron Collins. Here are two more words: Tyshawn Taylor. The backcourt is in good hands.

Every national title team has to have a white guy who can make threes. KU has two! Tyrel Reed (white guy, not-so-white name) and Brady Morningstar are solid perimeter shooters. Did you see Reed's two game-changing threes in Saturday's Big 12 Championship game defeat of Kansas State?

The X-Factor, Xavier Henry, is a probable one-and-done who was cold during the first part of conference play. But if he finds his groove, God help you. He can contribute from nearly anywhere -– especially in the cute smiles department –- and has averaged 15 points per game since early February.

What else makes KU so dangerous? (Sing it with me) ... And twins. Marcus and Markieff Morris. Easily the two most improved Jayhawks from 2008-2009. It turns out an extra 20 pounds of muscle and working with Danny Manning for a few hours every day is a good thing. And if they don't get you with their basketball skillz, they'll confuse you with their matching tattoos. Tricky.

Bottom line? KU is so talented across the board that we don't need a John Wall. Our John Wall is Henry, who has embraced the unselfish, experienced style of play that defines the current era of Kansas basketball. It will get KU fans where we need to be. It has before.

I will say my gut reaction to the Midwest bracket is "what kind of f**kery is this?" Both teams who straight-up pwnd the Jayhawks this season (Tennessee and Okie State) are in the Midwest, as is Michigan State, which ousted KU from last year's Sweet 16. It’s like going to a party and 20 percent of the dudes there are your ex-boyfriends.

I won't complain about a competitive path. Bring it on. Like Coach Bill Self said Monday morning, whomever comes out of the Midwest has earned it. I'd rather my team earn a Final Four than have it gift-wrapped in $100 bills and served up in a bejeweled chalice by 40 virgins <cough>Duke</cough>.

Anyway, is it Thursday yet?

Mathews is a KU grad and works for the Lawrence Journal-World.

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

You've spent all winter in the kitchen, trying to find the perfect combination. A little bit of this, a whole bunch of that and a dash of something else.

There are many variations to the recipe. What works for your mom might not work for your dad. What works for you neighbor might not work for Bill Self.

You could line up 100 ingredients and still not have the right mix or the cohesiveness you need to win six straight games this month.

Or you could throw out most of them and consider keeping it simple. That's what I would do. And I'd need only these seven ingredients to win a national championship:

NCAA TOURNAMENT COVERAGE

+ GUEST COLUMN: Why Kentucky Will Win The National Championship
+ MYTH MADNESS: 3 Tournament Trends To Ignore This Year
+ FREE ADVICE: Here's How To Win Your NCAA Office Pool
+ QUOTEBOOK: Selection Chairman Dan Guerrero Explains Himself
+ NCAA TOURNAMENT: First-Round Pairings Announced
+ MARCH MADNESS: Tourney No Longer Leads To April Sadness
+ COUNTDOWN: The Top 10 Title Games Since 1979
+ LIST: The Top 10 Analysts In College Basketball
+ LIST: The Top 10 Play-By-Play Men In College Basketball

+ Defense -- Last season, North Carolina was a dominant offensive force that could have won the title by playing defense on their backs. But in most years, champions earn the crown because they play excellent team defense, usually led by one or two individual defensive stars. Even fans know it. Have you ever heard an "OFF - ENSE" cheer?

+ Coaching -- Tubby Smith led Kentucky to the 1998 national championship in no small part because he outcoached Mike Krzyzewski -- not an easy task -- and Duke in the South Region final. In a frantic, up-and-down second half during which UK staged a furious comeback and Duke had no timeouts, both teams were spent but Tubby knew his deeper squad was in better condition. So he let his boys play on without giving Duke a chance to catch its breath. Kentucky advanced with the 86-84 win.

+ Guards -- It's such a cliche to talk about how important guards are to your NCAA Tournament chances. But just because something is frequently repeated doesn't make it wrong. In a single-elimination tournament, it's critical to control the tempo in games against teams with contrasting styles. If your guards control the pace, you have a great chance to advance.

+ Big-Money Shot Taker -- There's a reason why Bill Raftery's "Onions" call is as recognized as it is: It often follows huge shots that win games. Many players -- but definitely not all -- want the ball in their hands late in a tight game. And only a few can come through in the clutch the way that Stephen Curry did in 2008.

+ Big-Game Experience -- Listen to the experts talk this week and most agree this is a key reason why Kansas has the edge over Kentucky. Each team is immensely talented, but Sherron Collins and company have been tested, whereas UK, as dangerous as it is, is built around freshmen who are playing in their first NCAA Tournament. Even junior forward Patrick Patterson is a newbie.

+ Big Men -- Guards are great and all, and backcourt-heavy teams with little interior presence have advanced, but rarely do they win championships. The NCAA Tournament is all about matchups, and if Ohio State and Georgetown meet in the Sweet 16, you might see what happens to a team thin on the inside when it plays a physical team with great talent and better depth on the blocks.

+ Depth -- It's not as important as many think, but is still key nonetheless. Young kids are in their physical primes, so in many cases these guys can handle playing 40 minutes. But foul trouble and the possibility of injury are more difficult to control ... and overcome.

By BEN JACKEY
Special to One Great Season

Two horses have been stablemates for years. Every time the two hit the track, the younger horse beat the older, more experienced horse. One day, as the older horse neared his inevitable fate as pet food or glue, a dog wandered up to the young horse and asked, "Why don’t you just let the old guy win one?" The young horse responded, "Would you look at that? It's a talking dog."

Experience is great when it comes to brain surgery, base jumping and intimacy. When it comes to putting synthetic laminated rubber in a hoop, however, it means squat. If it did, Chuck Barkley would still be throwing down dunks instead of Burrito Supremes.   Talent > experience. Kentucky Wildcats  > the field.

The same analogies could apply even to Kentucky’s coach, who's certainly no Tom Izzo on the chalkboard. I once heard John Calipari say, "We don’t have scouting reports. We don’t worry about what other teams do."  Pause for astonished silence.

That guy's won 32 games this season and something like 100 in the past three seasons. Wisdom and knowledge appear to be as overrated as Big Ten sports.

John Wall might be the most talented point guard ever to wear a collegiate uniform. More importantly, he might be as clutch as any player to wear a collegiate uniform. DeMarcus Cousins is as talented as he is immature. Patrick Patterson is as talented as he is mature. No one can match Kentucky when it comes to raw ability.

However, even the most obnoxious (yes, there are varying degrees) UK fan donning blue tinsel hair while playing hooky from the unemployment office and wearing a matching off-brand UK2K shirt with their spouse would admit Championship No. 8 will not be an easy task. The Cats' success will largely depend on the answers they get from their fifth "starter." Can Darius Miller score seven or eight points? Can Darnell Dodson make three or four threes to keep a defense honest?

Also, consider that Kentucky's second-round opponent could be the most talented team the Cats will have played all year thanks to an incredibly soft schedule. If that team is Texas, in nearby New Orleans, it could prove to be a stiff test. Playing quality opposition is, perhaps, the one place where experience would help these youthful Cats.

On the first Saturday in May in Kentucky, we crown the most talented young colt. But on the first Monday in April, just up the road in Indiana, we will crown a group of young thoroughbreds. Then we will take that talking dog behind the barn and shut him up Old Yeller-style.

Ben Jackey is a die-hard Kentucky fan who lives in Louisville.

Each Monday until the national championship is played in Indianapolis on April 5, One Great Season will count down the Top 10 National Championship games since 1979, when Larry Bird and Magic Johnson squared off in Salt Lake City. Today's No. 4 is the 1987 classic between Indiana and Syracuse in New Orleans.

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

I was supposed to attend my first concert ever on this night, but a Cleveland snowstorm turned my plans to see Bon Jovi into an evening alone in the basement watching Indiana and Syracuse. Not a terrible consolation by any stretch.

Unless the Hoosiers were playing Ohio State back then, I almost always rooted for Bob Knight and Indiana. But my high school basketball teammates and I were big fans of the Big East, so it was hard not to root for freshman phenom Derrick Coleman and that funny-looking coach with the glasses.

In such a dilemma, the only thing a teen can then hope for is to see a good game. And that's precisely what America got.

The game was a close one throughout, and when Coleman missed a free throw with 27 seconds left, Indiana legend Steve Alford, who led the Hoosiers all season long, brought the ball upcourt, hoping to set up one final shot for himself.

But it was his backcourtmate Keith Smart who got the best look. He knocked down a baseline jumper with four seconds left to give Indiana the 74-73 lead and Knight his third and final national championship.

Smart, who endured an up-and-down career under Knight, finished the season on the highest of high notes, and even joked after the game that teammate Daryl Thomas made the wise move of kicking the ball back out to Smart to set up the heroic shot.

"I'd like to thank Daryl for not taking that last shot and passing it back out to me," he said. "It was a wise decision on his part."

After the chaos of the winning shot, Syracuse didn't call a timeout until only one second remained. That's when Smart intercepted the three-quarter court pass and heaved the ball skwyard, setting off the great celebration just a few miles down the road from his native Baton Rouge.

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

It's lunchtime on Monday; by now you've surely filled out two brackets and plan to fill out three more. And you'll reason things the same way you did last year and the year before.

But did you win any money last year or the year before? I thought not.

If you abandon your familiar logic and consider a new approach, you just might look like you know what you're doing come Final Four weekend. Here are the issues you should think about:

+ Depth Is Key -- I've been back and forth about the depth issue for years, but I think I've finally got it figured out: It's overrated.

Syracuse and Ohio State will make nice runs in the tournament and they will do so without great contributions from their benches. Coaches adjust their approaches at least slightly during the tournament, and, especially in OSU's case, Thad Matta is keenly aware of his lack of depth. So he'll manage his games a little more.

Each half will be comprised of five four-minute bursts. Television timeouts are longer and more frequent in the tournament. Foul trouble certainly is a potential issue, but neither of these teams lost any of their games this year because of it. And injuries? Well, you might want to pray a little bit.

+ Freshmen Are Sophomores -- Every time you hear an analyst talk about how grown up some freshmen have become because they've now got 35 college games under their belts, you should send me a dollar. Make it ten dollars, actually.

But if the freshmen have grown up, so, too, have the sophomores, juniors, seniors and even fifth-year players against whom they'll be playing. Where the freshmen are still inexperienced -- perhaps immature (<cough>DeMarcus Cousins</cough>) -- is in the area of a high-pressure, single-elimination tournament. Don't buy the freshmen-are-sophomores line.

+ A 12 Always Beats A 5 -- It's always fashionable to pick one or two 12s over 5s because historically, this is just some inexplicable danger zone for higher-seeded teams. Since the field expanded to 64-ish teams, 12 seeds have won exactly 33 out of 100 first-round games, a markedly better winning percentage than 11 seeds. Two No. 12s won last year. North Carolina won the tournament last year as a 12 seed. Just kidding.

The bottom line here is that 12 seeds win more than they probably should. But trying to predict which of the four 12 seeds will win when the position only wins 33 percent of the time means you'll most likely pick an upset where an upset won't happen, and then you'll pick the seeds to play out where the upset actually does happen. And it's also a fact -- in that it is my opinion -- that this year's 12 seeds won't win one game.

So stay away from picking the 12-over-5 upset, but if you don't, if you absolutely must pick a No. 12 to win, please don't tell everyone you knew Cornell was going to beat Temple. At least give credit to Jay Bilas because he's the only reason you will have picked it.