There's still time to win! Pick the Final Four winners in CBS Sports' Round-By-Round game and you could be in attendance next year.
If you'd asked Kansas fans a month or so ago if this team had a chance to win it all, my guess is their confidence wouldn't have been too high.
After all, this Jayhawk team did this season what no Bill Self team had done before: Drop three games at Phog Allen Fieldhouse. Over the previous five seasons, Kansas had lost three homes games combined. The streak of Big 12 regular season titles looked like it was in jeopardy after 13 straight. The team was one of the worst in the nation at driving to the basket, evidenced by the team's inability to get to the free-throw line. A dearth of big men felt like this team's fatal flaw, especially with starting center Udoka Azubuike frequently getting into foul trouble. Even the roster up in the air; head coach Bill Self still didn't know the eligibility of highly regarded freshman big man Billy Preston, and at the semester break he'd added a high school big man who'd just reclassified to this freshman class, Silvio De Sousa.
After a Feb. 10 loss to Baylor, Self did something extreme: He said he was benching redshirt sophomore Malik Newman, a former McDonald's All-American, in favor of freshman Marcus Garrett. Newman had chucked the ball up 16 times against Baylor, only making five shots. At the time, Self said he was looking for more intangibles out of his starters.
If you can pinpoint a moment where things changed for this Kansas team, that was it, a moment that apparently lit a fire under Newman that has rocketed this team to the Final Four.
Since Feb. 10, Kansas has lost one game. Newman has become incredibly efficient, looking like the future first-round pick he was once projected as. In the past 13 games Newman has averaged 18.1 points on 51.3 percent three-point shooting. (Over the first 13 games of the season, he averaged 10.6 points on 36.2 percent three-point shooting.) He's crashing headlong into the lanes but always staying in control. Against Duke in an epic Elite Eight game, he didn't just score a career-high 32 points; he was Kansas' most clutch player on both ends of the court, lighting up Duke for 13 points in overtime and playing intense, lockdown defense all game.
Why can Kansas win it all? It's because a player whose inconsistency often held this team back early in the season has become an absolute superstar.
This is not to say Newman is Kansas' best player. He is not. Devonte' Graham, who ought to be on everybody's All-America first team, is. He's Kansas' most consistent player, its leader, the guy they turn to when they need a bucket. As long as Udoka Azubuike can stay out of foul trouble and anchor this Kansas team in the post on defense, Kansas has more than enough offensive firepower (fifth in the nation in offensive efficiency) to win this whole dang thing.
But make no mistake: It is Newman who is the difference-maker. He is the reason a Kansas team that seemed in trouble in January is sitting pretty as we near April.
"We had a lot of hard lessons early in the season," Newman said after cutting down the nets in Omaha to send Kansas to the Final Four. "We had some tough losses. But at the end of the day this is why you come to Kansas, to be in games like this, to be in moments like this… I had no question that we could get to this moment."