Kansas and Villanova Battling to Put Recent Tournament Failures in the Past

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — There's an expression Bill Self stumbled upon not too long ago: "Never let the pressure exceed the pleasure."

It hit home.

Perhaps, the Kansas Jayhawks coach considered, he'd let the pressure/pleasure relationship get a bit out of whack with his last few NCAA tournament teams. Maybe it was Self himself who'd felt too much of one and not enough of the other. Either way, it could explain the Jayhawks' failure to win a game past the opening weekend of any of the last three tournaments.

As a No. 1 seed in 2013, Kansas lost to fourth-seeded Michigan in the Sweet 16. In each of the next two tournaments, the Jayhawks bowed out as No. 2 seeds—to 10th-seeded Stanford and seventh-seeded Wichita State—in the round of 32.

After this season's Jayhawks clinched the Big 12 regular-season title, Self thought it was a good time to share the expression with his players and have a conversation about its meaning.

"We've already done what we set out to do for the regular season," he told them. "Now let's just play with pleasure the rest of the way."

Steven Branscombe-USA TODAY Sports

Kansas enters Saturday's South Regional final against No. 2 seed Villanova having won 17 consecutive games, easily the longest active streak of any team that's still playing. Through three dominant tournament victories thus far, there has been nary a sign of tension or discomfort.

"Just fun," said senior Perry Ellis, who averaged 23 points per game against Austin-Peay, Connecticut and Maryland. "So much fun."

Kansas hasn't played this deep into March since 2012, when it lost to Anthony Davis and Kentucky in the national championship game. That means no Jayhawks player has played in an Elite Eight game, and the same can be said of each of the Villanova Wildcats.

Villanova's self-inflicted shortcomings has been arguably even rougher than Kansas'. The Wildcats lost in the first round in 2013; no biggie, they were seeded ninth. But then came 2014 and 2015—arguably the best two-year regular-season stretch in school history—when they went out twice in a row in the round of 32.

First, as a No. 2 seed against title-bound No. 7 seed Connecticut. Then, as a No. 1 against eighth-seeded North Carolina State.

Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press/Associated Press

"Really tough," said senior point guard and four-year starter Ryan Arcidiacono. "Those losses hurt bad. Obviously, we've tried to learn from them and not let it happen again."

Coach Jay Wright and his players elected not to change their approach, but to double-down on what they do well: Play with toughness. Make smart decisions. Keep the pace under control. Put in the work to find open shots, and bury them.

Arcidiacono calls it making the game "ugly." What went wrong in tournaments past, he said, is the Wildcats got caught trying to out-athlete more athletic teams. Throughout blowouts of UNC-Asheville, Iowa and Miami, they maintained a version of their preferred style that was dialed up to 10 on the efficiency meter. Really, it was quite beautiful.

"It's a one seed and a two seed," Wright said, "and two teams that, I think, feel very good about how they're playing."

But each team knows how insidiously—and permanently—the worm can turn in the NCAAs. Many of the players involved in Saturday's matchup will have failed individually under the harsh glare of the tournament spotlight.

Two years ago, Arcidiacono and Co. couldn't stop UConn's Shabazz Napier from going off for 25 points. Last year, 6'11" Daniel Ochefu was severely outplayed inside by NC State's far smaller Abdul-Malik Abu.

Justin K. Aller/Getty Images

And when it went bad for Josh Hart and Kris Jenkins—now the Wildcats' top two scorers—it went oh so bad. Coming off the bench in the last two tournament losses, they combined for two field goals in 71 minutes played.

But no one has had a worse time of it in tourney defeats than Kansas guard Wayne Selden Jr., a three-year starter and terrific player.

Two years ago against Stanford, freshman sensation Andrew Wiggins wasn't the only one who let down Rock Chalk Nation—Selden was nearly invisible. One might've expected him not to let history repeat itself a year later, but he was even worse against Wichita State.

Incredibly, Selden's combined stat line for those games includes all of two points and two rebounds on 1-of-10 shooting.

Sophomore guard Devonte' Graham finds that as hard to believe as anyone else would. He understands the Tourney Monster can jump up and bite nearly anyone.

"You never want to be that guy who [plays poorly] to end the season," Graham said. "But Coach has been telling us to play free, to have fun—no pressure. So we don't feel a lot of pressure right now."

	Regular Season	Conference Tournament	NCAA Tournament
Kansas	100	9	7*
Villanova	100	9	5*
			* 3 each this tournament

That's what we keep hearing, yet Kansas point guard Frank Mason III has gathered his backcourt mates in his hotel room the day before each of the team's games during this tournament. Friday was no exception.

They've gone over game plans and scouting reports on opposing players. They've quizzed one another on opponents' preferences and, of course, issued strong reminders not to let—what's it again?—the pressure exceed the pleasure.

But let's not kid ourselves: Right now, the pressure on all the remaining tournament teams is intense. And every game is guaranteed to end with even greater pain for the guys who lose.

Kansas and Villanova entered the season with hopes for a national title, and both teams have made good on their promise to this point. Both have, in fact, already succeeded by taking things a step or two further than before.

But someone has to win Saturday and someone, well, not. It'll be excruciating for the squad that goes down—not because of when it fell, but because it'll be another March of unfulfilled expectations.

Steve Greenberg has covered college sports for nearly 20 years, namely for the Sporting News and the Chicago Sun-Times. Follow him on Twitter @SLGreenberg. Recruit ratings provided by 247Sports.