Kansas City, Mo. — The No.1 seeded Kansas Jayhawks (30-5) are coming into the round of 32 match up with North Carolina after beating Western Kentucky 64-57 last night.
Jeff Withey was the leading scorer with 17 points but that’s not usually the case for the Jayhawks. For the season, Ben McLemore is Kansas’ leading scorer as he averages 16.2 points per game. McLemore is the only freshman in the starting lineup. The other four starters are seniors and three of them are fifth-year seniors.
In his first NCAA tournament game, he scored 11 points and made just two field goals.
“You know, it’s just my first time on the bigger stage,” McLemore said Saturday afternoon. “Since I didn’t get to play last year, I sat out. Like I said, it was a bigger light for me. I was just trying to get my move and groove on.
“But, you know, I tried to do some things to help out my teammates. My offense wasn’t great, but I tried to help the best I could for my team.”
Perimeter game
The Jayhawks struggled from pretty much anywhere outside the painted area in Friday night’s win and didn’t make a single 3-point shot in six attempts.
North Carolina on the other hand made 11 3-pointers in their win against Villanova and will be looking to keep that success from outside going. But to do so, they’ll have to score over Kansas’ lengthy wing players.
“Probably the most important thing is for our bigs now because North Carolina, they can shoot the ball really well,” Kansas guard Naadir Tharpe said. “They play a little four-guard set. Our bigs are going to have to get out to the shooters as well.”