You got growin’ up to do

It is time for the 2013-14 Jayhawks to grow up.

The Kansas Jayhawks will have to endure the next month (November 22nd – December 21st) without a visit in the friendly confines of Allen Fieldhouse. In that span, the Jayhawks will have to grow up and come together as a team. It may seem like an exaggeration but these six games could define the rest of the season. But the next three games in the Bahamas could be crucial to KU’s success to the three games immediately following the return home (at Colorado, at Florida and vs. New Mexico in Kansas City).

“This is a business trip,” Bill Self said about the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament on Monday during his weekly press conference. “We’re not concerned about anything other than trying to win games on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and eat good Thursday night.”

The players definitely got that memo. Frank Mason, Christian Garrett and even Jerrance Howard put out the message of a “business trip” out on Twitter.

Kansas could face a couple of difficult teams in the Bahamas. Wake Forest is 5-0, mainly because of their easy schedule, and the Jayhawks face off against them first on Thursday.

“Iowa is projected to be an eight seed; Villanova is projected to be a seven seed. Xavier and Tennessee are projected to be in the (NCAA Tournament) field,” Self said. “This is going to be a really competitive tournament, and our guys need to lace them up and have some fun. Hopefully, we can have some fun because we are winning basketball games.”

Not only will the Jayhawks have a shot at winning games but they’ll have to play three days in a row. That is something they won’t have to do the rest of the year but it will help come NCAA tournament time (two games in three days).

“Teams don’t become teams until they take a trip or do something together,” Self said. “We aren’t a team yet; no team in America is a team yet. Hopefully, this will be a time when we can grow together and go have some fun.”

While Kansas has never played in the Battle 4 Atlantis before, they have played in tournaments like it:

• In 2011-2012, Kansas went to the Maui Invitational and beat Georgetown and UCLA before falling to Duke in the championship round. That Jayhawk team went on to play in the National Championship game.
• In 2010-2011, Kansas played in the iBN Las Vegas Invitational and defeated Ohio and Arizona. That Jayhawk team went on to lose to VCU in the Elite 8.
• In 2006-2007, Kansas went to the Las Vegas Invitational and defeated Ball State and Florida. That Jayhawk team went on to lose to UCLA in the Elite 8.
• In 2005-2006, a really young and inexperienced Jayhawk team went to the Maui Invitational and lose their first two games to Arizona and Arkansas before destroying Division-2 Chaminade in the 7th place game. That Jayhawk team unexpectedly won the Big 12 by only losing three Big 12 contests and then winning the Big 12 Tournament. Unfortunately, that team ended up losing to Bradley in the first round of the NCAA tournament, but this team laid the groundwork for the team that won the 2008 National Championship.
• One of the best Kansas teams ever won the 1996 Maui Invitational by beating LSU, California and Virginia. That team went on to finish 34-2.

Bill Self also took his 2000-2001 team to the Maui Invitational and won two of three games before losing to Arizona in the final. Those teams met up again in the Elite 8 and again, Bill Self lost to Arizona (by the way, Bill Self defeated Roy Williams’ Jayhawk in the round before). That Arizona team would eventually lose to Duke in the National Championship game.

So to recap: early season tournaments in exotic places (we’re lumping Las Vegas into this discussion as an exotic place) have ended up churning out some great teams for Bill Self and Kansas. The only anomaly in this small case study is the 2005-2006 team that lost all their games to Division-1 opponents in their tropical tournament. However, it could be said that the experience gained in Maui that year helped Kansas become a team capable of winning the Big 12 (which they did). That team ended up getting shocked in the first round of the NCAA tournament but that team was really inexperienced.

And to be honest, the youth of that 2005-06 team is very similar to this year’s team at the University of Kansas. A star-studded class of Brandon Rush, Mario Chalmers, Julian Wright and Micah Downs was probably Self’s best recruiting class ever until this year’s class of Wiggins, Selden, Greene, Embiid, Mason and Frankamp.

The good news for this year’s team is that they have way more experience under their belt heading to the Bahamas than that 2005-06 team. That 05-06 team played one game before heading to Maui. This year’s team has played four contests already and they’ve also already beaten a top five team in Duke.

So what do I expect out of Kansas this week? A team coming together and winning three game in three days. That’s no small task, especially in a tropical environment that could cause cramps. We saw Perry Ellis cramp up in the Champions Classic down the stretch. Luckily, it didn’t cost the Jayhawks at all because this Kansas team has an amazing amount of depth. Bill Self may not go 12-deep every game as he cuts his rotation down but players like Greene, Frankamp and Landen Lucas will be seeing more minutes than they typically have so far.

At the end of the tournament, they should be battle tested and ready for a trip to Boulder and Gainesville. And if the Jayhawks are undefeated after those games, Kansas will have a great shot at going undefeated in the non-conference schedule (which is one of the toughest schedules in the country) and will establish themselves as a serious contender in this year’s deep NCAA field.

Which brings us back to the beginning: this Kansas team needs to grow up. Whether they like it or not, they’re going to be forced to grow up. If they can weather the storm, this Kansas team could be really good. And the great thing is, we’ll know just how good they can be in less than a month.

It’s business time.