KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Standing in a corridor of the T-Mobile Center after Kansas swamped West Virginia, 87-63, in the Big 12 tournament semifinals, Kansas Jayhawks senior Ochai Agbaji paused to consider the undercurrent of a moment that somehow seemed normal enough but actually was an anguishing few years in the making.
Two years before, in this round of the tournament on this very site, after all, Texas and Texas Tech had been warming up when the event was abruptly canceled. A day after the NBA shutdown catalyzed by reckless "accidental hero" Rudy Gobert testing positive for COVID-19, the Big 12's shutdown was among the first ripples that soon engulfed the entire sports world — and, of course, convulsed the world itself.
Then, last year, after KU beat Oklahoma in a quarterfinal here, Kansas withdrew because of a positive COVID test within the program, per protocols in place at the time.
So Agbaji cherished this chance, and all it implies, in ways he might otherwise not have fully appreciated.
"Haven't really felt this energy inside this building since my freshman year here," said Agbaji, who would go on to accent his Big 12 player of the year honor by being selected as the most outstanding player in the Big 12 tourney. "So definitely not taking any of this for granted. Not any moment. So that's just how it is, not taking any day or any moment here for granted."
Agbaji technically was speaking specifically about the conference tournament. But his words had broader application and resonate further as Kansas prepares to enter the NCAA Tournament carrying the top seed in the Midwest Region.
The Jayhawks will commence NCAA play on Thursday night in Fort Worth, Texas, against No. 16 seed Texas Southern.
When they tip off, this adventure might seem to mark just another episode of what has become remarkably routine: KU will be extending its NCAA record by playing in the tournament for a 32nd straight year (and 50th overall). For that matter, Kansas is holding a No. 1 seed for the ninth time in Bill Self's 19 seasons.
But it certainly would be 10 No. 1 seeds, not to mention maybe two national titles in his tenure given that KU was ranked No. 1 at the end of the 2019-20 season, if not for what happened two years ago.
That's part of why this postseason represents something rare for Kansas after all.
Because it lost a fertile opportunity when the pandemic led to the cancellation of the tournament entirely two years ago, and it was compromised by COVID last season with David McCormack and Jalen Wilson depleted in the second-round clobbering by USC.
Add in being drubbed by Auburn (on its way to the school's first Final Four) in the second round in 2019, as Self pointed out Sunday night, and this KU team is like few in recent memory.
"I don't think anybody on our team has experienced what the NCAA Tournament can potentially be like, even if they participated in it ..." said Self, pointing to last season in particular. "They didn't get to experience one day of what it's like to be a Kansas basketball player. There was no 'Late Night (In The Phog)," (and) there (were few) fans in the building. There was not as much energy.
"And you go to postseason, and it's COVID. And we're in a bubble, and we don't play well and we get sick."
There was nothing in that span, he added, where a player would have reason to say, "Playing at Kansas is pretty cool."
In fact ...
"Playing at Kansas last year was just, like, blah, because of everything else that was going on," he said. "That's a fact."
Also a fact: Kansas hasn't had a compelling tournament run since reaching the national semifinals in 2018, the last time the Jayhawks were awarded a No. 1 seed.
So if this group is to enjoy what Self considers the full KU basketball experience, "what it's really like" to play there, it needs to play well now. And, we'd add, make a run befitting such a lofty seed.
There's ample reason to think this team can do just that, especially with the way it's surging into the tournament.
Not merely because it seized the Big 12 tournament but because of the different dimensions it's been flexing the last couple weeks, including McCormack peaking, Remy Martin's riveting emergence last Saturday and an increasingly rugged mindset that even has impressed the ever-critical Self.
A team that has largely won with offense, he'll tell you, now is making the other team "feel us on most possessions." For the first time this season, he added, he often felt like the Jayhawks were "in control when the other team had the ball."
How much they'll be in control through the tournament is another matter, of course.
Being hungry after the last few seasons doesn't inoculate them, since that kind of desire surely can be found across the board. Nor is anything guaranteed by a determination to atone for last year, when their 85-51 loss to USC was the most lopsided in the school's 157 NCAA Tournament games and left Self saying, "Kansas deserves better."
Safe to say, though, that KU will look to underscore the notion of taking nothing for granted with an appreciation for seizing a moment it hasn't quite had in its grasp the last couple years.
COVID hovered over the last two March Madnesses, Wilson said the other day.
This time around, he figures Kansas can "play normal, play loose, play free" ... and perhaps make this anything but "blah."
"I'm just looking forward to our Kansas team being able to have the opportunity to play like the team that we put on the court all season long can play," Self said.
