Road Hawks: OKC
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2010 Selection Sunday
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KU earns NCAA tourney's top seed
The Kansas University men's basketball team is headed to Oklahoma City to open the 2010 NCAA tournament as the nation's overall No. 1 seed.
VIDEOS: Bill Self discusses NCAA Tournament
Kansas head coach Bill Self discussed the team's seeding in the NCAA Tournament Sunday, March 14, 2010.
Kansas University’s first stop on the Road to the Final Four is 316 miles away, and plenty of Jayhawks plan to be making the trip down the Kansas Turnpike and Interstate 35.
The Jayhawks, the NCAA Tournament’s top overall seed, play at approximately 8:40 p.m. Thursday at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City. Their opponent: the Lehigh Mountain Hawks, No. 16 seed in the Midwest Region after winning both the Patriot League regular season and the postseason tournament.
People without access to KU’s official allotment of 350 tickets could be in for some competition. Also playing in Oklahoma City will be Kansas State, the No. 2 seed in the West Region. The Wildcats play against No. 15 North Texas.
KU's road trip
The bus carrying the Kansas Jayhawks into the NCAA Tournament leaves Tuesday from Allen Fieldhouse.
“We will definitely travel to Oklahoma City, bus there, on Tuesday, early afternoon, and try to get settled in by the dinner hour and then be ready to do whatever the NCAA requires us to do the next day,” Coach Bill Self said Sunday evening, discussing his team’s travel plans.
The NCAA requires each team to be available for media interviews the day before each game, and to conduct a public practice.
The Jayhawks’ public practice is set for 5:10 p.m. to 5:50 p.m. Wednesday at Ford Center.
The scene will be familiar, and not just to hometown Jayhawks C.J. and Xavier Henry. When KU has played previously in Oklahoma City, pregame pep rallies have filled Bricktown Brewery with crimson and blue.
Once again, festivities will be set to begin at the two-level restaurant and bar well before before Thursday’s tipoff, giving people ample time to make it to Ford Center. Expect the pep band to belt out “I’m a Jayhawk,” the Spirit Squad to lead cheers and Kansas University Alumni Association representatives to be handing out Jayhawk stickers.
A KU victory would lead to a gathering for alumni and fans at an as-yet-undetermined time Friday at RedPin Restaurant & Bowling Lounge, the traditional site for the alumni association’s regular-season watch parties.
The Jayhawks’ opponent in the second round would be either No. 8 UNLV or No. 9 Northern Iowa, for a chance to advance to the regionals in St. Louis. ’Hawks fans with an eye on history might be hungry for a repeat: Two years ago KU beat UNLV in the second round to advance to regionals and an eventual national championship.
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Jaylee (anonymous) says…
Obviously I am rooting for the Jayhawks, but I crunched some numbers and I've got Baylor over Lehigh in the Championship, 82-67
punkrockmom (Nikki May) says…
What TIME does the bus leave on Tuesday. Inquiring grade schoolers on spring break want to know!
kuphillyjim (anonymous) says…
would still love to know why Duke's path to the final 4 looks MUCH easier than KU'S...
i know the NCAA likes to set up matchups, but look at how they set up
1) round 2 we'll either get a Northern Iowa team that was seeded too low (or unlv, who faced KU in the tourney before (it was 08, not 09, right?)
2) round 3 they either get maryland (02 final four) or michigan state (who outsted KU last year).. i know michigan state underachieved but i fear MSU more than any of the crappy 3 seeds in this tournament
3) round 4, either the big 10 champ ohio state (while duke's #2 seed is a villanova team that collapsed at the end), or georgetown most likely...but is it coincidence they stuck ok state and tennessee, the only teams that beat KU, into their bracket?
only thing more the committe could have done was to move syracuse to a #2 seed in this region to put another orange team in there, and remind us of the 01 championship...
hesshawk (anonymous) says…
While I didn't like the draw either, if the team feels like they got jobbed, then the committee did us a favor. There's nothing more dangerous than a team with a chip on their shoulder from getting hosed by the "selection committee".
Coach Self will use this to the team's advantage. There will be no lack of focus now.........
Rock Chalk
Lambeau (anonymous) says…
OK Hawk fans...we need to rally to OKC and support the #1 team in the country. Nothing is a "given". Remember Bucknell?