photo by: Paramount+

This is the promotional art for Made for March, a Paramount+ docuseries highlighting the Kansas and Michigan men's basketball teams. The first episode comes out April 4.

After rebuffing various inquiries over the years to let a documentary-style series film his Kansas basketball program, KU coach Bill Self allowed Paramount Sports Entertainment and Religion of Sports to take a peek behind the curtain.

Their crew spent much of the season filming the 2025-26 men’s basketball team at KU, along with Michigan, and both teams will be featured as part of the four-part Paramount+ series “Made for March,” which releases on Saturday.

Self explained in an interview on the CBS Sports “Eye on College Basketball” podcast on March 9 why he felt it was the right time to permit such a high level of access.

“You know how you do something and you want to at least experience everything once?” he said. “I haven’t put myself in a position to experience this because it seems like to me there’s always been something that’s going on, potentially within the program, that maybe you might not want out there quite as much.”

He cited the longstanding NCAA investigation that hung over KU until 2023 as an example, and noted that it also runs counter to his instincts to offer access in this fashion.

“And you know what, I’ve actually kind of changed a little bit in my latter years in how I think that, you know, it’s a lot easier if you can get the media to do all your work for you, as opposed to you individually having to do it,” Self said. “I’ve always understood that, but maybe even more so now.

“If you live in a glass house, you get stones thrown at you. But also, if you live in a glass house and you take care of your business, it can also be a very positive thing as well. And I like where we’re at, I like our players, and I thought this would be the perfect time for me because I don’t know how many more opportunities I have to do something like this.”

Self went on to explain in the CBS Sports interview that the depth of filming opportunities he allowed the crew went far beyond the norm to include moments in the KU locker room before games, as well as scenes of Self with his family. He said that the cameras also filmed Darryn Peterson’s efforts to work through the injuries and cramps that plagued him during the season.

“They’ve gotten access to some things that I think are interesting and positive that even the players don’t know that they were giving them access to,” Self said. “But the players have enjoyed it. They’ve enjoyed it, they’ve enjoyed getting to meet the crew, and I’ve enjoyed it too.”

While the team was in San Diego for the NCAA Tournament, the Journal-World spoke to several Jayhawks about their experiences being filmed for the documentary, which forward Justin Cross called “like a different lens of what we go through every day.”

Guard Melvin Council Jr. noted he was looking forward to seeing the Michigan side of the documentary as well and that it would all make for a great story.

“At first it was (weird),” he said. “Because we joke around a lot, we’re going to say things that we couldn’t say and stuff like that. But they told us that we could still be ourselves, they could just cut things out. So it was weird at first, but we got used to it.”

Teammate Jamari McDowell got accustomed to the crew’s presence quickly: “After maybe literally the first time, it was like ‘All right, whatever. They’re with us now.'”

“It’s been cool to get to know them,” McDowell added. “And they just randomly kind of pop up, so you just never really expect it. That way it’s more kind of genuine of who you all really are.”

Multiple players said they were eager to see in particular how the documentary depicts their time at the Players Era tournament in Las Vegas, when KU beat Notre Dame, Syracuse and Tennessee in succession over Thanksgiving week.

“It’s pretty cool,” forward Flory Bidunga said. “There is a lot to think about it, but just them following us around through our journey, I think we enjoy doing it.”

“Made for March” won’t necessarily feature a happy ending for the Jayhawks, whose season ended in the second-round with a buzzer-beater by St. John’s. Michigan’s story has not yet been written, as the Wolverines are in the Final Four and will face Arizona in the national semifinals on Saturday.