Self on Hunter: He's far better off than the doctors even imagined, but he won't play this week.

He will practice be full speed by the start of next week and should be available for the NCAA Tournament. #Kubball

— Shreyas Laddha (@shre98) March 11, 2024

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Awesome
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Kansas will enter the Big 12 Tournament without Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCullar, Jr. Self also said that Kansas should enter the NCAA Tournament as healthy as they've been all season. #kubball

— JayhawkSlant (@JayhawkSlant) March 11, 2024

Self trying to help our seed with statements like that.
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Good. League tourney doesn't matter anyways.
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Keep taking those shots to the shoulder.
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What's this team's ceiling?

Assuming Kevin and Hunter rest all week AND are moderately healthy going into the tournament?

Sweet 16?
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Ceiling? Another championship, if their games against Houston, UConn, and Tennessee at full strength are any indication. There are very few teams in the country that can play with this starting lineup when it is healthy and motivated.

Of course, Dickinson and McCullar likely won't be moderately healthy and we'll probably run into a team that turns the game into a foulfest where depth matters and that will be the end of us.
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Honestly one could say this is the best thing that could have resulted from the Houston game. Injuries that are not enough to keep them out of the season but just enough until the NCAAs. We'll be fresh. Kind of re-energized. I'm also going to watch the Big 12 game now to see how baby Marko and McDowell do.
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I'm usually the eternal optimist and would be surprised if they make it out of the first weekend... unless maybe they play two 10+ seeds, and I might still be a little surprised.
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They can make a Final Four.

They did beat UConn, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Houston.
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Yes, but two of which were on a neutral floor early in the year, and two were at home.

I just think they're not playing great basketball.

But who knows, maybe the rest Kevin and Hunter get will heavily benefit the team, and maybe allow some of the younger guys to get some minutes, experience, and some sort of rhythm.
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Even when they were allegedly playing their good basketball earlier in the season, they were just flipping a switch against the good teams. On the whole, they never really brought it consistently the entire season and that only became more obvious as the starters were driven into the ground during conference season.

In sum, I don't think this team has really given much of a shit about most of their games for over a month now. They were looking ahead. Now their results obviously still carry some weight, but their talent level, or ceiling, is considerably higher than the average team in their position.
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I'd be okay if this is how it is.

Also, if they happen to lose the first game by some chance I won't even be upset about it this year.
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Of course, in all likelihood, they'll likely lose early. They've basically only got 5 players and two of them have major health question marks (your question assumed that both McCullar and Dickinson will be moderately healthy but they almost certainly won't be in only a week and a half; McCullar has looked awful for over a month and Dickinson just dislocated his shoulder).

If I was to bet, I'd say 2nd or 3rd round exit. And that's assuming we can take what Self said today at anything close to face value.
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Yeah, and when someone like Patrick Mahomes sleepwalks through games, everyone knows (or should know) they'll just flip that switch and know exactly what to do in high pressure/tough/close games, because they've done it many times over.

If that was truly the case with this team though, it just comes off as naive and lacking heart... it's hard to say these guys don't have anything to work on during the regular season, so yeah just fuck around because you've got this now.
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