Lawrence Journal-World: Your Guide to the Final Four (03-30-18)

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YOUR GUIDE TO THE

FINAL FOUR Matchups & more inside

Nick Krug/Journal-World File Photo

No villains among this year’s Final Four coaches SAN ANTONIO — Sitting at a raised table, the Final Four head coaches talked down to media members seated in chairs, but only in a literal sense.

In a refreshing change of pace, these four coaches don’t talk down to reporters in a figurative sense.

It’s the good-guy-coaches’ Final Four. No lectures. No smugness.

No phonies hellbent on using every second of the spotlight to push crafted images and selfish agendas.

In order, Porter Moser, John Beilein, Bill Self and Jay Wright took questions from the media Thursday inside the Alamodome, and all of them came across as grounded, happy to be there and not expecting anybody to be kissing their rings or anything else.

Ask them a question, and they’ll give you an answer without

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condescension, without intent to belittle.

A sampling of questions and answers with Final Four head coaches, starting with Loyola of Chicago’s Moser, who was asked what impact losing his job at Illinois State had on his life: “Adversity doesn’t have to define you,� Moser said. “And some of the worst things that have happened in my life, starting at a young age, some of the best things have followed. And I’m proud of that and

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it’s become who I am. And the more you tackle adversity, the more confidence you have to face adversity.�

The first great thing for Moser after being fired by Illinois State was he was able to go to work for the late Rick Majerus at St. Louis University.

Moser was asked about the lack of facilities at Loyola. The men’s and women’s basketball and men’s and women’s volleyball teams share one gym. “So I had my immature stage where I (complained) about it for a long time,� Moser said. “And then, I matured a little bit, because the message I was always telling our guys is you’ve got to control what you can control. And we couldn’t control it. So we’d find ways to get extra shooting in.�

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VILLANOVA HEAD COACH JAY WRIGHT, LEFT, AND KANSAS HEAD COACH BILL SELF have a laugh in the hallway while waiting to do a joint interview on Thursday at the Alamodome in San Antonio.

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Kansas’ star guard brings speed.

Villanova’s brings power.

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DEVONTE’ GRAHAM vs. JALEN BRUNSON

By Matt Tait

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(Graham has) played against the best. But he hasn’t played against the national player of the year.”

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mtait@ljworld.com

— Kansas coach Bill Self

SAN ANTONIO — The way Kansas basketball coach Bill Self sees it, KU point guard Devonte’ Graham has prepared for Saturday’s Final Four showdown with Villanova point guard Jalen Brunson about 10 times already this season and nearly two dozen times before.

Sure, Graham’s first steps onto the Alamodome floor on Saturday night will be the first such steps of his storied KU career. But the 7:49 p.m. tipoff will be far from the first time Graham takes the court with an elite point guard staring him down on the opposing bench.

“I think, if you look at our league as a whole, 40 percent of our teams had a point guard that was an All-American,” Self said on Thursday, referencing fellow Big 12 standouts Trae Young, Jevon Carter and Keenan Evans. “So, obviously, he’s as prepared as anybody could be, playing nine or 10 games

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(against elite talent), plus (Duke’s Trevon) Duval last week. So he’s played against the best. But he hasn’t played against the national player of the year.”

Graham will get that chance on Saturday night when he battles Brunson, who, on Thursday, was named The Associated Press player of the year at a brief ceremony at the Alamodome.

Both Self and Graham said they believed Brunson deserved the award — and others like it — and added that finding a way to frustrate the Villanova point guard would both present Graham with a tremendous challenge and be a huge key on Saturday night.

Here’s the thing about this matchup, though: It’s not exactly a ready-made, tale-of-thetape sort of clash.

For one, Graham (6-foot-2,

185 pounds) and Brunson (6-3, 190) are viewed as almost completely different players. For two, neither player cares much about how he fares against the other. Each only cares about whether his team will prevail.

Graham has a quick first step and is deadly from long range, and Brunson is physical all over the floor and a problem in the post. The two All-Americans have five times as many differences as they have similarities.

That includes the way they’ve been preparing for this weekend’s monster matchup.

When the top-seeded Jayhawks (31-7) first sent their defense onto the floor to face their red team, which was running Villanova’s offense, Graham found himself in unfamiliar territory.

Used to stalking opposing guards around the perimeter and battling to keep them

from getting by him into the paint, Graham’s first possession against the mock Villanova offense began near the basket, where Brunson does some of his best and most damaging work.

“Little Charlie, he’s been posting me up,” said Graham of KU transfer Charlie Moore, who, in addition to being generously listed at 5-foot-11 in the KU media guide, has been emulating Brunson in practice this week. “His post game, it’s not like Jalen’s. It’s not comparable.

But he’s been trying.”

Villanova coach Jay Wright said Brunson, the son of former Temple star and NBA player Rick Brunson, arrived on campus as complete a player as he had ever signed. And part of the reason for that was his wise-beyond-his-years post game.

“The footwork he has in the post, he brought with him,” Wright said. “He really did. I think what we did was try to utilize his post game a little more.”

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one of them has taken Graham into the post. B r u n s o n will. And Graham knows it.

“We get individual clips of everybody,” he said of the KU scouting report. “So you watch them and you get to see the moves that he likes to do and, when he posts up, what he likes to do. So I’ll definitely look at that a little bit more.”

Holding his spot will be far harder for Graham against Brunson than it has been against Moore, but the KU transfer said he thought Graham had shown some savvy down low in defending everything Moore has thrown at him.

“With Jalen, that’s what he does in the game,” Moore explained. “So I was posting, trying to get the guys in the right spots like Jalen does, and Devonte’s done pretty good so far. I thought he held his own. It’s going to be a great matchup. He’s been on the biggest stage in college basketball since he’s been in college. So he’s built for it and ready.”

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KANSAS GUARD MALIK AGAINST CLEMSON FO NEWMAN (14) SWOOPS IN FOR A BUCKET RW FIRST HALF OF THE JA ARD ELIJAH THOMAS (14) DURING THE THE TIGERS MARCH 23 YHAWKS’ SWEET 16 MATCHUP AGAINST AT CENTURYLINK CENT ER IN OMAHA, NEB.

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MALIK NEWMAN vs. PHIL BOOTH

By Scott Chasen lll

schasen@ljworld.com SAN ANTONIO — Malik Newman’s childhood basketball court was nothing like the one he’ll see on Saturday.

It was some dirt, a tree and the remnants of a bicycle.

“I had a bike tire. I broke the little spurs or whatever it’s called,” Newman said. “I broke that off and I put it on a tree.”

Well, that wasn’t the only option in Newman’s neighborhood.

There was a court around the corner, and a rambunctious Newman was more than ready to get serious about basketball.

“But the big kids never let me play with them,” Newman said. “I used to go home crying and stuff.”

Undeterred, Newman took his ball and shot in his dirt backyard. If it rained, he recalled, he couldn’t play for a few days. Then something else happened, making it

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Kansas’ red-hot guard will take on Villanova’s lockdown defender:

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I think Newman is the final piece now.

He’s become arguably as scary as (Devonte’) Graham.”

— Villanova coach Jay Wright

a little trickier for him to put up shots.

“I used to climb up the tree and dunk,” Newman said. “So I broke the rim and (my dad) ended up buying me a real goal.”

No such purchases will need to be made on Saturday.

Newman is no longer the child lighting up his backyard hoop. If there was a schoolyard-style draft of the NCAA tournament, it’d be hard to imagine anyone being picked higher.

In the last three rounds of the tournament, Newman is averaging 25.7 points and 5.7 rebounds, while knocking down 13 3-pointers. The redshirt sophomore has raised his game to a new level since the beginning of postseason play, scoring 20 points in five of seven games and even hitting the 30-point threshold twice.

“I think Newman is the final piece now,” said Villanova coach Jay Wright.

“He’s become arguably as scary as (Devonte’) Graham.”

While Newman enters the Final Four as perhaps the hottest offensive player in the country, on the other side will sit one of the most battle-tested perimeter defenders, at least when it comes to Big 12 point guards.

Villanova’s Phil Booth spent his Sweet 16 chasing around West Virginia’s Jevon Carter. In the Elite Eight, he was matched up with Texas Tech’s Keenan Evans.

He didn’t guard the two for the entire game, but both fell well short of their usual offensive marks.

Carter, averaging 17.3 points on 42.2 percent shooting this season, was held to a postseason-low

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12 points on 5 for 16 shooting (31.3 percent). Evans, averaging 17.6 points on 47.1 percent shooting, shot just 3 for 14 (21.4 percent) and finished with 12 points.

“We’re playing the best of the best,” Booth said, before being asked about Newman. “He’s as hot as it gets.”

Earlier in the year, though, both teams suffered their bumps and bruises.

Aside from the Jayhawks’ early season struggles, Booth, who scored 20 points in Villanova’s national championship win over North Carolina, fractured a bone in his right hand during a Jan. 23 game against Providence.

An already tight Villanova rotation got a little tighter. Booth, averaging 30 minutes per game, missed the next seven contests. Villanova went 5-2, dropping games to St. John’s (79th according to kenpom.com) and at Providence (64th), which ended up proving crucial as the team missed out on a share of the Big East

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championship by a single game.

Booth’s numbers don’t jump off the page, but his return added another element to the Wildcats, especially defensively.

“My man Boothie, in his career, he’s been through so much, so many injuries,” said Kris Jenkins, who drilled the national championship-winning 3-pointer for the Wildcats back in 2016. “And for him to have the mental toughness and the focus and the attitude to always bounce back and come back tougher, stronger, mentally stronger, I think it’s just a testament to him and his family.”

It remains to be seen if Booth will attempt to check Newman on Saturday or if the Villanova guard will end up chasing Graham around.

As of Thursday afternoon, the Wildcats had yet to assign individual matchups, while various

players, including recently named AP national player of the year Jalen Brunson, were tasked with mirroring a variety of KU guards in practice.

One way or another, though, Saturday’s game will see the two share the court. The only thing up in the air is whether or not they’ll accept the praise bestowed upon them.

Sitting at his locker in the Villanova locker room, Booth shooed away a question about his defensive talent, saying the Wildcats are simply a strong defensive team.

As for Newman, he was asked about becoming the NCAA tournament’s biggest star.

“Who, me?” Newman responded, flashing a look of surprise. “Nah, I wouldn’t say I’m the star of the tournament. But I’ll say it’s coach (Bill) Self.”

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KANSAS CENTER UDOKA AZUBUIKE (35) COMES IN FOR A DUNK DURING THE SECOND HALF OF KU’S SECONDROUND NCAA TOURNAMENT MATCHUP AGAINST SETON HALL ON MARCH 17 IN WICHITA.

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UDOKA AZUBUIKE vs. OMARI SPELLMAN

By Bobby Nightengale lll

bnightengale@ljworld.com SAN ANTONIO — Udoka Azubuike has faced some of the most talented big men in the country this season: Duke’s Wendell Carter Jr., Seton Hall’s Angel Delgado, West Virginia’s Sagaba Konate and Texas’ Mo Bamba, among others.

Azubuike’s Final Four matchup against Villanova big man Omari Spellman will present some new challenges when the two teams play at 7:49 p.m. Saturday at the Alamodome. Spellman, listed at 6-foot-9, 245 pounds, has the size to fight for position in the paint, but he’s not afraid to stretch the floor by shooting 3-pointers.

During the NCAA Tournament, Spellman made 9 of his

19 attempts (47 percent) from behind the arc in four games.

He’s capable of playing on the perimeter, forcing opposing big men out of their usual defensive positions in the low post.

“It’s going to be different because I’m normally guarding dudes that play in the paint,” the 7-foot, 280-pound Azubuike said.

Spellman, named the Big East freshman of the year, had 18 points and eight rebounds in a Sweet 16 victory over West Virginia. In the Elite Eight vs.

Texas Tech, he added another 11 points and six rebounds.

From Cleveland, Ohio, Spellman leads the Wildcats (34-4) with his 44.6 percent shooting from the 3-point line. Not many forwards can defend centers and find comfort at the 3-point line. Plus, he ranked fourth in the Big East in rebounding.

“I played with a lot of guys that can shoot the ball,” Azubuike said.

“All I have to do is not (foul).

They do a lot of jump fakes and all that stuff, so just stay on my feet, play defense and move my feet.”

Spellman, a redshirt freshman who dropped 45 pounds since arriving on campus by focusing on his eating choices, said the most important keys in defending Azubuike are not allowing him to become comfortable with his post position and to keep him away from offensive rebounding opportunities.

He knows it’s usually easier said than done when it comes to preventing lobs around the rim.

“You have to make sure you keep him off the offensive glass,” Spellman said. “A lot of times, he just pushes you under and gets offensive rebounds. I can’t allow him to have a big

offensive rebounding night against us on game day.”

Spellman, who leads Villanova with 56 blocks, said he’s not focusing on trying to force Azubuike into foul trouble — “I’m not trying to bait him into fouling me or play mind games with him.” Azubuike fouled out in his last two games and had four fouls in KU’s secondround win against Seton Hall.

For Azubuike, he’s confident that his athleticism will allow him to defend Villanova’s group of versatile forwards, highlighted by Spellman. Whether they try to post up near the bottom of the lane or force him to

run along the perimeter, he’s grateful for the chance to play in the Final Four.

“We always dreamed about this, man,” Azubuike said. “Every kid that’s in high school right now, that’s planning on going to college, all they are dreaming about is making it to this stage; to be right where I am right now. It’s a blessing.”

Azubuike’s mom coming to visit for the first time

By Bobby Nightengale banightengale@ljworld.com

SAN ANTONIO — Udoka Azubuike paused for a couple of seconds, smiling with his eyes trained toward the locker room floor, but his mind racing to a moment he’s dreamed about for years.

Azubuike, a sophomore center, has helped lead the Jayhawks to a spot in the Final Four. All of it with a goal in mind of trying to make life better for all of his relatives in Nigeria.

Still only 18 years old, he hasn’t seen his mother since he left for the United States about six years ago. Communication is difficult via FaceTime or Facebook because of the internet connection back home. The NCAA will pay up to $3,000 in travel expenses for players’ families to watch the Final Four, and that means Azubuike’s mom, Florence Azuonuwu, will watch him play basketball for the first time.

Not just the first time at

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Graham agreed and said he had not yet sought much advice on how to play post defense, other than what had come from the coaches during practice and in the scouting report.

“I’m going to just have to fight it out, man,” Graham said. “I’m going to have to battle. It ain’t too much more than that.”

In the other locker room, the Wildcats have taken a much different approach to preparing for Graham. And, at times,

‘‘

It’s going to be an emotional moment for me. I don’t know how I’m going to handle it.”

— Udoka Azubuike

Kansas. She’s never seen him play basketball, ever.

“It’s going to be an emotional moment for me,” said Azubuike, still smiling at the idea of it all. “I don’t know how I’m going to handle it.”

The KU athletic department confirmed Azubuike’s mom will be in attendance Saturday, crediting U.S. Sens. Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran and U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder, all from Kansas. The school additionally thanked U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria Stuart Symington IV; Cecily Brewer, of the U.S. Department of State; and Sherman Grandy, Laura Fields, Megan Moore and Carol Cox, of the U.S. Consulate in Lagos, Nigeria.

Azubuike said his mother was

it has even included Brunson operating as the All-American he’ll face on Saturday night.

“We’ve all switched off on it,” Brunson said. “Even I had to do it ... (Graham is) really hard to emulate and he’s such a complete player. He does a lot for their team.”

Former Villanova guard Mike Nardi, now a member of Jay Wright’s coaching staff, explained the reason for using Brunson on the scout team during ‘Nova’s practices.

“You can only have so much time on the floor,” Nardi said. “And if you have a guy sitting out, they’re not as involved.

expected to fly Thursday from an embassy in Nigeria to France.

Afterward, she will travel to the United States, and he was hopeful she could arrive in San Antonio by tonight.

“She don’t know nothing about college basketball,” Azubuike said. “She’s probably seen a little clip about basketball, but she really don’t understand it, so it’s going to be fun.”

Sitting in front of a horde of media members Thursday afternoon, Azubuike, the youngest child in his family, proudly talked about his mom. She’s a teacher at a middle school in Nigeria. She raised him and his four siblings.

He moved to the United States because he said it wasn’t always safe to live there. When

(This way), they’re learning it on both sides. But we can’t make this about their one-on-one battle, because Kansas is a ridiculously good team.

And people would say the same about us.”

Asked over and over on Thursday about the matchup and to break down each other’s styles, the two point guards actually started to sound a lot alike.

“He’s a great player,” Graham said of Brunson.

“He’s unbelievably poised and he knows how to get his own shot and get shots for others.”

Added Brunson on Graham: “He’s a great player, he’s a great shooter, he gets

he was leaving, his mom, who he mentioned is very religious, put a Bible in his hands and told him, “Don’t forget this.”

“We had a lot of hardships over there and there was a lot of bad stuff happening,” Azubuike said. “It just wasn’t good for me. When the opportunity came for me to travel out to the U.S. to play basketball and to go to school, I didn’t think twice about it and my mom was pretty excited about it, too.”

Azubuike said his mom talked to a bishop in Jacksonville to arrange his high school career at Potter’s House Christian Academy. That was the first time he played organized basketball outside of a camp and some individual instruction in Lagos, Nigeria’s biggest city.

On the phone, he said he talks to his mom about once every three weeks. He said she speaks Ika, a language commonly spoken in southern Nigeria. Sometimes, he’ll send messages on Facebook to his sister, who will

his teammates involved.

We both want the same things: For us to lead our teams to be successful.”

Some have compared Brunson’s game to that of former 18-year NBA point guard Andre Miller. Graham, a fan of the game for as long as he could remember, said that was a fair comparison.

“I think he does have a little throwback game to him,” Graham said. “He’s real poised. He’s not going to outquick you and stuff like that. His IQ is just real high and he plays off of that.”

Brunson had similar praise for Graham’s game and said he felt as if the two

pass them on to his mom.

“He lost his father, I think, when he was in seventh or eighth grade,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “So, if you can imagine, she loved her son so much that she sent him away when he’s 14 or 13 years old. Because Dok, he just turned 18 years old. So how hard would that be?”

Playing in front of 16,300 fans at each home game at Allen Fieldhouse, Azubuike has dreamed about the day when his mom would be in the stands.

Balancing the excitement of seeing his mom and playing in the biggest game of his career, he says it’ll be hard to contain his emotions. But it’s everything he’s always worked toward.

“She’s been through a lot back home raising five kids without a dad, just my mom,” Azubuike said. “That’s what I do it for, man. I just want to be successful. My mom, thinking about what I’ve been through and how my mom raised us, that motivates me a lot.”

were almost kindred spirits in that they’re seniors and have always put the team’s needs over any of their own.

“He deserves everything (he’s received) and more,” Brunson said of Graham.

“His career over the past four years has been great.”

Said Wright of Graham: “I think Devonte’ clearly is the best combination of scorer and distributor of probably any point guard. I think he and Jalen are the two best in the country ... Great leaders. And you can tell their teammates really respect them.”

Those traits, which served Graham incredibly well during the 141 games

of his Kansas career that brought him to this point, have played a huge role in helping Kansas get back to the Final Four. And sophomore guard and Graham running mate Malik Newman said the Jayhawks always have taken a great deal of pride in following their fearless leader into battle, no matter who he was lined up against.

“I think he takes those matchups very personally,” Newman said of Graham’s previous battles with bona fide stars.

Added Kansas forward Mitch Lightfoot: “As a college basketball fan, you have to be excited for this matchup.”

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Friday, March 30, 2018

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FINAL FOUR PREVIEW

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FINAL FOUR PREVIEW

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Friday, March 30, 2018

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LAGERALD VICK vs. MIKAL BRIDGES

By Tom Keegan

‘‘

He’s good on defense. He tries to get his hands on loose balls, 50-50 balls, doing the smart things.”

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tkeegan@ljworld.com

— Lagerald Vick, on Villanova’s Mikal Bridges

SAN ANTONIO — This Final Four, devoid of one-and-done players and featuring 13 out of 20 starters who are juniors and seniors, has a throwback feel to it. Work hard and your turn will come.

One matchup in the KansasVillanova national semifinal captures that theme as well as any.

Kansas junior Lagerald Vick and Villanova redshirt junior Mikal Bridges combined for 91 minutes of playing time in their first year on scholarship, all 91 played by Vick.

Bridges is a basketball rarity, going from redshirt in his first year to projected lottery pick in his fourth.

A 6-foot-7 native of Philadelphia, Bridges blends a 7-foot wingspan, quick feet, explosive leaping ability and a soft shooting touch.

He ranks second on the Wildcats in scoring (17.8), rebounding (5.4), blocked shots (1.1) and 3-point percentage (.436), and leads the team with 1.5 steals per game.

Bridges played 26 minutes off the bench and had a big hand in Villanova’s 64-59 elimination of Kansas in the Elite Eight two years ago in Louisville, Ky. He totaled six points, three rebounds a n d

a season-high five steals, including a huge one late in the game.

“When I was young, I just came in and ran around, just diving everywhere, being that energy guy,” Bridges said.

“Now, I have a role where I have to be aggressive, but I have to be solid on both ends and try to make the right play on both ends, rebound even better.”

Stardom hasn’t dulled Bridges’ desire to do the dirty work, according to Vick.

“He’s good on defense,” Vick said of Bridges. “He tries to get his hands on loose balls, 50-50 balls, doing the smart things.”

Vick, who did not get off the bench in the Elite Eight game two years ago, added that Bridges is, “kind of long, plays inside out, always looking to score. He’s aggressive. He does a lot of different things.

He’s very skilled.”

Bridges’ lack of shooting skill and thin frame were factors in him redshirting his first season at Villanova. The coaching staff retooled his shot and he has put on 25 pounds, expanding to 210. Some draft

analysts project him to be a lottery pick, quite an achievement for a former redshirt.

How did he do it?

“A lot of hard work with my coaches, a lot of being mentally tough,” Bridges said. “It was very tough, but I had my friends, my teammates, my parents, my coaches would always be on my side. My coaches helped me out, especially in the spring and the summer, a lot of offensive work and our strength and conditioning coach helped me get a lot stronger.”

Asked for his impressions of Vick, Bridges said he saw in the Memphis native a similar improvement to his own.

“He kept getting better and better,” Bridges said. “... He does everything: catch and shoot, score off penetration, back cuts really well, moves without the ball, defends. He should be talked about more.

He’s a real good player.”

Donte’ DiVincenzo plays 29 minutes per game off the bench and could be matched up

against Vick at times.

“Great player,” DiVincenzo said of Vick.

“He’s an amazing player, freak athlete, and he does all the little things. They have a lot of guards who get a lot of publicity, a lot of media attention, but he’s one of those guys who holds them together. If you don’t have a guy like that, a guy willing to take that role, it’s kind of hard to get to this point. They have that guy and they can lean on him for that.”

In the four tournament games, Vick is averaging 13.5 points and has shot .476 on 3-pointers.

Vick said he considers himself a better defensive than offensive player and said he considers denying his man the ball to be what he does best.

Marcus Garrett, one of the team’s better perimeter defenders, weighed in on Vick’s defense.

“When he’s active and alert, he’s one of our best,” Garrett said. “And he’s been that way ever since the start of the tournament.”

Three years ago, Vick was a junior in high school, working toward graduating a year early.

Bridges was learning

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ournal-W orld and how AP File P hotos to shoot and get stronger in the weight room.

Two years ago, Vick was a benchwarmer. Neither player let impatience bring him down.

“I always had that fight in me, never giving up,” Vick said. “I learned it from my family. Coach T (Kurtis Townsend) helped me out a lot, coach Rob (Norm Roberts), coach (Jerrance) Howard, even Frank (Mason). A lot of people pushed me to stick with it, wait my turn. It was important for me not to be one of those guys who just gives up, so I stayed with it, kept a positive attitude.”

Now, he’ll hear his name called as a starter with 70,000 in attendance for a Final Four game in the Alamodome, as will Bridges.

BY THE NUMBERS:

Points: Rebounds: 3-point %:

MYKHAILIUK

PASCHALL

14.7 4.0 .447

10.3 5.3 .333

A matchup on both sides of the arc:

Journal-World and AP File Photos

SVI MYKHAILIUK vs. ERIC PASCHALL

By Benton Smith lll

basmith@ljworld.com SAN ANTONIO — Whenever Bill Self and his assistants sit down with Kansas players to put a preliminary game plan in place for the next opponent, there is a running joke about the matchups.

Devonte’ Graham, KU’s point guard, will defend the other team’s point guard. Malik Newman, the Jayhawks’ shooting guard, will check his counterpart. And so on, down the line.

“And then our power guy, Svi,” Self will banter with Mykhailiuk, a senior guard from Ukraine, “you’re going to guard their power guy.”

The assignment isn’t just a wisecrack, of course. All

Coaches CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1AA

Ground will be broken for the Alfie Norville Practice Gym this spring, named after a former Loyola player.

Michigan’s Beilein has said that winning the national title isn’t the goal and reaching the Final Four isn’t the goal, so what drives him?

season, Kansas (31-7) has relied on its four-guard lineup, winning the Big 12 regular and postseason titles and reaching the Final Four as a result, with Mykhailiuk defending opposing big men along the way.

“I’ve been doing this for a whole year,” Mykhailiuk said Thursday, inside KU’s Alamodome locker room, “so I just got used to it.”

A few days ago, Mykhailiuk, a 6-foot-8 guard listed at 205 pounds, helped the Jayhawks get out of the Elite Eight while sticking with Duke’s 6-11 NBA lottery pick-to-be, Marvin Bagley III. Although the senior from Ukraine’s assignment against Villanova on Saturday night doesn’t look as daunting on the surface, it could provide its own unique challenges, with the Wildcats (34-4) playing a

“The Big Ten Championship drives me,” Beilein said. “That’s what I think everybody in Michigan is (driven by) — if you win a Big Ten Championship in any way, then you can win a national championship.

“But after that, it’s about breaks and anything can happen. But that’s how I want to be judged at Michigan: Did we compete for Big Ten championships? And that’s how I sort of term our success.

And then, when you’re

more perimeter-oriented offense than the Blue Devils.

Mykhailiuk likely will spend much of the national semifinal defending Eric Paschall, a 6-9, 250-pound junior who can play forward or guard and score in the paint or from beyond the arc (10.3 points per game, 31for-93 on 3-pointers).

“He’s really strong and a really good driver, and he can shoot the ball. He’s a two-way player,” Mykhailiuk said of Paschall, who has only led Villanova in scoring twice this season, but has delivered 22 double-figure scoring games.

KU’s starting “power guy” will have to defend Paschall as a driver, shooter and post player.

Conversely, keeping Mykhailiuk (14.7 points per game, 44.7-percent 3-point shooter) in check won’t be

all done with that, that you competed for the Big Ten championship, did those kids grow, did they get better, are they better men on and off the court?

That’s what drives me.”

Self was asked about how he plans to manage the emotions of Udoka Azubuike, who is looking forward to seeing his mother for the first time since moving to the United States to improve as a basketball player.

“That’s a great question,

easy for Paschall.

Asked whether he had matched up with such a proficient shooter this season, the Villanova junior took a long pause before comparing Mykhailiuk to two of the best players in the Big East, 6-7 Butler forward Kelan Martin and 6-6 Xavier wing Trevon Bluiett.

“He’s definitely that caliber of a player,” Paschall said of Mykhailiuk. “He’s very good.

He gets them going. He’s very solid. He can shoot the heck out of the ball.”

The AP Player of the Year, junior Villanova point guard Jalen Brunson, said the Wildcats trust their inside-outside fourth perimeter defender to do his part against Mykhailiuk or any other Kansas guard he ends up guarding after switches.

“I trust him with all my

because (Azubuike) hasn’t seen his mother in almost six years. And he lost his father, I think, when he was in seventh- or eighthgrade,” Self said. “So, if you can imagine, she loved her son so much that she sent him away when he’s 14 or 13 years old, because Dok, he just turned 18 years old. So how hard would that be?

“And we want to win the game, but is winning the game more important than to make sure there’s not a little distraction for

heart,” Brunson said. “Eric can defend anybody. He does a great job of holding it down and really being able to make it difficult for whoever he’s guarding. Even on the helpside.”

Paschall’s help positioning could be critical against the Jayhawks. The junior said he can’t really afford to key in on Mykhailiuk, because Graham, Newman and Lagerald Vick all can knock down 3-pointers, too.

Similarly, Mykhailiuk and his teammates know each of Villanova’s top seven players can shoot from outside. But most can and will post up, as well.

“They use a lot of different lineups. Sometimes, I’m going to guard a big man, sometimes, I’m going to guard a guard,” Mykhailiuk said, “so it’s going to be a little bit different.”

Dok? Of course not.”

Villanova’s Wright answered a question about how rewarding it is to see players develop off the court.

“Our guys want to be great players. They want to win championships,” Wright said. “They want to go to the NBA. And what we try to teach them is if you’re only trying to be a good basketball player, you’re not going to be the best basketball player you can be. You’ve got to

care about what kind of student you are, what kind of person you are.

“And I think our guys understand that. And so we really spend probably more time in that area than we do on basketball, because the basketball part is easy.”

Fan bases of all four schools want to win it all, naturally. Supporters of the three schools that don’t win the national title can at least take solace in knowing their favorite coach didn’t lose to a jerk.

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