Kansas remains among the tourney's most intriguing/mysterious teams after Bill Self announced Joel Embiid could return at some point in the NCAA tournament, possibly for the third round of games. Of course, the Jayhawks will have to make it that far. They would by beating 15 seed Western Kentucky tomorrow and the winner of New Mexico/Stanford. After that, they'd most likely play Syracuse (though I have them playing Ohio State, which I am now regretting as I watch them against Dayton).
"He's not going to play," Self told Kansascity.com, referring to this weekend's round of games. "I'm not saying there couldn't be a miraculous act occur, but we're certainly not planning on that or expecting that."
Embiid has been battling a back injury, which has recently been confirmed as a stress facture, for the last half of the season. He's missed a small batch of games along the way, including the entire Big 12 tournament.
Though the injury won't require surgery, "stress fracture" sounds like a it'll be season-ending, especially for someone with professional aspirations. I'd stay away from Kansas title picks.
The silver lining is Andrew Wiggins, who has raised his game in the center's absence. In a loss against West Virginia to close out the conference regular season, he scored 41 points in a near comeback from 20-plus points. With Wiggin's extra emergence (he was already having a great year), perhaps the Jayhawks will be that much more dangerous when Embiid returns.
Adding to that point is the way the young center scores, by alley-oop dunks, offensive boards, and other less-direct methods that won't significantly impact Wiggins' current chi (though Embid has a pretty respectable post game, too and probably should use it more).
Kansas is one of the only teams in recent memory to lose the year's projected number one draft pick and still be considered a title contender. Probably, few people are picking them, especially because they lost a fair share of games with Embiid. For the record, I picked them out in the Elite Eight. Hopefully for the fans, Kansas, and fans of Kansas, they and Embiid make it that far.
