The Kansas Jayhawks (2) have to play at least two games without Joel Embiid, the first of which being against the Eastern Kentucky Colonels (15).

Kansas may be young, but they are extremely talented and will be favored to win in both games. Should they win, they will play either Stanford or New Mexico Sunday.

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If they survive the weekend, Embiid, their breakout freshman center, would provide them with a key boost both offensively and defensively. Embiid's presence in the low post takes defensive attention off the team's more athletic scorers like Andrew Wiggins and Perry Ellis.

But like any top-seeded team, Kansas cannot let its guard down. Just this year, three double-digit seeds have upset their opponent.

"Being the underdog is always fun," Colonels' senior guard Glenn Cosey told the Associated Press, "especially if you can pull off an upset. And a lot of people seem to get with the underdog, so it should be fun."

Wiggins was heralded with unreasonable hype coming into this season that not even his 17.4 points per game could reach. He is the team's focal point on offense, but role players like Wayne Selden Jr. and Ellis will be extremely important if Kansas wants to go deep into the tournament.

"We're young. We're hungry. We want to win," Wiggins told reporters. "We're just trying to have that killer mentality. All of us just want to destroy our opponents."

Then, of course, there is Embiid and whether or not he will play at all and how effective he can be. Despite his terrific breakout season as a freshman from Cameroon, the lack of his seven-foot frame is going to leave a large hole down low for the Jayhawks.

"It does change, because we can make mistakes before and mistakes can be wiped away," Self said of missing Embiid, according to the AP. "Now, mistakes turn into layups. And so that's obviously a big difference."

Eastern Kentucky is one of the worst rebounding teams in the country and Kansas is among the best. Even without Embiid, long athletic forwards like Wiggins and Ellis can grab the boards in the low post.

Eastern Kentucky will try to make up for this deficiency by shooting three-pointers, something they have had success with. Without the big center in the low post, the Colonels could try to expose that weakness as well.