DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Kansas earned the top overall seed for the NCAA tournament without getting much of anything from Svi Mykhailiuk.

If the Ukranian guard steps up, look out.

Mykhailiuk scored a career-high 23 points on 9-of-11 shooting and Perry Ellis had 21, leading the Jayhawks to a 105-79 victory over Austin Peay on Thursday.

Landen Lucas added 16 points for the Jayhawks (31-4), who will face Connecticut on Saturday with a chance to return to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2013.

“We played pretty well in stretches. Didn’t guard as well as we needed to guard to have a chance to advance past Saturday,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “So we’ve got to tighten that up. I do like how our bench played.”

Kansas, the No. 1 seed in the South Region, jumped ahead by 20 by halftime and cruised to its 10th straight win in an NCAA tournament opener.

Josh Robinson scored 24 points for the Governors (18-18), who learned quickly that the magic they leaned on to win four straight and the Ohio Valley title was no match for the talented Jayhawks.

“I think it’s pretty clear Kansas is obviously a really talented basketball team. Great size, athletic ability,” Austin Peay coach Dave Loos said.

Kansas entered this year’s tournament as one of the favorites to win it all after dominating the brutal Big 12 for most the season. Self is looking for his second national championship, and the Jayhawks got off to a strong start by dismantling the overmatched Governors.

The most promising development was the play of Mykhailiuk.

Mykhailiuk, an 18-year-old reserve whose production often has failed to live up to his promise, didn’t even score in wins over Baylor and West Virginia in the recent Big 12 tournament. But he hit three of his first four 3-point attempts, and his three-point play early in the second half helped put Austin Peay away after it closed to 61-44.

“It’s like that all the time in practice. He didn’t surprise me because I see it all the time from him,” Kansas forward Jamari Traylor said. “He’s just got to stay confident like this.”

Kansas star Wayne Selden, who averaged a paltry 2.5 points in four previous NCAA tournament games and was shut out in a loss to Wichita State last March, also impressed with seven points in the first 12 minutes. He finished with 14 points.

Any hope the Governors had at pulling off a monumental upset, or even staying close, was done in by a brutal start from the floor. Austin Peay hit just seven of its first 24 shots, with many of those misses from close range.

Chris Horton had 14 points and 10 rebounds in his final game for the Governors.

TIP-INS

Kansas: Even though Kansas was barely bothered by the Governors, Self was his usual animated, well, self. After a rare Mykhailiuk mistake, Self screamed “Svi! What are you doing? Good God!”…The Jayhawks shot 56 percent from the field.

Austin Peay: The Governors fell to 2-8 in the NCAA Tournament. Their last win came in 1987 over Illinois, 68-67. … Austin Peay actually led for 1:18 in the first half before Kansas got rolling.

STAR POWER

Mykhailiuk didn’t score at all in the NCAA tournament last season. But he was the best player on the floor at times on Thursday, hitting four 3s and shooting 5-of-6 from inside 20 feet.

STAT LINES

The Governors were just 4-of-15 from 3-point range. But surprisingly, they got the free-throw line 10 more times than Kansas and went 25 of 37. … Devonte Graham went scoreless for Kansas but dished out six assists.

UP NEXT

Kansas will face ninth-seeded Connecticut in the second round on Saturday.

— Associated Press —

LAWRENCE, Kan. – It’s official: Kansas has been selected as the overall No. 1 seed in the upcoming NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, CBS revealed during its Selection Show on Sunday evening.

The top-ranked Jayhawks will begin their NCAA-leading 27th consecutive appearance in the tournament against Ohio Valley Conference tournament champion Austin Peay (18-17) in the first round on Thursday (3 p.m. Central, TNT) in Des Moines, Iowa, at Wells Fargo Arena. The winner of the first-ever meeting between Kansas and Austin Peay will face the winner of No. 8 seed Colorado (22-11) and No. 9 seed Connecticut (24-10) in the second round on Saturday.

Kansas (30-4, 15-3 Big 12) enters the NCAA Championship as the undisputed No. 1-ranked team after winning 14-straight games, including the Big 12 tournament title with a win over No. 9 West Virginia on Saturday, and its unprecedented 12th-straight Big 12 regular-season title. The Jayhawks have a program-best 11 wins over opponents ranked in the Associated Press Top 25, including a 4-0 mark against top-10 opponents.

This is the seventh-straight season that the Jayhawks have earned a No. 1 or No. 2 seed. In Bill Self’s 13 seasons, KU has never been seeded lower than fourth. Kansas has been a one-seed 12 times (1986, 1992, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2002, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2016).

Overall, the Jayhawks are making their 45th NCAA Championship appearance. KU is 97-43 all-time in NCAA postseason games, including 30 Sweet 16 appearances and 14 trips to the Final Four.

Kansas is one of seven Big 12 Conference teams to earn an NCAA Championship bid, marking just the seventh time in NCAA history that 70 percent of a league was selected. The seven teams tied the ACC, Big Ten, and Pac-12 for the conference with the most programs represented in the tournament.

In all, KU faced 11 NCAA tournament teams in 2015-16. Self, the USA Today National Coach of the Year, guided his Jayhawks through a non-conference schedule that included No. 2 seed Michigan State, No. 4 seed Kentucky, No. 7 seed Oregon State, No. 11 seed Vanderbilt, and No. 16 seed Holy Cross.

— KU Athletics —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Bill Self still remembers the day Devonte Graham stepped foot on the Kansas campus, back when the point guard was trying to decide where he was going to play college basketball.

“I told him when he visited, `You’re going to own this place if you just come in and try hard,” Self recalled with a smile. “His attitude is just a 10 and I think it’s rubbed off on others.”

His game has turned into a 10, too.

Graham matched a career-high with 27 points Saturday night, Wayne Selden Jr. added 21, and the top-ranked Jayhawks overcame a remarkable performance by West Virginia’s Devin Williams for an 81-71 victory over the No. 9 Mountaineers in the Big 12 Tournament title game.

Perry Ellis added 17 points for the Jayhawks (30-4), who almost certainly locked up the No. 1 overall seed for the NCAA Tournament by winning their 10th Big 12 Tournament championship.

“I felt like we played well,” said Graham, the game net hanging around his neck. “We just have to keep playing the way we’ve been playing. Play better. Keep the confidence we have. Keep this momentum going.”

Kansas trailed the Mountaineers (26-8) at the break before seizing control, and it was Graham who made the difference. He hit five 3-pointers, was 10 of 10 from the foul line and had a four steals while helping his teammates through the Mountaineers’ trademark pressure.

“I can’t put it into words,” Graham said. “It’s a good feeling.”

Williams finished with a career-best 31 points and 10 rebounds, but the junior forward was forced to carry the load by himself. Jevon Carter was held to four points after scoring 26 in a semifinal win over No. 6 Oklahoma, and leading scorer Jaysean Paige managed just six points while committing four turnovers.

“We came here to win a championship and we fell short,” Paige still. “Time to go back to work.”

With supporters and protesters of Republican presidential contender Donald Trump trading barbs just down the street, two teams intimately familiar with each other spent the first 20 minutes trading baskets.

Trading turnovers, too. They combined for 24 of those in the first half.

Williams was the difference-maker, scoring 18 points on 7-for-7 shooting. That helped the Mountaineers cover a 0-for-7 performance from beyond the arc and forge a 33-32 halftime advantage.

It didn’t stay that way for long.

With his infectious aura and devil-may-care attitude, Graham began to take over for the Jayhawks in the second half. He knocked down a 3-pointer immediately out of the locker room, then curled in two more in quick succession to give Kansas a 51-39 lead with just under 15 minutes to go.

West Virginia’s vaunted press, so effective early in the game, had been reduced to shreds.

Attrition and foul trouble also began to play a role. Williams appeared gassed in the closing minutes, and Carter and Daxter Miles Jr. had to play with four fouls apiece down the stretch.

The remarkable depth of the Jayhawks became apparent as Self kept sending wave after wave of long, talented players onto the floor. And no matter what combination he used, Kansas never seemed to get too far out of rhythm, holding the Mountaineers at bay in the closing minutes.

When the final buzzer sounded, the Jayhawks celebrated in a businesslike manner — as if they had known all along the outcome was inevitable. They shook hands with West Virginia, gathered together in front of the bench and patiently awaited their coronation as the league’s best one more time.

“It probably was not the most artistic game, but both teams competed hard,” Self said. “They had a guy that played unreal and we had a couple of guys that did as well, but it was a good game, and a game that was tough, and I’m certainly very proud of our team.”

ALL-TOURNAMENT

Graham was joined on the all-tournament team by Ellis and Williams, while Iowa State forward Georges Niang and Oklahoma guard Buddy Hield rounded out the five-man squad.

TIP-INS

West Virginia: Williams was 9 of 12 from the field and 13 of 15 from the foul line. … The Mountaineers finished 2 of 15 from beyond the arc. … West Virginia did not block a shot in the game.

Kansas: Frank Mason III appeared to hurt his hip, though he never left the game. The starting guard had four points and seven assists. … Kansas has won 30 games in six of the past eight seasons.

UP NEXT

West Virginia heads home for Selection Sunday.

Kansas awaits a likely No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

— Associated Press —

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Kansas coach Bill Self said the final couple minutes of Friday night’s Big 12 semifinal against Baylor didn’t take anything away from his team’s impressive second-half performance.

Even if it almost took away a win.

After overcoming a halftime deficit to build a comfortable lead, Self put in his backups to coax the game to its conclusion. But the No. 22 Bears rallied, forcing the Kansas starters back onto the floor, where they finally managed to finish off a 70-66 victory.

“I had one guy ask me yesterday, `Hey, when you get a lead in the last two minutes, why don’t you play your bench?” Self said. “And I did. And it didn’t work out so great.”

Al Freeman’s 3-pointer got Baylor within 68-64 with 20 seconds left, and that was when Self sent his top players back on the floor. Jonathan Motley’s putback then got the Bears within three with five seconds to go, but Devonte Graham calmly made the second of two free throws at the other end to put the game away.

Graham had 14 points and eight assists as the Jayhawks (29-4) beat the Bears (22-11) for the third time this season — and avenged their tournament loss from a year ago. Perry Ellis scored 20 points.

Kansas will play sixth-ranked Oklahoma or No. 9 West Virginia for the title Saturday night.

“Proud that our guys didn’t quit at the end,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said. “Kansas really executed well in the second half. I told coach Self, they guard so well.”

Freeman scored 14 points and Rico Gathers had 13 points and nine boards, but nobody in green got into much of a rhythm against the Jayhawks’ man-to-man defense. Taurean Prince was held to nine points, going 0 for 6 from beyond the arc, and Ish Wainwright managed four points on 2-for-9 shooting before fouling out.

The victory was the 13th straight for Kansas, which can match the number of tournament titles won by every other Big 12 school with its 10th. The Jayhawks also improved to 3-0 at the Sprint Center this season with their eighth consecutive win over the Bears.

Not that they didn’t have a chance: Baylor forged a 23-21 lead after a sloppy first half.

The teams combined for 17 turnovers, Kansas at one point throwing it away on four straight possessions. Baylor’s Lester Medford tossed a pass to nobody at one end of the floor, and then Ellis launched an air ball from beyond the arc as the teams went into a deep offensive funk.

For a while, it seemed as if nobody wanted to score.

There were only two real highlights: Graham had five assists for Kansas, including back-to-back alley-oop lobs to Ellis, and Jake Lindsey hit a buzzer-beating 3 to give the Bears the halftime edge.

Kansas began to take control as soon as it left the locker room.

Ellis went on a personal 8-0 run, and Wayne Selden Jr. woke up a sleepy crowd with a soaring dunk. A few minutes later, Graham tossed up a lob from just inside midcourt that Selden threw down for a 43-33 lead.

“We knew we were playing flat, kind of dead, not a lot of energy,” Graham said. “We knew we weren’t playing to our capability. … In the second half we tried to change it.”

Baylor began trying to get the ball to Gathers and Prince in the paint, but the Jayhawks did a good job of collapsing on defense. The Bears missed nine consecutive shots during a critical stretch midway through the second half, and that allowed the Jayhawks to establish a comfortable lead.

They wound up needing just about every point of it.

“We know the game is never over with us,” Freeman said. “We all have confidence in each other. Nobody has quit in them. We’re going to play every possession hard until it’s the last one in the game.”

QUOTABLE

Asked whether having to put the starters back in late in the game is a coach’s worst nightmare, Self replied: “No, the worst nightmare would be losing. This was just a bad dream.”

TIP-INS

Baylor: Motley finished with 11 points and seven rebounds. … The Bears were playing in their third straight semifinal. They still have never won the Big 12 Tournament.

Kansas: Carlton Bragg had 10 points and seven rebounds. He had a career-high 12 points in a quarterfinal win over Kansas State. … Frank Mason III had nine points and six rebounds.

UP NEXT

Baylor heads back to Waco, Texas.

Kansas plays for its first title since 2013.

— Associated Press —

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Kansas junior guard Wayne Selden Jr., has been named one of five finalists for the 2016 Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced Wednesday.

Joining Selden as finalists are Brandon Ingram (Duke), Ben Simmons (LSU), Denzel Valentine (Michigan State) and DeAndre Bembry (Saint Joseph’s).

The winner of the 2016 Julius Erving Small Forward of the Year Award will be determined by a combination of fan votes and input from the Basketball Hall of Fame’s selection committee. Fans are encouraged to visit HoophallAwards.com to cast their votes from March 11-25.

Selden has started all but one game of Kansas in his three-year KU career missing only the 2016 Senior Day. The Roxbury, Massachusetts native averages 13.4 scoring for the top-ranked Jayhawks, which is ninth in the Big 12. A 2016 All-Big 12 Second Team selection, Selden has five 20-point efforts this season and Kansas’ current 11-game winning streak began when Selden scored a career-high 33-points against Kentucky on Jan. 30 in the Big 12/SEC Challenge.

Selden makes 2.1 3-pointers per game, which is third in the league and his 41.8 3-point field goal percentage is sixth in the conference. Selden has made multiple 3-pointers in 16 games this season.

Named after Hall of Famer and 11-time NBA All-Star Julius Erving, the annual honor in its second year recognizes the top small forwards in Division I men’s college basketball. A national committee comprised of top college basketball personnel narrowed the original watch list of 20 candidates down to 10 and now the final five.

The winner of the 2016 Julius Erving Award will be awarded at ESPN’s College Basketball Awards presented by Wendy’s from Club Nokia in Los Angeles on Friday, April 8, 2016. The Awards will be televised live on ESPN2 at 7 p.m. CST.

No. 1/1 Kansas (27-4, 15-3) won its unprecedented 12th-straight Big 12 regular-season championship in 2015-16. It was KU’s 16th Big 12 and NCAA-leading 59th overall conference regular-season title. Kansas will next play in the quarterfinals of the 2016 Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship, March 9-12, at Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri. As the No. 1 seed, Kansas will play its first game on Thursday, March 10 at 1:30 p.m. (Central), on ESPN2. KU will face No. 8 Kansas State. Kansas has won 13 conference postseason tournament titles, including nine in the Big 12 era.

— KU Athletics —

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self garnered his second national accolade of the 2015-16 season when USA Today named him the national coach of the year Tuesday.

On March 6, Bleacher Report also named Self national coach of the year and the following day he was named the Associated Press Big 12 Coach of the Year for the fifth time by AP in his 13 seasons at Kansas.

This is the fifth season Self has been named national coach of the year by multiple entities. He first earned the accolade in 2000 while at Illinois. Since he has been at Kansas, in 2008 he received the Winged Foot Award for winning the NCAA National Championship. In 2009 he collected the honor by eight different outlets and in 2012 three different organizations named him national coach of the year.

No. 1 Kansas (27-4, 15-3) won its 12th-straight, 16th Big 12 and NCAA-leading 59th overall conference regular-season title in 2015-16. The 12-straight titles rank second all-time in NCAA history. Playing in the toughest conference, Kansas clinched the title with two games in the regular season and won it outright the following contest. KU’s current 11-game winning streak is the third active longest nationally heading into the Big 12 Championship, March 9-12 at Sprint Center in Kansas City.

Kansas is No. 1 in both Associated Press and USA Today Coaches’ polls released March 7. Kansas has ranked seventh or higher in every poll this season, including No. 1 for four weeks.

In addition to the Big 12 regular-season title, KU was 2015 Maui Jim Maui Invitational champions and has posted two winning streaks of 11 games or more in 2015-16. Additionally, Kansas is 9-3 against nationally-ranked teams in 2015-16, including 3-0 versus top-10 teams, and has won six straight versus ranked opponents. According to the NCAA, Kansas holds the No. 1 RPI and the No. 6 toughest schedule while the Big 12 has the No. 1 RPI among all conferences in 2015-16.

This season KU went 16-0 in Allen Fieldhouse this season to mark its second straight and 20th undefeated home record, sixth under Bill Self.

In 13 seasons at Kansas, Self is 379-82 (82.2 percent) for an average of 29.2 wins per year. Overall, Self is in his 23rd season with a 586-187 record.

— KU Athletics —

LAWRENCE, Kan. – What a week for Kansas senior forward Perry Ellis, and its only Monday. On Sunday, March 5, the Wichita forward was a unanimous selection All-Big 12 First Team by the league coaches. Earlier that morning before he was named Big 12 Player of the Week for the sixth time in his career. Then on Monday, Ellis was named second-team All-America by USA TODAY.

A Wichita native, Ellis is coming off back-to-back 20-point performances with 20 points at Texas (Feb. 29) and 22 points against Iowa State (March 5) on his senior night. The two efforts garnered Ellis with the final 2015-16 conference player of the week honor as he has 11 20-point efforts this season.

Ellis is 86 points from cracking the top-10 on KU’s career scoring list while leading No. 1 Kansas in scoring (16.5 ppg) and ranking second in rebounding (6.0 rpg) this season. He has nine games of scoring 19 or more points in Big 12 play this season, including seven 20-point efforts and overall ranks third in the league in scoring and ninth in rebounding. Ellis also ranks among the Big 12 leaders in field goal percentage (fifth at 52.1) and free throw percentage (12th at 76.3). Ellis averaged 17.7 points and 5.8 rebounds during Big 12 play in 2015-16.

KU’s senior leader is a finalist for the Wooden Award and the Senior CLASS Award.

USA TODAY All-America Teams

First Team
Buddy Hield, Sr., G, Oklahoma
Brice Johnson, Sr., F, North Carolina
Jakob Poeltl, So., F, Utah
Tyler Ulis, So., G, Kentucky
Denzel Valentine, Sr., G, Michigan State

Second Team
Grayson Allen, So., G, Duke
Malcolm Brogdon, Sr., G, Virginia
PERRY ELLIS, Sr., F, Kansas
Yogi Ferrell, Sr., G, Indiana
Jamal Murray, Fr., G, Kentucky

Third Team
Kris Dunn, Sr., G, Providence
Trevon Bluiett, So., G, Xavier
Georges Niang, Sr., F, Iowa State
Ben Simmons, Fr., F, LSU
Jarrod Uthoff, Sr., F, Iowa

— KU Athletics —

NEW YORK – For the second straight year and fifth time in his 13 years at Kansas, head coach Bill Self was voted the Associated Press Big 12 Conference Coach of the Year, announced by the AP Monday morning.

One day after the All-Big 12 awards were announced by the conference, the AP’s version is chosen by a panel of media representatives who cover the league on a regular basis. The panel also voted KU senior forward Perry Ellis as a unanimous All-Big 12 First Team selection and junior guard Frank Mason III as a second-team selection. Oklahoma’s Buddy Hield was the AP’s Big 12 Player of the Year.

Self received 12 of 20 votes for top coach after the Jayhawks won their 12th consecutive Big 12 regular-season title from an AP panel of sports writers and sportscasters who cover the league on a regular basis. In voting by the Big 12 coaches, they tabbed Texas Tech’s Tubby Smith as their coach of the year.

Self also won the AP coaching award in 2006, 2009, 2011 and 2015. In his latest installment, Self led the Jayhawks to their 12th-straight Big 12 regular-season title and the 59th conference championship in Kansas history – the most all-time in the NCAA. Now in his 13th season at the helm, Self is 379-82 at Kansas, including a 206-9 record inside Allen Fieldhouse where the Jayhawks have won 40 consecutive games.

— KU Athletics —