Kansas has been placed in the Midwest Regional 19 times, and eight of the Jayhawks' 10 Final Four appearances have come out of the Midwest. For the Illini, Cory Bradford hit five 3-pointers and led all scorers with 21 points. While Illinois shoots 70.2 percent from the foul line as a team, Kansas, at 66.6 percent, ranked 62nd out of the 65 teams that qualified in the NCAA Tournament. Among the KU starters, Kirk Hinrich leads the way at 84.3 percent, while Kenny Gregory is shooting 39 percent from the line. At first glance, opposing coaches Bill Self and Roy Williams don't necessarily have a connection.
Self recalls that year fondly.
I've ever had as far as singling out one year. We were 35-4, I was hanging out with Larry Brown and his staff and we were never ranked worse than fourth in America. Though Self moved on to Oklahoma State, he took a lot with him. We still run some of the same sets that Kansas ran back in '86, believe it or not. Maybe varied a little bit.