-Matt Cox

68 entrants. One champion. The NCAA Tournament is the holy grail of championship formats in all of sport.

Even for top seeds, it’s a daunting task: outlast the other 67 in a three-week melee of madness.

To soothe the scare, some coaches break down the journey into three segments – or rather, three 4-team tournaments. Win the first pod, then the second pod, then the third. Piece of cake, right?

It certainly seemed attainable for the four ‘level 1’ survivors ascending on the Midwest regional in Chicago: Kansas, Providence, Miami FL and Iowa State.

How fitting. A Battle of Midway at the tournament’s midway point…

Each gladiator operated in its own silo in the anxious hours leading up until battle. Distinct practice schedules. Siloed media calendars. Separate fan sections.

Yet, cutting through this quasi tribalism was an endearing commonality shared by all: the quest for redemption.

For Iowa State, it was a soup to nuts program renovation. From a 2-win season to two wins away from the Final 4, the new regime swiftly resurrected Hilton Magic in the turn of a calendar year. Not even the shrewdest car salesman could’ve pulled off TJ Otzelberger’s pitch: help us rise from the ashes and you too shall rise with us. Miraculously, a makeshift group of transfers bought this bill of goods – and how prophetic they were…

For Providence, it was Al Durham becoming the comeback kid. The former Indiana guard failed to make the tournament in his four seasons in Bloomington, but Durham found his calling at Providence. Quickly, he asserted himself as the Friars’ closer, a role he deferred at Indiana. This was his reclamation project.

For Miami, it was a group of elder statesmen turning back the clock. Consider Charlie Moore and the flurry of déjà vu moments converging at once. His hometown (Chicago). His old team (Kansas). The baby face point guard, ironically, took plenty of time to soak in the moment leading up to Sunday’s tip off.

However, it was Moore’s running mate, Kam McGusty, who stole the headlines when the action tipped. Like Moore, McGusty put his faith in Jimmy Larranaga’s March mojo when he brought his talents to South Beach back in 2019. Just three years prior, McGusty (Oklahoma) and Moore (Cal) were both uncooked rookies embarking on what would be a long and windy collegiate career. Three months before, Larranaga led Miami to its deepest tournament run in school history. Now, Moore and McGusty hold that mantle.

In the house that Jordan built, McGusty, adorned in the #23 jersey, did a Jordan impersonation with a mirage of midrange jumpers. His heroic shotmaking helped will the Canes to a stunning half time lead over the top-seeded Jayhawks in Sunday’s Elite 8 showdown.

Kansas, however, harbored its own vindication forces. With its back against the wall, the blue-blooded Beakers unleashed that force in an unrelenting second half domination.

Not even an epidemic of missed free throws and open threes could thwart KU’s incendiary run.

Redemption, again, rang true.

David McCormack, Kansas’ everlasting enigma, fueled the second half outburst, buoyed by big time buckets from Arizona State transfer Remy Martin. 

The mountainous ‘D Mac’ entered Sunday’s tilt with a meager 24 points and 15 rebounds to his name over the first three games of the tournament. He stumbled out of the gates again, failing to capitalize on Miami’s small ball lineup. Then, the old D Mac came out with vengeance in the second half. He scored the loudest 8 points in the game to spark the dynamite that eventually exploded in to a 20-point KU runaway.

Martin, meanwhile, solidified his identity as the reliable perimeter bookend Jayhawk fans were promised last summer. When Martin first inked his name to Kansas, few thought he’d be deployed as a glorified ‘super sub’.

However, the injury bug bit Martin hard this season, leaving KU fans yearning for what a fully loaded version of Martin would look like.

Finally, those visions have come to life.

Martin was anointed the Midwest Regional’s Most Outstanding Player, pacing KU with 23 and 9 points in the two victories, respectively, a continuation of his late season surge. McCormack also inked All Regional honors, along with the aforementioned McGusty and Durham.

The Athletic’s Brian Hamilton asked McCormack after Sunday’s win to express his emotions in the context of the 2020 NCAA Tournament – or, the tournament that never happened…

Us college basketball diehards have buried that tumultuous time deep in our memory archives. However, let’s not forget who the odds-on favorite was to cut down the nets before the pandemic left the tournament in ruins – these Jayhawks:

It's definitely a heartbreak feeling knowing that we definitely clawed our way to the top that year. We had a lot of great pieces and felt like we could go really far in the tournament. Now this year feels like we're avenging that year. Now that we have the opportunity, we're going to make the most of it and just continue to grow as a team with each game. And just do what we weren't able to do or didn't have an opportunity to do within that 2020 year. 

With the crux of that 2020 nucleus still intact, there’s a feeling of unfinished business permeating throughout this Kansas locker room.

Now, the final boss awaits…