I’m just excited that it’s even a possibility.

Oh, and it really is. It really, really is.

I’m giddy as can be right now, despite staring at hours of homework left to do in the face. Oh, and then I have to do the BlogPoll too.

Still, giddiness.

Teams that lose all five members of their starting lineup aren’t supposed to go and win their conference the next year. And yet the Kansas Jayhawks stand two wins away from the Big 12 title and appear to be one of the nation’s elite teams yet again.

The Jayhawks have won 13 of their last 14 games, boast a 12-1 record in conference play and just got done avenging that lone conference loss to Missouri by pasting the Tigers 90-65 in Lawrence.

With eight quality wins (against the RPI Top 50) the third most in the nation — trailing only Michigan State (11) and Connecticut (9) — it seems like the Jayhawks deserve every bit of consideration as a potential No. 1 seed and a legitimate Final Four contender.

However, there are still some qualifiers that come with their lofty qualifications.

The Jayhawks beat the Oklahoma Sooners … but they did so with sophomore sensation Blake Griffin on the bench with a concussion.

Could Sherron Collins and Kansas end up a No. 1 seed?

The Jayhawks beat Pac-10 title contenders Washington Huskies … but they also lost against Massachusetts (RPI 166).

The Jayhawks have been an elite team in the Big 12 … but they were also spanked by Arizona and Big Ten-leading Michigan State.

The Jayhawks have an 8-4 record against the RPI Top 50 … but three of those wins came against Siena (whose RPI is strongly aided by their strength of schedule), an inconsistent Tennessee team and a young Washington squad that started the season 2-3. Moreover, Kansas met Siena and Tennessee at home and faced Washington in Kansas City.

The rest of those RPI Top 50 wins came within in the Big 12, a conference that projects only five NCAA Tournament teams according to Joe Lunardi’s latest edition of Bracketology. Of those teams, Kansas has yet to play Texas and met Oklahoma (sans Griffin) and Oklahoma State (in Lawrence) only once. The only NCAA-caliber team the Jayhawks met twice was Missouri, with whom they split the series.

Those factors aren’t flat out indictments of the Jayhawks, but they are reasons to be skeptical of their rise to the top of the bracket and give their resume some closer scrutiny.

Inside the Numbers

If this year’s Jayhawks are pretenders to defend their throne, it is not readily apparent from their statistical profile. Concerns about their SOS are checked by their current ranking of 16. Their adjusted scoring margin (ASM) of 16.6 ranks seventh, on par with the nation’s elite teams — ahead of Louisville and just behind Connecticut.

In attaining that mark, Kansas has shined at both ends of the floor, ranking in the Top 20 of Ken Pomeroy’s offensive (17) and defensive (7) efficiency ratings, placing sixth overall in his performance ratings. The Jayhawks rank 15th in effective field goal percentage and 11th in effective field goal percentage defense. And they are particularly stingy inside the arc, where they post the eighth-best field goal percentage defense.

If there’s any cause for concern, it stems from one of two areas. First, the Jayhawks rely heavily on their two best returning players, PG Sherron Collins and C Cole Aldrich. Collins and Aldrich have accounted for 43.2 percent of Kansas’s scoring this season.

Of the top 10 teams in ASM, just one other squad features only two players with double figure scoring averages — Missouri. Memphis has four such players. North Carolina has five.

The second potential problem area is youth. The young counterparts of Collins and Aldrich, like Tyshawn Taylor, have been inconsistent in picking up the scoring slack. Some games, their impact is huge (Taylor’s 26 points against Oklahoma), other times it’s virtually non-existent (Taylor’s two points against Michigan State).

Conventional wisdom says inexperience usually becomes problematic in close games. That would explain the Jayhawks’ 1-3 record in games decided by five points or fewer, or in overtime this season.

Among teams in the "big six" (ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10, SEC) the 15 least experienced teams have a combined record of 44-54 in such games.

In the NCAA Tournament, where teams have to grind for wins against opponents who aren’t about to quit, history shows that the games get closer.

Over the past five seasons in the Big 12, the average margin of victory is 11.9 points per game. Over that span, from the second round of the NCAA Tournament on, the average margin of victory is just 9.9 points per game. If you want to go deep, odds are there will be at least one close shave.

Does that raise a red flag for the Jayhawks? Maybe. Maybe not.

By comparison, this season the 15 most experienced "big six" teams are just two games over .500 (40-38) in games decided by five points or fewer or in overtime, suggesting perhaps that experience is overrated in close games. However, when you factor in ASM, there may be reason to worry.

Of the 15 least experienced "big six" teams, Kansas is the only one with a truly incredible ASM (16.6).

The average of the other 14 teams? 4.3.

The average ASM of the 15 most experienced "big six" teams is 10.8. And the top six teams in ASM from that group (North Carolina, UConn, Pittsburgh, Villanova, LSU and Marquette) sport a combined 17-6 record in five-point/OT games. Among elite teams, it seems like experience does count for something.

Most of the numbers suggest another deep run for Kansas, but this could be one warning sign worth heeding before locking the Jayhawks into your Final Four.