With the NCAA tournament less than 10 days away, Kansas is fine-tuning its game to withstand the pressure of an intense March showdown. Coach Bill Self and his staff have singled out two areas in particular that the team will focus on this week: free-throw shooting and rebounding.

On Saturday, the Jayhawks went just 7-for-16 from the free-throw line in the second half – worse than they shot from the field.

“Our free-throw shooting was atrocious down the stretch,” junior guard Russell Robinson said. “As well as we played against Texas, we’ve still got to finish games better.”

During practice, players shoot 25 free throws after running to simulate a game situation. The goal is to make 21, which the players say they usually do. That’s why few are worried.

“When it comes down to crunch time, I think we’re going to make the big free throws at the end,” sophomore guard Brandon Rush said.

The other focus is on rebounding, where the Jayhawks have had mixed results throughout the season. Self attributed that to the players not blocking out very well but still fighting hard for loose balls.

“If we could combine those two a little bit better, we could become a very good rebounding team,” he said.

Junior center Sasha Kaun acknowledged the problem, saying that solution is in changing his mindset under the basket.

NBA speculation

As the season winds down, elite players begin to face questions on whether they’ll turn pro after the season ends.

Three players at Kansas are receiving attention. Sophomore forward Brandon Rush began the year as a preseason first-team All-American, but had an inconsistent year and has fallen off most draft boards.

Freshman forward Darrell Arthur is being projected as a mid-first round pick by ESPN analyst Chad Ford, but would likely become a top pick in 2008 with a strong sophomore season.

That leaves sophomore forward Julian Wright, who is on top-five lists across the league. Scouts love his versatility and size, and draft-projection site nbadraft.net has him rated as the fourth-best player eligible for this year’s draft.

However, Wright said at the beginning of the season that he wanted to stay and finish his degree next year and won’t talk about his future plans until the season ends.

At the beginning of February, ESPN analyst Jay Bilas said that he didn’t think any of the Jayhawks were ready to make the leap, adding that he held early-jumpers to a high standard.

“When I think of NBA-ready, I’m thinking they are ready to make an impact,” he said. “It’s just like if you asked how many high school juniors are ready to make an impact in college basketball. Probably not many. But whereas there’s 300 college teams, there’s only about 30 NBA teams, and that makes a big difference.”

Praise for coach Self

The Associated Press Big 12 coach of the year award went to Texas coach Rick Barnes. Self won the award in 2006. Though he didn’t win this year, the Kansas players gave Self high marks for dealing with a different kind of challenge. On a team with eight legitimate starters, Kansas has gone the entire season without any of the players complaining or demanding more time in the lineup.

“Everybody wants to see everybody else do well, and Coach is probably the biggest reason for that,” Robinson said. “Individuals really sacrifice their own egos for the sake of the team. It’s won us some games this year, and it’s going to win us some more.”

RPI problems

One of the criteria that the NCAA tournament selection committee looks at is RPI, which judges a team not just on its performance but also on the strength of its opponents.

The Big 12 Conference struggled this year in this statistic. According to realtimeRPI.com, the conference ranks sixth nationally. The site uses a formula that mimics the one used by the NCAA, which does not publicly reveal its numbers.

Kansas is the highest-rated team in the conference but is only No. 15 nationally. Texas A&M is right behind at No. 16. The problem may be a lack of quality victories early in the season for Big 12 teams.

“We should look at it and study it from a coaches perspective and a scheduling perspective,” Self said. “If the RPI is the golden rule, then we need to do something to help ourselves with the RPI.”

Kansan senior sportswriter Michael Phillips can be contacted at mphillips@kansan.com.

— Edited by Katie Sullivan