LAWRENCE — It’s important every year, Bill Self explained Monday, for Kansas basketball to make a run in the NCAA tournament.

It’s not just because the Jayhawks weren’t able to in 2024, when they were knocked out in the round of 32. It’s not just because the Jayhawks weren’t able to in 2023, which saw them knocked out in the round of 32 as well. It’s just the expectation the program has with Self, the team’s head coach who led it to a national championship in 2022.

But, while the way the last two seasons ended haven’t sat well with them, the way last season ended hurt more than the year before. It wasn’t as if it was 2023 still and they could say they were only a year removed from a title, plus Kansas got crushed in the loss. So the Jayhawks are entering this year with some added motivation, and that should help them as they navigate another season with the target on their back as preseason No. 1 in the Associated Press poll.

Ahead of Late Night in the Phog, Kansas basketball’s Bill Self previews Jayhawks’ season

“I’ve coached here for 22 years now, and I think there’s kind of been a bullseye or a target for a long time, and I told our players that we should welcome it,” Self said. “Because it’s going to be there regardless, and the fact of the matter is playing under duress is the best thing a team can go through during a regular season to prepare you for the most important games later in the season.”

Self noted being the top ranked team in a preseason poll means nothing, except maybe in recruiting. Of course, he would rather be at that spot than not be at it. But in the end it doesn’t matter, and teams like UConn and Houston will have targets on their backs as well despite not holding it.

Graduate center Hunter Dickinson mused Kansas would have a target on its back regardless of if was ranked or not, because that’s the status he feels it has as a program. Dickinson felt that target every game last season, his first with the Jayhawks after transferring in from Michigan, and especially so on the road. He’s glad he has a season of experience under his belt of playing in situations like that.

Compared to last season, graduate guard Dajuan Harris Jr. sees a team this time around that’s more athletic and can shoot it better. There’s a different energy are the program, too. They’re just more competitive in practice.

“We’re just more athletic,” Harris said. “We’ve got better guards. Our wings are better, even though we had Johnny (Furphy) … he went to the league and stuff. But we’re older, too. That’s another thing. We’ve got a lot of older kids on our team. But we have a defensive-minded coach, too, so we have to be on that.”

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas basketball coach Bill Self says team ‘should welcome’ pressure