Kansas is having more success than last year. Devonte’ Graham is a big reason why

Kansas has had an amazing 2017-18. The Jayhawks won the Big 12 conference tournament for the third time in six seasons, earned a share of the Big 12 regular season title for the 14th straight year, and are now in the Final Four with the hope of reaching their second national championship game since 2012.

The one constant in all the Jayhawks’ success this year? Senior point guard Devonte’ Graham.

Graham has taken a roster that lost key players like Frank Mason and Josh Jackson and turned them into a legit national title contender and dominating force in what’s considered one of college hoops’ best conferences. He’s seen increases in both points (13 to 17) and assists (4.1 to 7.1) per game since last year. He’s also notched a steal per game and has been shooting a ridiculous 40 percent from three point range.

Graham’s road to success this year has not been a particularly easy one. He had to take the reins of a team that lost a lot of talent and had to play a much bigger role offensively. After back-to-back losses in early December to Washington and Arizona State, head coach Bill Self even called this Jayhawks team the “softest” squad he’s seen in his years there. The actual quote hits even harder:

“This is the softest team that Kansas has had since I’ve been here. A lot of that is experience. A lot of that is youth. A lot of it is just the way that we’re physically built and the way our skillset is.”

Kansas lost five-star recruit Billy Preston after he went to play pro ball in Bosnia, and they lost the majority of their starters and other key role players from last year’s team. Despite all of that, Graham has led the Jayhawks to their third straight year with 30 or more wins and to a third consecutive No. 1 seed in the tournament. Graham has led Kansas to greater success than last year’s squad, which had more talent but was knocked out by No. 3 seed Oregon in the Elite Eight.

One thing that makes Graham so special is he makes the plays his team needs him to when the pressure’s on. There are three specific instances of that this year:

Beating Texas Tech to win the Big 12 regular-season title

Graham’s light shined bright in the final two minutes against the Red Raiders. He hit a long two that put the Jayhawks ahead and followed that with an insane acrobatic layup that still doesn’t even make sense to me.

The overtime win against Duke in the Elite Eight

One thing that makes Graham a huge asset for this Jayhawks team is his ability to make an impact on games where he doesn’t score a ton. Take his performance against Duke to reach the Final Four. Malik Newman carried the majority of the scoring load and Graham mainly served as a distributor, leading the team with six assists. But it was his play in the crucial minutes of the game that made the difference.

With the Jayhawks down by three in the final minute of the second half, he somehow spun away from a steal by Duke’s Gary Trent Jr., and dished the ball to Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk for the three that took the game to overtime.

The Big 12 conference championship game against West Virginia

Graham’s game against the Mountaineers was one of his best of the season. He had an ridiculous 18 points and 13 assists, hitting three shots from beyond the arc. His biggest buckets were down the stretch: A fadeaway that put the Jayhawks up by two, followed by a three that allowed them to pull away with the win.

Graham went from playing a support role on a Kansas team loaded with talent, to becoming Big 12 Player of the Year and a finalist for National Player of the Year. A point guard who started out averaging five points per game as a freshman, has now cemented his legacy among the great Jayhawks point guards of the past.

The senior from North Carolina has shown us time and time again this year he has what it takes to lead Kansas to the promised land — and the Jayhawks will need every inch of that if they hope to get a win over Villanova, who has a stalwart senior leader of its own in Jalen Brunson.