Will KU open 2023 NCAA Tournament in Des Moines? Is there a shot at KC for Jayhawks?

Kansas men’s basketball coach Bill Self says he has no inside information, no crystal ball feeding him information about the No. 3-ranked Jayhawks’ upcoming seeding and location of their impending game(s) in the 2023 NCAA Tournament.

“We don’t know where we’re going to be sent. It’s too early to do that kind of stuff — totally,” Self said Tuesday of projecting specifics involving his 2022-23 team, which improved to 23-5 overall and 11-4 in the Big 12 Conference after beating TCU 63-58 on Monday night at Schollmaier Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

“We’ll think about it maybe the week of the Big 12 Tournament (March 8-11 at T-Mobile Center, Kansas City). You can’t get hung up on stuff like that because it’s like putting your arm around a cloud. It changes shapes and sizes all the time. Come Big 12 Tournament time those will be the things (thoughts) that come creeping in,” Self added.

Self did confess Tuesday on his weekly Hawk Talk radio show that it is not too early to have a wish list as far as where KU, which still has three games left to play in the Big 12 regular season, will be ultimately sent to play the first (and if KU advances) and second weekends of the tourney.

First- and second-round sites are Des Moines, Iowa; Birmingham, Alabama; Orlando, Florida; Sacramento, California; Albany, New York; Columbus, Ohio; Denver, Colorado and Greensboro, North Carolina.

Regional sites: Kansas City (Midwest); Las Vegas (West), New York (East) and Louisville (South) with the Final Four in Houston.

“In all honestly, we do hope we go to Des Moines, though. That’d be great if we go to Des Moines (March 16, 18) and obviously a goal would be to go to Kansas City (March 24, 26),” Self said. “It doesn’t quite work like that. You’re going to have to be the No. 1 team in the Midwest to go to Kansas City. Well, what region is Houston going to go to or what region would Purdue go to? They’re going to go to the region closest to them, too, or want to. Kansas City is heck of a lot closer to go to than Vegas or whatnot. It remains to be seen how it all plays out,” Self added.

Houston is currently ranked No. 1 in the AP poll. Alabama is No. 2, defending national champ KU No. 3, UCLA No. 4 and Purdue No. 5. The NCAA’s early bracketology, released Saturday, had KU as a No. 1 seed, along with Alabama, Houston and Purdue.

KU has 14 Quad 1 wins, most of any team in the country, and is No. 1 in strength of schedule.

“It’s just too early. Now granted 10 days from now or 12 days from now we may have a better feel,” Self said on Tuesday. “Right now, if I was a fan, I wouldn’t waste much time on that. I’d want us to go to Des Moines and then whatever happens after that happens.”

As far as the Big 12 race, KU entering Tuesday night’s action had an 11-4 record, followed by Texas 10-4, Baylor 9-5, Kansas State and Iowa State 8-6, TCU and Oklahoma State 7-8, West Virginia 5-10, Texas Tech 4-10 and Oklahoma 3-11. Notably, Texas won on Tuesday to keep pace with KU at 11-4, and K-State won to move into a tie for third with Baylor at 9-6.

“I still think the number to win it outright is 13 to win outright or least get a piece of it,” Self said. KU has home games remaining against West Virginia (Saturday) and Texas Tech (Tuesday) and a finale at Texas (week from Saturday).

“If Texas or us wins out that’d be four (losses winning it), but we put ourselves in a favorable position if we take care of business. That doesn’t mean anything unless we play well Saturday and then Tuesday,” Self added.

KU has won 16 Big 12 regular-season titles in Self’s first 19 seasons at KU.

“It’s coming to an end. Who’d think the season is down to the last 10 days of the regular season?” Self said. “Of course there’s the third season (postseason) to start after that. We’ve had a pretty good, decent run (in winning five games in a row). You’ve got to finish what you start or it doesn’t mean much.”

Self continued.

“We put ourselves in good position,” he said. “Now it’s time to be the best version of ourselves and finish things off.”

KU-Texas game time set

Tipoff has been set for 3 p.m. for the KU-Texas game on March 4 in Austin, Texas, according to both the official KU and Texas basketball websites. It will be shown on ESPN.

Wendy’s promotion Thursday

KU basketball players Dajuan Harris, Jalen Wilson and Holly Kersgieter will join football player Jalon Daniels and volleyball player Caroline Bien in a meet and greet with fans on Thursday at Wendy’s, 523 W. 23rd St. in Lawrence.

The athletes are set to be at Wendy’s from 11 a.m. until noon and 4:15 to 5:15 p.m.