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Highlights of 2012 Kansas signee Perry Ellis from day 1 of practice for Wednesday’s McDonald’s All American game.

One of the more anticipated college decisions will come to an end on April 10th when Shabazz Muhammad announces where he has decided to go to school. Muhammad, who is currently in Chicago for the McDonald’s All American Game, will visit UCLA before making his announcement.

This will be Kansas and Ohio State’s first time to meet in a Final Four game. Its their second meeting of the year, the first yielding a win for the Jayhawks over an OSU team sans clear NBA lottery pick, Jarred Sullinger.

In what has to be Thomas Robinson’s defining all around career game, the Kansas Jayhawks are headed for New Orleans for a date with Ohio State. Robinson throughout played like the national player of the year and looked mostly like a seasoned NBA player hell bent on winning. His physical aggression had him chasing loose balls well past lines of photographers and not shying away from big shots, even when they included drives the basket and pull up 3-pointers. He continually won the much important post position battle with Zeller on the KU offensive end, all while having 3 fouls against him and a consistent double team. Withey came out with his second back-to-back effort, contributing 3 blocks and 14 points. Overall, Kansas won the battle of bigs over a UNC team touted as strong in that arena. This is something that will be needed on Saturday when they face Sullinger.

Tyshawn Taylor went 6 rebounds, 5 assist and 22 points, giving the Jayhawks a monstrous performance from the guard position. Tyshawn’s speed in transition was another killer, particularly at the 1:59 mark when he got a steal, basket and a trip to the line.

Kansas as a team outhustled the Tarheels, appearing throughout the second half to want the ticket to the Final Four a lot more. Kansas out rebounded a North Carolina team currently ranked number 1 in the country for rebounding. The triangle two defense appeared something of a foreign film with no subtitles for the Tarheels.

Quick Keys to Saturday’s game: minimize the damage that Sullinger can reap by getting him into foul trouble, which he has found problematic in the past two tournament games. Robinson and Withey stay out of foul trouble. Take care of the ball.

Jayhawk Nation has suffered through the longest week in the history of the world since watching the Jayhawks come from behind to beat the Purdue Boilermakers on Sunday night in Omaha, NE. Finally, thankfully, the wait is over and the Jayhawks will take the court in St. Louis, MO (KU city) against North Carolina State. Don’t know much about North Carolina State?  TheShiver is here to tell you about the Wolfpack, or that OTHER school in North Carolina that plays basketball but no one ever talks about them because the media believes that UNC and Duke are the only two schools to ever play basketball.

The Wolfpack haven’t exactly been good against Kansas in their 11 previous meetings. In 1958 the Wolfpack got off to a howling 1-0 start against the Jayhawks, but since then Kansas has won 10 straight. One of those 10 games was exactly 26 years ago today in the Elite Eight in Kansas City. The Jayhawks beat NC State 75-67  to advance to the Final Four in Dallas. One of the players in that game, Danny Manning, will once again be on the Kansas bench looking to use his Tom Emanski like awesomeness to defeat the Wolfpack.

North Carolina State brings a record of 24-12 into the game, including wins in 6 of their last 7 games. Their coach, Mark Gottfried, is in his first season at NC State and brings an overall tournament record of 7-7 into the game. NC State finished 4th in the ACC this season, and is ranked #35 in the RPI and 24th in Strength of Schedule.  However, NC State is only 2-8 vs the Top 25, lost 6 home games this season and is 10-5 in games decided by 6 points or less.

The Wolfpack average 73.3 points per game, shoot 46.3% from the field and 35.8% from three. NC State is slightly better than Kansas on the glass. The Wolfpack average 37.3 rebounds per game, including an impressive 12.1 offensive rebounds per game. The Wolfpack also like to share with each other and steal from their opponents. NC State averages 15.8 assists per game to go along with their 6.7 steals per game.

Defensively the Wolfpack allow opponents to score 67.8 points per game, shoot 41.7% from the field and 33.8% from three.

The Jayhawks enter the game 29-6, including wins in 11 of their last 12 games. Kansas is 5-4 against the Top 25 this season, and rank 7th in the RPI and 20th in Strength of Schedule. The Jayhawks average 74.4 points per game,  48% from the field and 35.2% from three this season. The Jayhawks average 37.2 rebounds per game, including 11.3 on the offensive glass.

Defensively the Jayhawks are again one of the top teams in the country. Opponents score 61.5 points per game against the Jayhawks this season, and only shoot 38.1% from the floor and 34.5% from three. Unless you’re Robbie Hummel and you shoot 10000000% in the first half from three against Kansas.

The Jayhawks are led by Captain Double Double, Thomas Robinson. Robinson, the ESPN.com National Player of the Year and Big 12 Player of the Year, averages 17.7 points and 11.8 rebounds per game. Senior guar Tyshawn Taylor, a Bob Cousy Award finalist, averages 16.9 points per game to go along with his 4.7 assists per game. Big man Jeff Withey average 9.1 points, 6.2 rebounds and 3.3 bloks per game this season. Withey, is he’s #GettingWitheyWithIt, could be the difference maker in the game vs NC State. Junior Elijah Johnson, or the dude that put his shoes on, has averaged 18.5 points per game over his last four games, including the 18 points he scored against Purdue last Sunday. Johnson averages 10.0 points per game and leads Kansas from behind the three point line this season.

Gametime is scheduled for 9:17 pm tonight on TBS. You should just know that the game will start about 20 minutes after the UNC vs Ohio game ends. Also of note, since the game is on TBS, it is very likely that you will be able to catch an old episode of Seinfeld shortly after the game.

2012 PF and Kansas signee Perry Ellis (Wichita Heights/Wichita, KS) was named the Kansas Gatorade Player of the Year for the fourth straight time this morning. Ellis is the first player to win the award four straight years. Ellis is also a four time State Champion, four time All-State selection and has maintained a perfect 4.0 GPA for four straight years. Congrats Perry!