Jalen Wilson says Big 12 Tournament loss must become a learning moment for the NCAA Tournament

In the Big 12, Kansas is a team that could afford to lose the conference’s regular season and tournament. It’s a big accomplishment but overall? They’ve accumulated 17 season titles and 9 more in the tournament during Bill Self’s tenure in Lawrence. However, while it’s not the end of the world that the Jayhawks lost in Kansas City this weekend, Jalen Wilson hopes it wasn’t in vain by teaching him and his teammates a lesson.

Wilson says Kansas needed to learn that every game from here on out is a must-win and that they have to forget every result, even the victories. It’s the nature of postseason basketball and, with the NCAA Tournament upon them, he wants everyone to understand that they need to be at their best from this moment on.

“It’s all win or go home now,” said Wilson. “You can’t really stand on one game too long. Even if you do win, you got another game coming up soon.”

“Gotta learn from it, get better. And understand this is the most important basketball that we need to play. The best basketball we need to play,” Wilson said. “Today wasn’t the best but the overall goal is still here.”

The Jayhawks have as good a shot as anyone to win in March Madness and repeat as national champions. They will enter the postseason as one of the four No. 1 seeds. At the top of the West Region, KU will tip off their title defense against Howard in Des Moines.

In the end, it’s not a massive deal that Kansas won’t have a Big 12 Tournament title this season. It will be, though, in Wilson’s eyes if the Jayhawks don’t learn from this sour taste in their mouths and use it to motivate them in how they play in order to avoid being sent home without this season’s real prize.