LAWRENCE, Kan. – The Kansas Jayhawks will make their 15th NCAA Tournament appearance in program history, beginning on Saturday, March 23, with a first round matchup against Michigan.

Tipoff from the Galen Center in Los Angeles is set for 1 p.m. CT and the game will be broadcast on ESPNEWS with Elise Woodward (play-by-play) and Mary Murphy (analyst) on the call. Fans can also listen to the game on the Jayhawk Radio Network from Learfield, with Steven Davis calling the action.

Kansas earned the No. 8 seed in the Portland 3 Region and the Jayhawks enter the tournament with a 19-12 record. KU is one win away from a third-consecutive 20-win season and the 24th in program history.

The Jayhawks are in the postseason for the third-straight season under the direction of head coach Brandon Schneider. KU returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in nine years in 2022, earning a No. 8 seed and going 1-1 with a victory over No. 9 Georgia Tech before falling to eventual Final Four participant Stanford in the second round.

Last season, Kansas was among the First Four Out of the NCAA Tournament. The Jayhawks then went on an inspired run to the 2023 WNIT Championship, winning six-straight games at Allen Fieldhouse, including a 66-59 win over Columbia in the championship game in front of a crowd of 11,701 fans.

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Hunter Dickinson had 19 points and 20 rebounds and Nicolas Timberlake made both his free throws at the end to help the Jayhawks hold off Samford for a 93-89 victory Thursday in the NCAA Tournament.

The 13th-seeded Bulldogs were trapping after trimming a 22-point deficit to one when Timberlake took a long pass as he was streaking toward the basket with 14.7 seconds left. The whistle blew and Timberlake calmly made both free throws to help the fourth-seeded Jayhawks push the lead to three. They will play Gonzaga on Saturday in the second round of the Midwest Region.

KJ Adams Jr. led the Jayhawks with 20 points. Timberlake finished with 19, as did Dickinson, who added 20 rebounds and four blocks.

Coach Bill Self’s team came into the tournament slumping — a popular pick to go down early without leading scorer Kevin McCullar Jr. (knee) and having lost four of its last five.

Samford trapped and pressed and wore down a KU rotation that had essentially been reduced to six players. Achor Achor had 23 points and eight rebounds, including a tomahawk jam with 38 seconds that cut Samford’s deficit to two.