It seems safe to say that ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas is impressed with this year’s Kansas team. While calling the Jayhawks’ win over Texas earlier this week, he made multiple references to the Jayhawks being potentially the nation’s best team before stating that he believes this is Kansas’ best shot to win a national title in the last 10 seasons.

“Kansas was really able to take Texas out of anything it wanted to do on the offensive end,” Bilas said. “The Jayhawk defense in the second half—you know, it’s not that they didn’t play hard in the first half, but their defense was nowhere near as good. They gave up a lot of second-chance opportunities, you saw a lot of open shots and Texas getting what they wanted. You can count on one hand in the second half the times where Texas got the shot it wanted. You might be able to do it if you’re a three-fingered person.

“Part of that is the excellent defense, obviously,” Bilas said. “But another part of that is this is not the same sort of tempo team that we’ve seen in the past. Kansas does not get the ball up and down the floor as quickly as they used to. Used to be more of an up-tempo, last year was more of an up-tempo team, the year before, this year, they play at a slower pace because that’s the personnel they’ve got.

“But I would say that this year, based upon this year’s field, I think Kansas has as good of an opportunity to win a national championship this year as they’ve had in the last 10,” Bilas concluded.

Kansas has had some outstanding shots to win the title over the last 10 years, including two teams that reached the Final Four, and one that went to the national championship game. And perhaps some of Kansas’ best chances wound up just shy of the Final Four, whether because of a tough Elite Eight opponent (Villanova, 2016) or rough Elite Eight performances (VCU, 2011; Oregon, 2017). Had Kansas won any of those three games, the Jayhawks would have entered the Final Four as likely favorites to win the championship.

It’s also worth noting that even being the nation’s best team is hardly a guarantee of a title. Only once in the last 10 years has the No. 1 overall seed won it all, and only once in the last 10 years has KenPom’s top team heading into the NCAA Tournament won it all. They were the same team, the 2012 Kentucky team that defeated Kansas in the national title game. Twice during that time period, Kansas was the top team in both metrics: the 2010 team that fell in the second round to Northern Iowa and the aforementioned 2016 team that lost in a close game to eventual national champ Villanova in the Elite Eight.

But as Bilas said, his comment was as much about the field as it was about Kansas. While teams like Baylor, Gonzaga and an undefeated San Diego State have punched back against the narrative that there isn't a great team in college basketball this season, Kansas ranks as the No. 1 team in KenPom and could have more potential than all the rest.