How they were built: Kansas vs. Purdue

No. 1 seed Kansas and No. 4 seed Purdue will square off at 9:39 p.m. ET on Thursday in the Midwest. Here is how they were built.

HOW THEY WERE BUILT: Gonzaga-WVU | Michigan-Oregon | Arizona-Xavier

Senior point guard and national player of the year candidate Frank Mason signed with Towson out of high school. Junior combo guard and second team All-Big 12 performer Devonte Graham signed with Appalachian State. When they realized they could play at a higher level, they asked for releases but were denied, so it was off to prep school.

Once under-recruited, they both finished their high school careers as four-star prospects, and they’ve thrived under Self’s coaching since landing in Lawrence. While Kansas didn’t have that much competition for Mason when they went after him, they did have to sweat out runs from Virginia and hometown N.C. State for Graham.

While Mason and Graham get the headlines, they aren’t the only Jayhawks initially ticketed elsewhere. Sophomore wing LaGerald Vick has become increasingly important as the season has gone on, and the four-star prospect from Memphis initially signed with SMU before getting a release in the spring of his senior year. He picked Kansas over Kentucky late in the recruiting process.

Class of 2016’s No. 1 player, Josh Jackson, is hoping to lead the Jayhawks to the promised land. During the recruiting process, not many expected Jackson to end up in Lawrence. Michigan State and Arizona were considered the frontrunners, but he landed with the Jayhawks. And while Frank Mason is a legitimate player of the year candidate, it can be argued that Jackson is the most important player on Kansas' roster. Look what happened to Kansas against TCU when he was suspended for a game in the Big 12 tournament.

A natural wing, Jackson has played most of the year as a mismatch four man, putting together 11 double-doubles while also serving as the Jayhawks' best passer at times. He’s the most versatile player of the Self era, and he’ll have to be at his best for Kansas to make a trip to Glendale.

Anybody who saw Landen Lucas in high school has to be surprised by his development into an immovable force from the Kansas rotation. Even though he was a high school star in Oregon, many West Coast programs had passed on him. When Kansas finally pulled the trigger, it was only because they had missed on other targets and were scrambling for a post player in the 2012 class.

Though he looked to be over his head early and though Kansas has brought in several highly-ranked players who were supposed to move him out of the rotation, the fifth-year senior has remained a constant. His overall numbers of 7.9 points and 8.4 rebounds per game don’t jump out at you, but it’s clear that Kansas is at its best when Lucas is on the floor. He’s a tough defender, he’s a leader and he’s a reliable player who has outplayed expectations and will be counted on to continue doing so as the Jayhawks chase Self’s second national championship.

The most important player to Purdue is sophomore Caleb Swanigan. The All-American and National Player of the Year candidate does it all, but he wasn’t always set to do everything at Purdue. After a drawn-out recruiting process, Swanigan actually committed to Michigan State in the spring of his senior season.

However, not too long after committing to the Spartans, “Biggie” reconsidered and ended up picking Purdue. He’s likely the most important recruit of Matt Painter’s tenure as head coach.

Some of them were in place before Swanigan arrived, but the makeup of Purdue’s team is perfectly built. Swanigan is capable as a back-to-the-basket scorer but he’s even more dangerous when he gets to pass out of double teams to the arsenal of shooters.

In Vincent Edwards, Carsen Edwards, Dakota Mathias, P.J. Thompson and Ryan Cline, the Boilermakers have five players who all make at least 1.4 threes per game and shoot between 34.9 and 42.4 percent from three-point range. It’s the perfect complement to Swanigan’s game.

Though he comes off the bench, junior center Isaac Haas is Purdue’s second-leading scorer. A product of Alabama and a former four-star prospect, many college coaches were worried that he wouldn’t be able to keep up with the speed of the game and that as a true back-to-the-basket guy he would be out of place in today’s game. At Purdue, he’s shined bright and has put his team in a situation where it is capable of wearing down nearly any opponent physically.