Jayhawks

CHICAGO -- Kansas coach Roy Williams and his players wouldn't dare ask the question, or even answer it. Yet it had to run through their minds and the minds of their loyal fans during last night's game against Arizona here at the United Center.Where was this performance when they needed it -- or at least the first 30 minutes of it -- in the Sweet 16 of last year's NCAA tournament?With a thrilling 90-87 victory over the defending national champion and fourth-ranked Wildcats in the Great Eight Basketball Classic, the second-ranked Jayhawks continued to enhance their reputation for being a great early-season team as well as a regular-season giant-killer of other top 10 teams.

To bring his team good luck, Kansas coach Roy Williams likes to spit in the Mississippi River whenever the Jayhawks play in St. Louis. He did it nine years ago, when his team made it through the Midwest Regional to the Final Four of the NCAA tournament. It was the last time Kansas reached college basketball's promised land. Williams might consider spending today on the bridge nearest to the Edward Jones Dome. After what happened to the Jayhawks last night, luck alone might not carry them to Atlanta.

Maryland basketball fans might have received some good news Friday night - and it had nothing to do with the Harrison twins. Bill Self signed a longtime extension at Kansas on Friday, meaning that second-year coach Mark Turgeon is not going anywhere anytime soon. I've always contended since the day Turgeon was hired to succeed Gary Williams in May 2011 that the only place I could see the former Kansas point guard and assistant coach going was back to Lawrence. Not that Self was rumored to be going anywhere, but just as Roy Williams surprised Jayhawks fans by returning to his North Carolina roots, I could see Self going home to Oklahoma State, his alma mater.

ST. LOUIS - The idea, as always, was to run. But it was clear from the outset last night that Alabama-Birmingham would run into roadblocks at every turn. It ran into a wall of sound from a pro-Kansas crowd at the Edward Jones Dome and the weight of 106 years of Jayhawks tradition, represented on the bench by former star Danny Manning. Mostly, the Blazers - a 25-year-old program that dreams big - were stopped cold by an exemplary effort from the current Kansas players. The Jayhawks clinically dismantled UAB's trademark pressure defense, ruled the paint and shrugged off the Blazers' fast-break offense for a 100-74 rout in an NCAA tournament St. Louis Regional semifinal.

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Duke has provided some painful memories for the Kansas Jayhawks in the NCAA tournament. Coach Roy Williams still tears up when talking about his team's loss to Duke in the 1991 final in Indianapolis. Seniors Kirk Hinrich and Nick Collison are still a bit miffed about the way the Blue Devils ended their freshman season in a second-round game in Winston-Salem, N.C. "I just remember being heartbroken after the game," Hinrich recalled yesterday. "We probably played our best basketball of the year in that game.

They were part of two rich recruiting pipelines Roy Williams had developed in his first decade at Kansas. Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich had followed Raef LaFrentz from Iowa. Drew Gooden was the latest in a line of Californians that began with Adonis Jordan and eventually included Paul Pierce, Scot Pollard and Jacque Vaughn. Together, they were going to bring the Jayhawks back to the national spotlight that had begun to fade in Lawrence with two straight second-round defeats in the NCAA tournament.

MADISON, Wis. - Considering the tradition of their respective basketball programs and the expectations coming into the NCAA tournament, Kansas and Oregon should approach today's Midwest Regional final at the Kohl Center as polar opposites. In this case, the opposites are quite an attraction because their playing styles are so similar. The top-seeded Jayhawks have spent the past two weeks playing against teams trying to slow them down. In the second-seeded Ducks, Kansas (32-3) will face a team that will try to run the Jayhawks off the court.

The honeymoon between Bill Self and Kansas could be a long one. Given the bitter parting last spring between former Jayhawks coach Roy Williams and the team's fans and some of its players, whoever showed up in Lawrence was likely to be well-received. Given Self's laid-back personality off the court and his team's fast start on the floor this season (3-0, including a win over then-No. 3 Michigan State), the transition has been even smoother than most thought it might be. A No. 1 ranking, which Kansas received Monday after the top four teams lost last week, certainly doesn't hurt.

MADISON, Wis. - Revenge was sweet in the Sweet 16 for Kansas last night, even if it did take the Jayhawks a year to find it. A year after being knocked out by top seed Illinois as the fourth seed in the semifinals of the Midwest Regional in San Antonio, top-seeded Kansas returned the disfavor to the fourth-seeded Fighting Illini last night at the Kohl Center with a thrilling, 73-69 victory. A pair of free throws by freshman swingman Keith Langford with 2.8 seconds left secured the win, sending Kansas (32-3)

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- All second half, Jamaal Tatum had carried Southern Illinois on his 6-foot-2, 175-pound frame. After a cold first half, he had kept the Salukis in the game in the second period with 17 points. Then, with just 10 seconds left, he got the shot he wanted and the Salukis needed to tie the game - an open three-pointer. He missed it, and a magical season for Southern Illinois was over with a 61-58 loss to top-seeded Kansas in the West Regional semifinals last night. "The last shot I took, I practiced ... late at night, early in the morning, between classes," Tatum said.