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Whoever coined the postseason saying "Survive and advance" must have had Kansas University's basketball team in mind. For the second straight season, the Jayhawks survived a major scare in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, bagging a 64-61 victory over Utah State Thursday night at Ford Center. The victory came a year after KU's shaky 70-59 decision over Holy Cross. This time, Kansas entered as the West Regional's No. 2 seed. Utah State was No. 15. Last year, KU was No. 1, and Holy Cross was No. 16. "It's a scare, but that's past tense, just like last year," KU sophomore Keith Langford said after slashing through Utah State's zone for a team-leading 22 points.

Racing downcourt after hitting a three-pointer, Kirk Hinrich flashed a grin and a three-finger salute in the direction of CBS-TV announcer Kevin Harlan with six minutes left in Saturday's Kansas University-Arizona State NCAA Tournament game at Ford Center. It was that kind of night. Hinrich and the Jayhawks frolicked all the way in an astonishingly easy 108-76 second-round West Regional victory over the outmanned Sun Devils. "That was a lot of fun," Hinrich said after scoring 24 points, just two nights after collecting just eight points in KU's shaky 64-61 victory over Utah State. "I feel a lot better after this game than the last one.

Mere mortal basketball players do not turn in performances like Nick Collison's Thursday night against Duke. "He's Superman II," Kansas University basketball coach Roy Williams gushed after Collison, KU's 6-foot-9, 255-pound senior, scored a career-high 33 points and grabbed 19 rebounds while playing all 40 minutes in the Jayhawks' 69-65 NCAA Tournament West Regional semifinal victory over Duke at Arrowhead Pond. "The kids called Kirk Hinrich Superman earlier in the year," Williams added with a grin. "So he's Superman II."

Kirk Hinrich sat alone on Kansas University's bench, his head in his hands as his teammates practiced before Saturday's NCAA West Regional Final at Arrowhead Pond. Hinrich, the Jayhawks' senior guard, appeared to be meditating before tipoff against No. 1-seeded Arizona. "I was thinking about a lot of things. I think I just knew how big a game this was. I don't ever remember being so anxious and so giddy before a game," the 6-foot-3, Sioux City, Iowa, native said. Hinrich was downright jubilant after scoring 28 points off 10-of-23 shooting in the Jayhawks' 78-75 victory over the Wildcats.

It looked easy, so easy, in the Big Easy. But Kansas University's basketball players insisted it was anything but simple after they treated Marquette like Emporia State, UNC Asheville, UMKC or any cream puff on the Jayhawks' regular-season schedule, annihilating the Golden Eagles, 94-61, in Saturday's Final Four national semifinal at the Superdome. "If you want to call it easy, you can. It's probably the toughest blowout I've ever played in," sophomore guard Keith Langford said after exploding for 23 points off 11-of-14 shooting, including 17 points the first half as KU (30-7) stormed to the fourth-largest margin of victory in an NCAA Final Four game.

One of the easiest shots in basketball proved the most difficult for Kansas University to make Monday night at the Superdome. Free throws — unguarded 15-foot shots — proved the main culprit in the Jayhawks' 81-78 loss to Syracuse in the NCAA national championship at the Superdome. "If we shoot 50 percent, which is a horrible percentage, we tie them. It's obvious it was the biggest factor in the game," KU senior Nick Collison said after the Jayhawks went 12-of-30 from the line.