No. 1 seeds are supposed to breeze to the Final Four, right?

That’s the theory, though the Midwest Region’s top-seeded team, Kansas University, sees plenty of potential hazards and road blocks on a potentially bumpy route to Atlanta.

As top seed in the NCAA Midwest Regional, the 29-3 Jayhawks, who will meet 18-12 Holy Cross on Thursday in St. Louis, face a potential second-round matchup Saturday against either No. 8 seed Stanford (19-8) or No. 9 seed Western Kentucky (28-3), teams ranked 16th and 18th respectively in last week’s AP poll.

The top-ranked Jayhawks could run into Illinois or Florida in the Sweet 16, with teams like Oregon and Mississippi State looming in a potential Elite Eight contest.

“You always feel your bracket is the toughest, your first-round matchup the toughest, your possible second-round matchup the toughest,” KU coach Roy Williams said, coming up with some proof his road may be the toughest of No. 1 seeds KU, Maryland (East Region), Duke (South) and Cincinnati (West).

“I heard somebody say we were the only region that had the 8 and 9 seeds both being ranked teams. If that’s true, that’s pretty impressive.”

Williams is correct.

The other No. 8-9 tourney matchups involve unranked teams in Wisconsin-St. John’s (East); Notre Dame-UNC Charlotte (South) and UCLA-Mississippi (West). Even more astounding is the fact only two of the No. 2 seeded teams face possible ranked teams in their second-round meetings.

The Jayhawks’ loss to Oklahoma in Sunday’s Big 12 tournament finals, plus potentially tough matchups in the NCAA Tournament, caused TV analyst Billy Packer to say the Jayhawks lost a little “shine” entering the postseason.

“I think he’s right. We did lose a little shine,” Williams said.

“Yesterday (after routing Texas Tech) everybody thought we hung the moon, and today people think we are not as good. What you have to do is go back on the court and play better.”

He gives a thumbs-up to the location of KU’s “pod” games  nearby St. Louis. Two wins and it’s off to Madison, Wis., for the Sweet 16.

“We’re pleased to go to St. Louis to stay closer to home,” Williams said. “It’s good for the families. They don’t have to go as far to see their children. And it’s closer for our fans.”

As far as the first-round foe, 18-14 Holy Cross last year lost to Kentucky by just four points in the first round of the NCAAs.

“I know a little bit about Holy Cross, but not nearly enough to be prepared for them,” Williams said. “The first couple of days of practice we’ve got to work on Kansas to see if we can get something changed there.”

KU wound up with the highest seed of the six Big 12 teams that made the field. Oklahoma surprisingly received a No. 2 seed in the West, Cincinnati beating out the Sooners for the final No. 1 seed.

“It’s too close. You are splitting hairs,” Williams said. “Oklahoma did a great job, 13-3 in the regular season and they won the conference tournament. They had a great, great year, but there are still only four regions. I think you can make a case if there were five regions  five No. 1 seeds  that’d be perfect because I think all five teams deserve to be a No. 1. You are splitting hairs to how they made the decision.”

Williams says he wanted the Jayhawks to enjoy the fact they’d earned a top seed.

“It means you’ve had a great year to this point,” Williams said. “I’d feel better if we won today. To me there’s no point trying to be a 2, 3, 4 if you can be a No. 1. The biggest thing now is I want the team to enjoy what they’ve already accomplished and enjoy the journey as we go along. It sounds pretty corny. We’ll go work tomorrow and try to correct some things.”