Troy Appuhn hardly flinched at the question: Where would the Kansas Jayhawks wind up in his NCAA tournament bracket?

“I’ll probably have them winning it all,” said Appuhn, a resident of Omaha, Neb., and a brother of KU baseball player Jason Appuhn.

His answer hardly came as a shock, if only because Appuhn was decked out in a blue KU cap and windbreaker, and because his mother, Lois, was wearing a blue KU sweatshirt. Besides, it’s no great risk to pencil a No. 1 seed into the Final Four.

But what about Kansas’ disappointing NCAA Tournament record, he was asked. The Jayhawks are a dreadful 6-4 as a No. 1 seed under coach Roy Williams. After they lost convincingly to Oklahoma in Sunday’s Big 12 Tournament final, some of the faithful may have begun to fret. Not Appuhn.

“I never look at history,” Appuhn said. “Usually, history has been that they lose. You have to look at what happens this year.”

As I filled out my bracket sheet Monday, I kept wondering what to do with Kansas. A lot of people have wondered what to do with Kansas. Many of them now reside in California.

My first thought was to pick the Jayhawks to win the whole thing. After all, they had looked unstoppable in annihilating Texas Tech, an NCAA sixth seed, by 40 points in the Big 12 semifinals in Kansas City’s Kemper Arena.

But on Sunday OU clubbed KU in Kansas City. The nine-point defeat raised some troubling questions about the Jayhawks’ ability to cope with a mean, physically gifted team, and several in the NCAA tourney fit that description. (Don’t blush, Cincinnati, Maryland and Illinois.)

Besides, there’s all that horrible history…

I needed an answer. So I zipped out to Lawrence and looked for signs.

First stop was the Jayhawk Bookstore, perched atop Naismith Hill with a view to Allen Fieldhouse.

Outside the store I encountered the Appuhn clan. Troy and his wife, Carol, had come with Troy’s mom, Lois, to roust up some proper attire for their 6-week-old daughter, Alexis. By proper, I mean anything bearing the strutting Jayhawk logo.

The Appuhns like KU’s draw in the Midwest Regional. Troy said he wasn’t too concerned about losing to OU on Sunday.

“Anybody can get beat,” he said. “I just think they were looking ahead.”

That’s what the Lawrence Journal-World was thinking too. The front page of the Journal-World, the Bible of Rock Chalk Nation, bore a reassuring headline Monday: “KU looks past loss to NCAA tournament.”

Beneath the headline was a color photo of Kansas coach Roy Williams. He was crouched in front of his bench wearing a familiar March expression: anxious. I began to wonder whether Williams knew something the rest of us didn’t.

At Jayhawk Spirit on Massachusetts Street, natty black caps commemorating KU’s 1999 Big 12 Tournament title were being sold at half-price. That was the last postseason tourney the Jayhawks won. Was the owner making room for new inventory? Hmmm…

As I cruised around town, crossing streets named for Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio  clues, perhaps, that the Hoosiers, Wildcats and Buckeyes are in for long runs this month?  nothing seemed to jump out. Then I wheeled down 11th Street, a winding lane that descends toward Memorial Stadium until it is bisected by another street.

Illinois Street: a dead end.

Finally, a sign.

The Illini over Kansas in the Sweet Sixteen, just like last year.

Duke wins it all, just like last year.