St. Louis ? Talkative Stanford guard-forward Casey Jacobsen said what he meant and meant what he said the other night.

In the wake of Kansas’ loss to Oklahoma in the Big 12 Tournament final and a disjointed performance against Holy Cross in KU’s NCAA Tournament opener, Jacobsen allowed how he once thought Kansas was invincible, but not anymore.

More than one Kansas player used that comment as motivation. Was Jacobsen sorry he made it? Not a chance.

“That was an honest answer. I’m an honest guy,” Jacobsen said after the Jayhawks pounded the Cardinal, 86-63, in Saturday night’s NCAA second-rounder. “Tonight they were unbeatable.”

Moreover, Jacobsen, who led the Cardinal with 24 points, went out of his way to praise the Jayhawks.

“I hope they win the national title,” Jacobsen said. “I’ve lost before to a bunch of punks with no heart, and that’s not Kansas. I hope they win it all.”

Second the motion, said Stanford coach Mike Montgomery, who allowed that no team he has coached had ever been dismantled in the NCAA Tournament like this one on Saturday night.

“I don’t think we’ve been beaten this badly in the tournament,” Montgomery said. “I don’t know anybody who’s played better than that. We didn’t play a better team this year, that’s for sure.”

Stanford ran into a Kansas tornado during the first four minutes. KU exploded to a 15-0 lead. The Cardinal turned the ball over five times and missed five of six shots during the Kansas onslaught.

“They came out defensively and were all over us,” said 7-footer Chris Borchardt, who finished with 13 points and 11 boards. “On offense, they just attacked us. It happened so fast, I think we backed off.”

Added Montgomery: “We just got stunned by their athletic ability.”

It’s no secret the Cardinal doesn’t have many weapons after Jacobsen and Borchardt, so the Stanford plan was to push the ball inside to those two.

“We thought we could operate through the post,” Montgomery said. “But they pressured the ball and we couldn’t get the ball entered anywhere. When the ball was on the floor, there were three of them after it and none of us.”

After Kansas raced to a 48-26 halftime lead, the last 20 minutes were virtually moot.

Twice in the past (1992 and 1998), Kansas teams coached by Roy Williams have bowed to No. 8 tournament seeds when the Jayhawks were a No. 1 seed. Not this time.

Stanford was the wrong team in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“I think they looked at the name Stanford and the success we’ve had in the tournament and saw us as a real hurdle,” Montgomery said. “And it probably scared them that (Kirk) Hinrich might not play.”

Certainly it didn’t help Stanford any, either, that the media had been dumping on the Jayhawks after back-to-back poor performances against Oklahoma and Holy Cross.

“I just talked to Roy,” Montgomery said after he sat down for his postgame media debriefing, “and I told him I wish I had some of the problems you (the media) alluded to so much. Kansas is a great team and they played great tonight.”