St. Louis ? The Jayhawks’ surgical strike of the Cardinal from Stanford couldn’t have looked prettier from Section 427, Row XX, Seat 22 and 23.

That’s where KU fans Kristi Sessler and Bill Walters, both of St. Louis, watched Saturday’s game at the Edward Jones Dome.

Officially, the worst seat in the house is 308 feet from midcourt.

The ones Sessler and Walters occupied weren’t far from that football-field distance.

“I love it anyway,” Walters said.

Sessler added: “I’ve wanted to see KU play forever. The Jayhawks have been my team ever since Ryan Robertson (of St. Charles, Mo.) played there as a freshman.”

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Karen and Dave Moore of rural Miami County, Kan., may have been the only people in St. Louis not aware that KU was playing in the NCAA Tournament.

Dave Moore, a sergeant with the Overland Park Police Department, was in town for a conference of the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation. His wife tagged along for the tourism.

“Is KU playing here?” she asked.

Now, if the Kansas City Royals had been scheduled to take on the St. Louis Cardinals a few blocks away in Busch Stadium, there wouldn’t have been a sports deficit in the Moore family.

“We’re not bitten by the basketball bug,” Sgt. Moore said. “I’m just waiting for the baseball season.”

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KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway took advantage of an appearance by the Kentucky Wildcats in the NCAA Tournament to catch up with old friends in St. Louis.

Hemenway was University of Kentucky chancellor for six years before becoming KU’s chancellor in June 1995.

“It’s fun to see some of the Kentucky people,” he said.

But don’t get the idea that his past affiliation led him to cheer for the Wildcats from Lexington, Ky.

“I don’t have any divided loyalty, I can assure you,” Hemenway said.

He’ll now turn his attention to contests in Madison, Wis., which is the next stop for the Jayhawks.

“I have to go to Wisconsin,” he said, joking. “It’s in my contract, they tell me.”

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Jason and Lacey Gaede of Emporia didn’t leave St. Louis without a memento of the Jayhawks’ tournament experience.

At the Union Station mall, they had artist Jim Batts draw a pencil and air-brush drawing of the two. They’re sort of comical representations of the couple, with huge facial features  especially ears and lips  matched with a small body.

Despite being a student at Emporia State University, Jason Gaede had to make this trip to the Big Dance.

“I’ve been a KU fan for all my life,” he said.

“And this picture,” Lacey said, “captures his best feature  a big mouth.”

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Another couple on the road with the Jayhawks said this tournament victory saved them from much agony.

Darin Coash, a 2001 KU graduate from Topeka, and Chris Shanks, a 1995 graduate living in Kansas City, Mo., joined about 200,000 people in chilly weather for the two-hour St. Patrick’s Day Parade on Market Street.

Coash predicted a 79-73 KU victory, while Shanks was closer to the truth with a guess of KU 84, Stanford 69.

“If they lose I’ll have to go home crying,” Shanks said.

For Coash, it would have been worse: “I’d be in a fetal position for a few weeks.”

 Staff writer Tim Carpenter can be reached at 832-7155.