MADISON, WIS. ? Bill Self took the proffered ball cap from the young fan and autographed it. Then the 38-year-old Self, now in his second season as Illinois’ men’s basketball coach, placed his John Henry on a couple of programs offered by Illini boosters.

Self was standing in the northwest exit at the Kohl Center, site of this weekend’s NCAA Midwest Regional, after a spirited 40-minute practice in preparation for tonight’s Sweet 16 battle against Kansas University.

As he moved toward a scheduled media session underneath the seats, Self spotted a man wearing blue warm-ups who had walked past without seeing him.

“Hey, Doug,” Self hollered, “you not going to speak? It’s just a game.”

Doug Vance, Kansas University’s associate athletic director for media relations, turned, smiled and shook hands with the man who had been a 24-year-old assistant coach under Larry Brown 16 years earlier.

“Of the coaches Larry had in those days,” Vance said later, “some you knew would make it and some you weren’t sure about. But Bill Self was one I always thought would be successful because he was serious about it.”

A former Oklahoma State backcourt performer, Self has moved quickly up the coaching ladder and he won’t turn 40 until December.

Last year in San Antonio, at exactly the same stage of the NCAA Midwest Regional, Illinois ended the Jayhawks’ season with a convincing 80-64 victory. But that was then, Self stressed Thursday, and this is now.

“We were a physical team last year, but we’re not as physical as we were last year,” Self said, “and Kansas is one of the most physical teams in the country.”

Still, Illinois has point guard Frank Williams back and Williams burned the Jayhawks for 30 points in the Alamodome. Williams, however, is following the party line when it comes to comparisons.

“(Kansas) is a lot better than they were last year,” said Williams, a 6-foot-3 junior who will turn pro when this season ends. “They like to put the ball in the hole a lot faster. That’s a totally different team and we’re a totally different team.”

Not totally. Not really. Kansas returns four starters from that San Antonio meeting  Drew Gooden, Nick Collison, Jeff Boschee and Kirk Hinrich  while Illinois has three  Williams, guard Cory Bradford and forward Brian Cook. At the same time, Self still has basically the same deep bench that wore Kansas down. UI’s bench outscored KU, 28-0, last March.

“There are some intriguing match-ups because our two best players (Williams and Cook) play against arguably their best players (Hinrich and Gooden), but you have to put Collison in there, too,” Self said. “But it’s not about Frank and Kirk or Gooden and Cook. It’s about Kansas and Illinois.”

In scoring average, Kansas has added about 10 points a game since last season while Illinois has remained virtually static  77.9 ppg last year, 77.6 this year.

“The X Factor,” Self said, “is you’ve got to make open shots when you get them because against Kansas you won’t get 30 of them.”

Illinois had a lot of open shots in last year’s meeting, but shot just 43.1 percent. Bradford had a lot to do with that. The senior guard missed 12 of 13 attempts, including going 8-of-9 from three-point range.

“Yeah, but we still won the game by playing good on the defensive end,” Bradford said. “We’ve gotta be hungry. We feel the tougher team will win.”