Kansas University’s basketball players were granted free time to walk famed Bourbon Street in March of 1999, the last time the Jayhawks played NCAA Tournament games in New Orleans.

KU sophomore Michael Lee, for one, hopes history repeats itself in 2003.

“‘Girls Gone Wild’ … ‘Girls Gone Wild,'” the 6-foot-3 Lee said, asked his favorite thing about the Big Easy, site of Saturday’s KU-Marquette Final Four semifinal at 5:07 p.m. at the Superdome.

“You see it every night on TV. If you stay up until 2 or 2:30 in the morning, you’ll see it,” Lee added with a grin.

For those not into late-night infomercials, “Girls Gone Wild” shows girls going wild on the streets of New Orleans during Spring Break as tourists toss beads.

Not that Lee plans to run wildly down the streets this weekend.

“No. We’re not going to party,” Lee said. “There’s too much at stake. You’ve got to have fun, but we’ve got to take care of the business at hand.”

That business would be winning a national title in the same city KU has visited twice for NCAA games in the Roy Williams era.

In ’99, KU beat Evansville, 95-74, then fell to Kentucky, 92-88 in overtime, in a second-round Midwest Regional game at the Superdome. In 1993, KU lost to North Carolina, 78-68, in the Final Four semifinals. Dean Smith’s Tar Heels went on to beat Michigan in the final.

“I love New Orleans because the Final Four is there,” KU sophomore Keith Langford said. “I want to play

there because my favorite player (Jalen Rose, Michigan) played there in ’93. I can get some redemption.”

Langford, who wears Rose’s No. 5, follows every move of the lefthanded Chicago Bulls shooting guard.

“Yeah I do,” Langford said. “He lost to Carolina in the Superdome. I won’t forget that.”

KU coach Roy Williams wanted Carolina, his alma mater, to win that game. New Orleans also was the site of North Carolina’s 1982 national championship. Williams was an assistant on the team that beat Georgetown in the title game, marking Smith’s first national championship.

“I always felt if I came back I’d change my behavior,” KU coach Williams said. “I had big tears running down my face because I was so happy for coach. I said if I’m ever in that situation again, I’d walk out with my arms frickin’ straight up in the air.”

To get to the title game against either Syracuse or Texas, KU will have to beat 27-5 Marquette, a squad led by guards Dwyane Wade (21.6 ppg) and Travis Diener (12.1 ppg, 68 of 185 threes) and forward Robert Jackson (15.4 ppg, 7.5 rpg).

“Marquette is tough,” KU senior Nick Collison said. “Inside they are physical. They’ll beat you up. And their guards are as good as any in the country.”