Black cats? No problem.

Friday the 13th? Child’s play.

But letting your dog lick the Mardi Gras beads?

Now that’s tempting fate.

Kansas University basketball fan Tom Dangermond learned the hard way.

During a recent trip to New Orleans, Dangermond and his wife bought crimson and blue beads, which they offered to their Weimaraner, Sage, to “kiss” during the Arizona game.

Until it became obvious that doing so was having no positive effect.

“Our new superstition became: Do not let the dog lick the Jayhawk beads,” the Oskaloosa man said.

And like dozens of other fans across the city, state — and even country — Dangermond plans to stick with his good luck charm for today’s basketball game against Marquette.

All in the apparel

“I don’t know where the superstition came from,” said Emily Mulligan, who is planning to wear a certain sweatshirt and light a sunflower-scented candle for today’s first game of the Final Four.

The Lawrence resident said she usually wasn’t superstitious, but when it comes to Kansas University men’s basketball, she’ll do whatever it takes to get the “good vibes” going.

“I really think it works,” said Mulligan, whose husband refuses to wear any Jayhawk apparel at all for fear of jinxing his team.

Like many Jayhawk fans, Tom Dangermond, Oskaloosa, has a basketball superstition. His involves not letting his dog Sage lick his good-luck Mardi Gras beads.

“I think it probably is the collective superstition of every Kansas fan in the country at work,” she said. “I don’t mind contributing to that.”

Another fan, Linda Reynolds, plans to help the team by making a Jayhawk fan’s ultimate sacrifice: She’s not going to watch today’s game.

“Every time I’ve ever watched them, they’ve lost,” she said. “Last week two of my friends were getting ready to call me and say, ‘You better not be watching.’ And my daughter who lives in Hawaii was fixing to call me.”

Reynolds, 42, Lawrence, says she refuses to even check the score until the last buzzer sounds.

And she won’t listen to the game on the radio, either. Once, when the Jayhawks were winning, she accidentally caught a few snippets of radio announcers Max Falkenstien and Bob Davis over the loud speaker at Wal-Mart. The team ended up losing.

“Let them know I really would love to watch them win, but I’m not going to take that chance now,” she said. “Tell them I’ll stay away for their sake.”

Others will only eat the same foods they ate earlier in the season when the team won or watch the game with friends who have proven to be lucky.

One woman said she was wearing a certain pair of earrings during the game. A man wrote that if watching the game away from home, he would still leave every television in the house off but tuned to the game channel.

Members of a sixth-grade class at Wakarusa Valley School pat the head of a clay Jayhawk every game day.

A Lawrence bar received calls from people who requested seating at the same table they used during previous games.

One Lawrence family went to extremes, offering the team’s trainer a Jayhawk blessed by the pope. It’s not a bad idea considering the Jayhawks take on a Catholic school today and might need papal intercession.

Rituals, superstitions

“We all want to think that we’re connected and we make a difference,” said Greg Buell, a sports psychologist at Wichita State University.

Buell spent time studying the difference between athletes’ superstitions and rituals.

He encourages players to have rituals — for instance, dribbling a certain number of times before shooting a free throw — because they can offer comfort and confidence.

But he said superstitious behavior, such as coach Roy Williams spitting in the Mississippi River for good luck, didn’t have the same effect.

It’s called “magical thinking,” he said. “Those two things have no connection whatsoever.

Yet many people believe they do.

“It’s what we call associated behavior,” he said: “Just once I wore such-and-such a shirt and my team did great, so the next game I’m going to wear that same dang shirt.”

Sometimes fans do make a difference, like when they cheer loudly at Allen Fieldhouse and rattle the other team, Buell said, so it’s a natural extension.

And besides that, superstitions — in moderation — can be fun.

“I love to see folks get all revved up and excited about their team,” Buell said. “If you’re a loyal Jayhawk, you’re going to encourage everyone to do their superstitions just on the off-chance that Dr. B is wrong.”