Orlando, Fla. ? Aside from the palm trees, the scene could have been on Massachusetts Street.

Kansas University fans dressed in crimson and blue packed a sports bar, drinking beer and cheering their beloved Jayhawk basketball team Saturday night as it pummeled UC-Santa Barbara 72-52 in Reno, Nev.

But this wasn’t Kansas; it was Orlando, where KU fans gathered for the Tangerine Bowl took a break from their football focus to hone in on hoops.

“It feels like Lawrence in here,” said Bob Steinbock, a KU fan from Topeka.

About 300 fans packed J.B.’s Sports Restaurant for the watch party, sponsored by the KU Alumni Association. The crowd was a mix of Kansas fans in for the bowl game, alumni in Orlando and KU faculty, staff and administrators who flew on two chartered flights Saturday morning.

The sports bar is the official spot for game-watching parties by the Orlando chapter of the KU Alumni Association. Usually, about 10 fans show up — or 30 come NCAA Tournament time in the spring.

In fact, Chris Branaman, a 1996 KU graduate and president of the Orlando chapter, said the group basically just existed to watch basketball.

“We don’t really do any fund raising or meetings or anything,” he said.

The heavy turnout Saturday delighted Gregory Kaul, an Orlando resident who graduated from KU in 1987.

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Kaul claims to have started the tradition of fans raising their hands and yelling “Whoosh!” after KU players make free throws. He said he and a friend brought the tradition from their high school in Chicago — and helped it gain permanence by convincing the score board operator to flash “Whoosh!” on the screen after makes at the charity stripe.

“At one of the first games, we just stood up and started doing it,” he said. “At first, people were throwing things at us and yelling at us. By the end of the year, it eventually caught on.”

Adam Balentine, a KU junior from Raymore, Mo., was among those enjoying the basketball game on television Saturday. He flew to Orlando Saturday afternoon with his parents and 7-year-old sister.

Balentine’s history with KU football literally goes back to the time he was in the womb. His mother was pregnant with him when she attended KU’s appearance in the Holiday Bowl in 1981.

He said he went to every home football game.

“I go and I cheer,” he said. “I don’t get too many people to go with me.”

Kansas University fans, including Colin Davidson, right, 15, gather to watch the KU-UC-Santa Barbara basketball game at J.B.'s Sports Restaurant in Orlando, Fla. At left with hands raised are, from left, Lloyd Sponholtz, Lawrence, Dick Bennett, Lawrence, Matt Lacey, Cape Canaveral, Fla., and Charlotte Sponholtz, Lawrence. All traveled to Orlando to watch KU play against North Carolina State in the Tangerine Bowl on Monday.

But he’s hoping success on Monday could help boost KU’s fan base.

Steinbock, the Topeka fan, watched the basketball game Saturday with his wife, Helen, and cousin, Wes Meier, of Wichita.

“I was planning on going to Reno months ago,” he said. “But I said I’m not skipping a bowl game to go to Reno.”

Steinbock, who graduated from KU in 1974, said coach Mark Mangino had given KU fans a reason to be excited about football — and not just basketball.

“We had some good teams in the early ’90s, and we thought we’d turned the corner,” he said. “We’ve got it turned around again.”