Anaheim, Calif. ? Wescoe Beach still beats Venice Beach, Newport Beach, Manhattan Beach, Seal Beach, Redondo Beach, Huntington Beach and any other beach within driving distance of the Arrowhead Pond, site of the NCAA West regionals.

That’s the word from none other than Max Wescoe, 18-year-old grandson of Clarke Wescoe, the former Kansas University chancellor and namesake of Wescoe Hall, the iconoclastic building on Jayhawk Boulevard. Wescoe Hall’s front “porch,” a popular student hangout between classes, is known as Wescoe Beach.

“It’s still the best of them all,” Max said Thursday as he was picking up his KU tickets at the team hotel. “It’s where it all happens. It’s still cool.”

But apparently not cool enough. Max, a high school senior, figures to attend a warm-weather school, such as the University of San Diego or University of Southern California.

“Maybe Arizona,” he said. “I’m thinking Arizona.”

Max is in town with his dad, David Wescoe, and siblings Ben, 14; and Zak, 12. The Milwaukee residents are pleased to be in southern California after following the Jayhawks through last year’s regionals in Madison, Wis., where temperatures struggled to rise above zero degrees.

Max’s take: “The beaches here are not bad, not bad at all. This is definitely better than Milwaukee.”

Valuable scribblings

Todd Beresford isn’t taking any chances.

Members of the Wescoe family -- from left, Max, 18; Zak, 12; their father, David; and Ben, 14 -- attended Kansas University's 69-65 victory over Duke. The relatives of former KU Chancellor Clarke Wescoe are from Milwaukee, but traveled to Anaheim, Calif., for Thursday's game at the Pond.

Thursday afternoon, the Huntington Beach, Calif., resident set up his perch in a hallway of the Jayhawks’ hotel, ready to swoop in for autographs on a table-card Jayhawk.

And not because he’s a fan.

“I’ve already gotten every team that’s in this regional,” said Beresford, who had snagged 11 Arizona Wildcats on a plank of wooden flooring and a collection of Duke Blue Devils on a basketball.

He figures to hit Notre Dame today, if the Fighting Irish are still around.

“Whoever gets out of this regional is probably going to win it all, so if I get all the teams, I’ll have a championship team-signed item,” Beresford said.

He expects the effort to pay off. Beresford says he makes anywhere from $80,000 to $120,000 a year selling autographed items, such as the $2,700 he fetched for a Fender Stratocaster signed by members of the Rolling Stones.

“It pays the bills,” he said. “I haven’t had to work a year since I got out of high school.”

He declined to predict the value of a Jayhawk filled with signatures, at least not until the tournament’s over.

“It’s whatever they want to pay for it,” he said.

Ticket talk

Justin Nydegger and his roaming band of KU road-trippers are among an elite group taking in games this week.

Of the 1,250 tickets allotted to KU for the regionals, nine went to KU students.

“We said we’d do it all year,” said Nydegger, a KU junior who led his three-man team on a 22-hour, 1,600-mile trek from Lawrence to Anaheim. “I thought there’d be more KU fans out here, but I’m glad we made it.”

KU Chancellor Robert Hemenway said he was pleased KU received more than twice as many tickets in Anaheim as it had for last week’s first and second rounds in Oklahoma City.

“Let’s hope that we have 20,000 Jayhawks turn out,” he said.