Holy sticky web, Spiderman.

Richmond — they’re the Spiders, you know — produced the most stunning men’s basketball victory over Kansas University in Allen Fieldhouse since … well, the Arachnids joined a club, that’s all. A select one, granted.

KU isn’t invincible in its own barn. In fact, it’s hardly news the Jayhawks lost a January nonconference game. They’ve done it before. Perhaps more than you realize.

Last year, for example, Kansas blew a 52-39 halftime lead against Arizona and the Wildcats buried the Jayhawks in the second half for a shocking 91-74 triumph.

Still, Kansas wound up playing for the NCAA championship in April.

Then again, Arizona was one of the nation’s elite teams last season, and you really have to go back to 1993 to find a loss comparable to Thursday’s frustrating 69-68 decision to Richmond.

On that late January day 11 years ago, lightly regarded Long Beach State came to town and embarrassed the Jayhawks, 64-49. That one wasn’t even close. KU’s players just didn’t show up that night, and all the ranting and raving of coach Roy Williams couldn’t pull them out of their stupor.

And yet that ’93 team wound up at the NCAA Final Four in New Orleans.

Heck, even the 2002 KU team — arguably Williams’ best club — lost a January nonconference game and wound up at the Final Four. That one was on the road, though — an 87-77 decision at UCLA.

Richmond's Reggie Brown, lower right, plays keep-away from KU's Keith Langford.

In theory, it really isn’t a good idea to schedule a nonconference game in late January — at least for Kansas — but you can’t argue with the fact those three previous January defeats have been harbingers of Final Four appearances.

This year’s team could very well have a similar destiny and earn a berth in the 2004 Final Four in San Antonio, yet it’s difficult to envision for one reason — the Jayhawks pose no threat from long range.

Thursday night provided another woeful example of KU’s inability to hit the three. By missing nine of 11 treys, the Jayhawks’ Big 12 Conference-worst three-point shooting percentage dipped to .288.

In addition, of the 326 schools in NCAA Division One, Kansas ranked No. 271 in three-point shooting percentage going into Thursday’s contest. In other words, only 55 schools in the huge upper division are worse long-range shooters than the Jayhawks.

And yet Kansas is a ranked team — No. 12 in this week’s poll.

Why the Jayhawks — a 14-point favorite — didn’t show up for the Spiders is a question with no answer.

6Sports video: Richmond surprises Jayhawks Spiders ensnare Kansas Woodling: League breaks unkind to KU Richmond hangs close, strikes Kansas gets ‘slap in face’ Hear Bill: Richmond postgame audio Get the stats: KU-Richmond box score See the photos: KU-Richmond

It occurred to me late in the nearly 2 1/2-hour game when Kansas could not put the Spiders away perhaps the ancient analog Longines clock high on the west side was the culprit. The anachronistic timepiece, an Allen Fieldhouse fixture since opening day in 1955, was running three hours behind.

Often, it appeared the Jayhawks were running three hours behind, too.

It’s a safe bet the start of spring semester classes today had nothing to do with the Jayhawks showing up with their C game. Scratch the suspicion the players’ minds were on going to class today instead of on the game.

If many of the fans sitting behind me were correct, the referees were the real reason Richmond won. But they were wrong, as usual.

It’s true coach Bill Self was saddled with his first technical foul at Kansas and that several KU players displayed visible dismay after being tooted, but blaming the refs has always been nothing more than an excuse for inadequacies or ineptness, or both.

Moreover, the officiating crew of Tim Higgins, John Clougherty and Jim Burr has been around since John Wooden was a teenager. I’d wager that ageless trio has more than a century of officiating experience among them.

Thus it was left to Self to utter in one prophetic sentence why the Jayhawks lost. “We found a way,” he said, “to screw the game up.”

So they did. We can only hope all the Jayhawks woke up to their alarm clocks this morning and made it to class. They sure as heck missed their wake-up call Thursday night.