KU: ‘We’ll play where they put us’

? Playing first- and second-round NCAA Tournament games in Kansas City, Mo., sure would be convenient for Kansas University’s basketball players and fans.

But Jayhawk coach Bill Self says it won’t rank as a major bummer if the tournament selection committee sends the Jayhawks packing today.

“If you look at it like you have your hopes set on something, you can be disappointed if it doesn’t happen. We will be excited, happy no matter where they send us,” said Self, who will find out the team’s postseason fate at 5 p.m. today.

“I won’t put it on our guys that it’s something bad if it doesn’t happen,” he said of the committee assigning the Jayhawks to Kemper Arena.

Self said he felt two wins in Dallas over the weekend would “have ensured us of being a 4 seed or better.”

Most pundits have said KU would be sent to Kemper if seeded fourth or better.

“I don’t know about one loss,” Self said. “If they look at how we played lately, we’ve played pretty well, but I can’t tell you what will happen. Our RPI is good. It’s 12 going in (to Big 12 tourney). I can’t believe we hurt it much.”

Self said it probably didn’t matter whether KU was a 4 seed or 5 seed.

“The whole thing about the tournament in my opinion is more about matchups than seeds this year,” Self said. “If you are a 4 or 5, you are playing a team that can definitely play.”

Kansas coach Bill Self shows his dismay over a foul called on the Jayhawks in the second half.

Self was asked if KU was a 3, 4, 5 or 6 seed.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I think we should be seeded in some ways better than some of the so-called experts have us seeded. We tied for second in the league, although Texas will be seeded ahead of us because they beat us twice.

“I still think the way we finished the season is pretty good. I hope we’re in the top 16 (teams), but you never know.”

The Jayhawk players admit they would like to have been assigned to Kemper Arena for the NCAAs, but seem resigned to the fact that will not happen.

“Possibly if we would have won we would have gotten a 3 or 4 and been in Kansas City,” junior Aaron Miles said. “We’ll play where they put us.

“Of course you want to go to Kansas City and have fans’ support, but I’ll go anywhere.”

“It’d be nice,” Wayne Simien said of Kansas City. “We have a great fan base, and it would be great to play in front of them. But it doesn’t really matter where we go.”

“I think it’d be good,” said Michael Lee, “but a crowd never won a game. It does help when the fans get behind us, and we’ve got the best fans in the country hands down. It would be nice for them and for us, too. At the same time, we’ve gone to different places before. We’ll go to play wherever they tell us to play.”

“If the NCAA wants to sell extra T-shirts and all that, that’s fine, but I’m not concerned about that. I just want to play,” Keith Langford said of the NCAA shipping KU to K.C. to fill the 3,000 seats that remain for the games and to sell more merchandise.

As far as the team’s morale entering the postseason, Self and the players say one loss shouldn’t be a killer.

“A loss like this can definitely deflate you. We aren’t going to let this mess us up,” Miles said.

“If a loss like this deflates a team, you are not a team,” J.R. Giddens said. “It won’t deflate us.”

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Still possible: KU assistant athletic director Jim Marchiony, who worked for the NCAA many years, was asked if there was hope of KU still being assigned to Kemper.

“Sure, I think there is hope,” he said. “There’s no way of telling what the committee members will be looking at without being in that room.”

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Incorrect stat: Somebody in the media messed up big-time this week in reporting that KU never had defeated Missouri three times in a season.

That incorrect fact, which is believed to have come from a radio show, reached the Jayhawks, who used that as motivation Friday in their 94-69 rout of Missouri, KU’s third win over the Tigers this year.

“It’s the first time in history a Kansas team beat Missouri three times in a season. It’s a big accomplishment, especially being down 12 early,” Langford said.

Informed KU had accomplished that feat 17 times, the last time in 1977-78, Langford said, “I guess that means it’s the first time in 30 years.”