Kansas University’s men’s basketball loss to Texas on Saturday hurt the Jayhawks’ pride, but, as it turned out, nothing else.

The Jayhawks (21-8) Sunday were awarded a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament’s St. Louis Regional — not a 5 or 6 seed that pundits had predicted after KU’s 64-60 Big 12 Conference tournament semifinal setback.

What’s more, the tournament committee elected to send the Jayhawks to down-the-road Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo., for a first-round battle against Illinois-Chicago. Tip will be approximately 8:55 Friday night.

All the good news took KU coach Bill Self by surprise.

“Yes, a little bit,” Self said Sunday night after watching the tournament selection show with his players in the athletic director’s suite at KU’s Memorial Stadium.

“I was breaking it down this morning. After looking at RPI and rankings and things like that, I thought we were right at that 15, 16, 17 team (overall in the tournament). I wasn’t shocked we got a No. 4 seed, but obviously it worked out nice. We were able to stay at home.

“Then again, this time of year it’s more about matchups than it is where you play. I’m sure our fans are happy though.”

Self said Sunday’s news could be taken as a reward for the Jayhawks having survived the seventh toughest schedule in the country.

“I’ve been in the room (on Selection Sunday) when we’re 29-4 and a 7 seed,” he said of one season at Tulsa. “I’ve been in the room and projected to be a 2 seed and end up a 4 (at Illinois). It’s something that can deflate you a bit. I think today we expected to be a 5 or something like that. We look up and are a 4. If anything it gives us a little bit of an adrenaline rush.”

Kansas University coach Bill Self talks about the Jayhawks' upcoming NCAA Tournament game against Illinois-Chicago. Self discussed the Flames, KU's first-round foe, Sunday at Hadl Auditorium.

Self said he hadn’t “used the Kansas City carrot much” in pep talks with his players during the latter stages of the season.

“Maybe a little bit. I felt if we beat Texas we’d be guaranteed that. I do think we played ourselves into a 4 seed. We were on the outside looking in a couple of weeks ago. I think if you look at the seeds, it looks like the committee did a good job looking at strength of schedule. I’m sure our schedule had something to do with us being a 4 seed.”

As far as heading to nearby Kemper Arena, Self says it has advantages and disadvantages.

First the advantages:

“I don’t know if this will be a homecourt advantage for us,” he said. “I don’t know if it makes you perform better. If it’s worth a couple of points you can use every point this time of year.”

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The disadvantages?

“There’s always pressure whenever people expect you to do certain things. Certainly with the supposed home court there will be pressure to play better.”

He also said he would have to be careful to shield his players from friends who want tickets and fans who might try to stake out the team hotel.

Of KU’s first-round foe, 23-7 Illinois-Chicago of the Horizon League, Self knows a lot about the Flames after coaching at the University of Illinois the past three years.

He also already has acquired a lot of tape on the team that’s won 12 straight games.

“I’d say they make it very difficult to score and they are tough. They always play tough,” Self said.

If KU beats the Flames, the Jayhawks would play the winner of the Providence-Pacific game Sunday. Two wins and it’d be on to the Sweet 16 in St. Louis, where KU likely would run into Kentucky in the third round and perhaps Gonzaga or Georgia Tech in the regional final.

“I haven’t studied it, but I’d say ours from my perspective,” Self said, asked which of the four regionals is toughest. “You look at the 13 seeds (Illinois-Chicago, Virginia Commonwealth, East Tennessee State, UTEP), Illinois-Chicago has won 12 in a row and won their league. They’ll be a tough 13 seed.

“Providence and Pacific are equally accomplished. Kentucky is the No. 1 seed in the entire tournament. You can make a case our regional is toughest.”

As far as his team, Self said the Jayhawks would let up at practice this week and give some aches and pains time to heal.

“I can tell you right now it doesn’t disappoint me we didn’t have to play today,” Self said of the Big 12 final. “I think three games in a row, we’d obviously have looked forward to playing ’em and been excited to play, but that would have been a difficult task.

“Playing Friday also is a good thing. It gives us an extra day.”