Kansas City, Mo ? Kansas University freshmen Matt Robb and Nick Rosenthal don’t look like Memphis Tiger fans, talk like Memphis Tiger fans or walk like Memphis Tiger fans.

But after watching a row of Memphis Tiger fans clear out of a row behind the visitor’s bench early Friday afternoon, the KU road trippers did their best impersonations of Memphis Tiger fans in pouncing on their vacated seats.

The surreptitious squatting scored Robb and Rosenthal unfettered access to on-the-court action — leaving them peering over a pair of Dasani water coolers behind the bench, instead of dozens of rows of fans from the rafters.

“Our tickets are up in 211, row Q, three rows from the top — dead behind the basket,” Robb said, during the first half of Oklahoma State’s win over Eastern Washington, which followed Memphis’ toppling of South Carolina. “We figured we’d better take advantage.”

Added Rosenthal: “This is a hell of an upgrade.”

Robb and Rosenthal were among the dozens of KU fans hoping to informally trade up seats in preparation for Friday night’s game against Illinois-Chicago. KU’s 550-seat allocation of tickets already had been spoken for, but hundreds more KU fans were left with less-desirable spots among the 17,450 remaining seats.

The KU classmates and two friends each paid $150 for their tickets. All four managed to slip into lower-level seats by following a time-honored code:

• Scope out vacated seats from above.

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• Seek out a tunnel that isn’t patrolled by a ticket-checking usher, or at least one that doesn’t seem to be paying attention.
• Wait for a mass exodus of fans, to create a diversion.
• Saunter into the section with a sense of purpose.

“Act like you belong — like you’ve been there,” Rosenthal said. “Just sit down, hang out and be courteous to the people around you.”

Such strategies work — to a point, said Eric Nemeth, a spokesman for Global Spectrum, which manages Kemper operations.

Nemeth said the guys had the right idea, but cautioned against them getting too comfortable. The NCAA wants the right people in the right seats, and Global Spectrum has 50 observers keeping an eye out for such shenanigans.

“The ushers know the system,” said Nemeth, who recalls squatting a time or two or 200 in his youth. “They keep a lookout for people like that and people like me — before I got in the arena business.”

Even a guy from Syracuse, N.Y.

“I like KU, too,” said Tom Campbell, who lives in Leawood but grew up in the shadow of Syracuse University, winner of last year’s national championship against KU in New Orleans. “KU’s going to go a lot farther than Syracuse this year. One thing that’s helping ’em is they’re starting close to home.”

Campbell, fighting back his Syracuse allegiances Friday evening during a pep rally outside Kemper, joined friend and KU fan Brian Webster in a search for tournament tickets. They intend to stick around through Sunday and hope to follow KU to the regionals in St. Louis.

“They’ll tear it up,” Webster said.

About 1,000 people jammed into the pep rally tent outside the Golden Ox, just north of Kemper. In all, nearly 2,000 people were milling about the area a few hours before the game.

“He’ll be the next mayor,” she said.

Hack, a Lawrence city commissioner, said the political appointment would be a fitting tribute to Self and the Jayhawks should they accomplish the ultimate: a national championship in San Antonio.

Lawrence residents needn’t worry, should the Jayhawks lose. Commissioner Mike Rundle remains in line to serve a one-year term as mayor, taking over for Mayor David Dunfield early next month.

That’s the word from Gene Meyer, KU fan and president and chief executive officer of Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

“This is the NCAAs. They need to play through the pain,” said Meyer, echoing the sentiments of nearly a dozen other administrators from Kansas City-area hospitals gathered for Friday’s game. “Winning will make all their ails go away.”

Meyer wasn’t about to diagnose Giddens’ bum foot, Langford’s surgery-needing knee or Simien’s hurt groin, but he does know a way both sides can win.

“I’m not a clinician. I’m an administrator,” he said, laughing. “But if they’re in pain, they need to come to Lawrence Memorial Hospital.”