Kansas City, Mo. ? Anyone looking for a good tight end might be smart to scout the NCAA basketball tournament.

The sport of basketball, where big guys learn to jump, maneuver in tight spaces and use their bodies to block out, has been breeding great tight ends of late.

There are no finer examples than Tony Gonzalez and Antonio Gates, who’ll be on display today when Kansas City (3-7) plays host to San Diego (7-3).

Gonzalez, the Chiefs’ All-Pro, has credited his experience as a forward at Cal with honing his skills as an NFL tight end.

Now into the league comes San Diego’s Gates, who didn’t even play college football but excelled as a power forward for Kent State.

Just two years after a sharp-eyed scout remembered that the athletically gifted Gates also had been a standout football player in high school and persuaded San Diego to sign him as an undrafted free agent, Gates has hit the big time. After catching eight balls for 101 yards in a victory over Oakland last week, he’ll invade Gonzalez’s turf with nine touchdown receptions and a league-leading 62 catches.

He’s a major reason the Chargers have become contenders in the AFC West.

“Antonio has a great attitude about this sport,” San Diego coach Marty Schottenheimer said. “His skills are quite similar to Tony’s.”

Gonzalez, 28, is having the best year of his career, with 56 catches for 733 yards and five touchdowns. The 6-foot-5, 260-pounder has more career receptions (524), yards (6,380) and touchdowns (52) than any other active tight end.

“Nobody is playing the position of tight end better than Tony Gonzalez is right now,” Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil said.

Sprinters often fizzle when they attempt to transfer their talents and become NFL wide receivers. So what is it about basketball that helps tight ends?

“I can’t speak for a lot of guys who played basketball,” Gates said. “But for me, it’s my hand-eye coordination from basketball, as well as catching the ball — boxing out to get a rebound.”

Chiefs offensive coordinator Al Saunders was with the Chargers 20 years ago when basketball standout Kellen Winslow blossomed into a Hall of Fame tight end.

“Like basketball players, they leap up and take the ball in a competitive environment,” Saunders said. “They’ve got those kind of skills.”

Gonzalez admits basketball always has been his first love.

“In basketball, you can’t catch the ball with your chest,” he said. “You see guys throughout the league who catch the ball with their chest. In basketball you can never, ever do that. You always catch it with your hands. When you carry that to the football field, it can give you so much more of an advantage.”