Woodling: KU-OSU dream game

OKLAHOMA CITY ? Thousands upon thousands of newspaper inches have been devoted to the NCAA men’s basketball tournament during the last several days.

I’ve tried to read as many words as I could, but after awhile they run together and become a blur. Nevertheless, one opinion column I came across caught my attention.

The writer was Mark Whicker of the Orange County Register, one of the two largest newspapers in the suburban sprawl of Los Angeles, the L.A. Times being the other.

Anyway, Whicker penned a column predicting the winner of every game in this year’s NCAA tourney. Not just some of the games. Not the games involving only Southern California teams. Every game.

So I began reading Whicker’s predictions, curious about how he thought Kansas would fare. Not surprisingly, Whicker picked KU to dispose of first-round foe Bucknell.

“Bison has developing star in Chris McNaughton,” Whicker wrote. “Jayhawks have Wayne Simien.”

Then he picked Kansas to whip Wisconsin in the second round and go to Syracuse, N.Y., where the Jayhawks would meet and then defeat UConn. “Jayhawks, finally healthy,” he wrote, “were the first team to lead the RPI and get No. 3 seed.”

Who’s next? Nope, not North Carolina. Villanova.

Whicker picked the Wildcats to stun the Tar Heels and prevent, of course, the game Roy Williams said he dreaded — a reunion with many of the players he had recruited during his last two years on Mount Oread.

Kansas players, from left, J.R. Giddens, Stephen Vinson, Matt Kleinmann and Alex Galindo; coach Bill Self, second from right; and assistant coach Tim Jankovich, right, react to a dunk by Russell Robinson. The Jayhawks ended a public practice Thursday in Oklahoma City with a dunking show.

Whicker then picked Kansas to dispose of Villanova and atone for the Jayhawks’ worst loss of the season — that 83-62 thumping during an early January snowstorm at Philadelphia’s Wachovia Center. On to St. Louis.

At the Final Four, Whicker’s dance card listed Kansas, Louisville, Duke and Oklahoma State. In the semifinals, the veteran California writer has Kansas disposing of Duke and Oklahoma State ending Louisville’s season.

Thus, Whicker’s championship game matches Kansas against Oklahoma State.

My jaw dropped when I read that because a week ago, after Oklahoma State had edged the Jayhawks, 78-75, in the semifinals of the Big 12 Conference Tournament, I had written how fitting — albeit unlikely — it would be if KU and OSU played a rubber match for the NCAA championship.

Now here was a national college basketball writer coming to the same conclusion. An amazing coincidence, don’t you think? Surely, no other writer filled out his bracket that way.

Something else amazing happened Thursday night. I plunked my gear down in the media workroom at the Ford Center next to a female sportswriter. I introduced myself and she told me she was Robyn Norwood of the — would you believe? — Los Angeles Times.

So I asked her if she was going to be like Whicker and predict a Kansas-Oklahoma State national championship game. She had a little trouble understanding me and said: “Did you ask me if I liked Mark Whicker. Yes, I do. He’s my husband.”

The Jayhawks huddle near midcourt at the start of Thursday's practice.

Uh, duh … really? You’re his wife??? She assured me she was, that they live in Long Beach, which is about halfway between her office in L.A. and his place of work down the coast in Santa Ana and that, no, she does not predict the entire bracket like he does.

“He’s usually pretty good at it,” she said. “A couple of years ago, he picked Syracuse. That was pretty good because they were a third seed.”

You mean the year the Orange beat Kansas? Indeed, she replied, that was the year.

Oh, almost forgot. You’re wondering who Whicker picked to win the national championship. First clue: It was a No. 3 seed again. Gave it away, didn’t I?

All I can say is I sure hope he’s correct. If the two other meetings between Kansas and Oklahoma State this season — KU won an 81-79 classic in Allen Fieldhouse — are prologue, then the third time would be more than a charm. It would be one for the ages.