Dallas ? For two hours this afternoon, set aside the seeding possibilities and related stress. Recline your chair just so, turn off the cell phone, ban all chronic talkers from the vicinity, and treat yourself to what promises to be one terrific basketball game.

Kansas University vs. the University of Texas for the Big 12 Conference tournament title, a tie-breaker of sorts considering they shared the regular-season championship. And a chance for revenge.

KU starts three freshmen and two sophomores and wasn’t ready for an NCAA Tournament atmosphere two weeks ago when it visited Texas.

The final score of this one won’t be 80-55, as that one was in favor of Texas.

“It looks bad on paper,” Kansas’ Julian Wright said of the score. “When you look at the tape, you see we made one bad decision that led to another.”

The Jayhawks were on the wrong end of an avalanche. They’re hungry to make amends. They’re also smarting about the Big 12 office mistakenly sending a trophy to Texas so the players could hoist it in celebration, which the Jayhawks didn’t get to do when they claimed their share by winning the previous day at Kansas State.

It’s an intriguing matchup. Against most teams, Kansas has enough big, quick bodies it can keep opposing big men from controlling things in the paint. LaMarcus Aldridge, a 6-foot-11 NBA prospect extraordinaire, and 6-5 P.J. Tucker, who plays much taller, have room to work in part because of the physical presence of power forward Brad Buckman.

Bill Self had no agenda in saying that playing as the Jayhawks did in Saturday’s 79-65 yawner over Nebraska won’t get it done today. He spoke the truth.

Some old deficiencies surfaced, such as C.J. Giles’ tendency to reach his way into foul trouble. Giles, whose length will be needed today, committed three personals in seven minutes against the plodding Cornhuskers.

Wright, who also got into foul trouble, can’t try to pass his way onto the highlights as he did early against Nebraska by whipping a no-look, baseline laser to Sasha Kaun, a pass Jerry Rice would have had a tough time catching.

And then there was the old issue of Brandon Rush’s assertiveness. He’s too talented to let the accuracy of his early jumpers determine how involved he’s going to be in a game, but he was guilty of that again Saturday.

Rush hit a three-pointer with 6:56 left to push KU’s lead to 18 points, and it seemed to relieve him of stress. He punched the air and let a couple of choice words fly. A few minutes later, he drove in from the left wing and threw down a dunk for the last of his nine points.

That strong finish could lead to a strong start today for Rush, who scored a season-low three points at Texas.

“If we’re going to beat Texas, we need Brandon to come out and have a big scoring game,” Mario Chalmers said.

And that’s not all KU will need.

“We need to keep them off the offensive boards,” Chalmers said. “That really killed us last time.”

Texas defeated projected No. 1 seeds Villanova and Memphis. Defeating the Longhorns would give the Jayhawks the feeling they can take any team in the country, just in time for the tourney.