A sensational play by Sherron Collins last Sunday could have been the virus to sustain, even heighten, a fever that will drive Kansas University to the NCAA basketball championship. The caper was huge.

Super-sub Collins had just bungled an attempt at an alley-oop scoring pass and may have been desperate to compensate. Did he ever! The ball was drifting out of bounds on the sideline, and it would belong to Texas. From clear across the court, Collins exploded to the site, leaped up as the ball hung and slammed it against a Texan. Instead of a potentially lethal trip toward the UT goal, it was KU’s ball.

Against Nebraska in the league tournament quarterfinals, KU struggled mightily. For a spell, folks were about to put Darrell Arthur on a milk box to learn where he’d vanished. But after a gut-wrencher against Texas A&M, everybody showed up for Texas, including Collins, whose Tasmanian Devil deportment is so vital.

When Sherron made that crucial out-of-bounds play, he may have triggered an enduring Kansas mind-set that will produce five more victories starting tonight in Omaha.

KU has its diehard zealots who over-praise the guys even when they play like sausages. In some eyes, they can do no wrong no matter what. But the truth is that a lot of members of the Kansas Nation admit they had a hard time generating a deep and abiding love because this team has been so long in developing the kind of personality that grabs fans by the throat.

Too much balance, too little focus, on-again, off-again, guys who star one night, take disappearing potion the next. Often KU has been a bland, drifting entity that’s been too fluffy to sink your teeth into. That changed after the big-league victory over Texas in the Big 12 finals. A lot of followers are envisioning a KU-Texas rubber game in the national finals. KU probably would get there by beating Roy Williams and North Carolina in the semifinals. What a tasty delight, that, huh?

A healthy, agile, hostile and mobile Collins is one of the factors that could give KU something this year it lacked for the ’07 NCAA bid when UCLA ousted the Jayhawks, again. Frontliners Brandon Rush, Arthur, Darnell Jackson and Sasha Kaun appear to have generated a focus of ferocity that can vanquish anyone. The Russell Robinson-Mario Chalmers duo never has been in doubt; now that Collins is a constant time bomb ticking to explode at critical moments, a 5-0 finish is well within reach.

¢ Charity alert! Lousy free-throwing cost Kansas the 2002 title against Syracuse … 12-of-30, when a mere 60 percent (18 of 30) would have won the 81-78 game. Some think bad charity work will kill bricklaying Memphis this year. KU had a paltry 7-15 effort against Portland State. Time to eye the prize via the rim, Jayhawks.

¢ Coaches desert trusting basketball players all the time to grab nifty jobs at other schools, so I guess I’m out of line rapping JamesOn Curry for fleeing Oklahoma State for the pros with a year left. His departure wrecked the OSU lineup, and he owed the school better. As a high schooler, Curry had drug-related crimes that caused Carolina’s Roy Williams to withdraw a scholarship. Charitable Eddie Sutton, with his own demons, gave Curry a full ride. JamesOn owed the Cowboys four years, not three.