The Kansas Jayhawks run a weave to start off their first practice Thursday at Ford Field in Detroit. The team faces Villanova at 8:40 tonight in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

In the battle between a bird and a wildcat, the best money goes on the bird.

At least, that’s what Marty Birrell, director of the Prairie Park Nature Center, says.

“There’s a surprising number of (wildcats) here in Kansas,” she said. “They’re a nocturnal animal.”

So, that means an encounter between the aforementioned bird and cat at 8:40 tonight likely is to the advantage of the wildcat?

Not exactly.

“They are very shy animals,” Birrell said. “I’ve never seen one successfully catch a bird.”

That’s probably worth a big sigh of relief for Jayhawk : errrr : bird fans everywhere.

At Kansas University on Thursday, fans expressed unqualified distaste for wildcats of any variety.

And with good reason. The Jayhawks haven’t always had success with the Wildcats.

For instance, the first loss for the Jayhawks came this season at the hands of the Kansas State Wildcats. And this group of seniors’ first loss as Jayhawks came to a bunch of Wildcats, the Villanova kind.

And in terms of all-time records, there’s one team that seems always to have done well against KU: the Wildcats, of the Kentucky variety.

Of course, there are indications that things may be swinging in a new direction for the Jayhawks. The last time they met the K-State Wildcats, the Jayhawks won. It was the same outcome for recent tilts with the Arizona Wildcats and the Kentucky Wildcats.

Chris Mitchell, KU junior, said the recent successes can’t make up for a lifetime of learning to despise Wildcats. And a recent dream he had may just prove to be a good sign for the Jayhawks.

“I had a dream (Tuesday) night that I strangled a Wildcat,” he said. “It was a pretty vivid dream. I got on top of it, and I choked it dead.”

And as it turns out, Birrell said wildcats don’t usually care much for confrontations.

“Usually they just walk away (from people) with a slight scowl on their face,” she said.

But then again, that’s the wildcat, and not the Wildcat.