Salt Lake City ? Time is supposed to ease the pain of past embarrassments.

The way Kansas State guard Jacob Pullen sees it, though, there are some things you simply can’t forget.

Locked in Pullen’s memory is the way he felt on New Year’s Eve 2007 — the night his team got blown out by Xavier, the same team the second-seeded Wildcats face tonight in the West Regional semifinals.

“They laughed on the court, played around,” Pullen said. “You don’t forget things like that. So when you get the opportunity to play against a team like that, you always remember that, no matter if it’s one person from that team or 10 people from that same team.”

K-State got payback for the 26-point loss — the worst of coach Frank Martin’s short career — with a physical, grinding 15-point victory this season in Manhattan.

Now, one of America’s hidden little rivalries resumes, this time with the stakes ratcheted up a few notches. Kansas State (28-7) is two wins from its first Final Four since 1964. Xavier (26-8) has never been.

“It rings a bell because they’re Xavier,” Martin said. “I know their program, firsthand. I understand the winning culture they have, the expectations they have. Then, we’ve played them. We got absolutely annihilated by them on national TV on Dec. 31.”

Martin’s familiarity with sixth-seeded Xavier comes thanks to his history as an assistant for Bob Huggins — first at Xavier’s crosstown rival, Cincinnati, then at Kansas State. When Huggins left for West Virginia, Martin took over Huggins’ program, along with his schedule.

It included two more in a three-game series against Xavier, and after the first of those — the Dec. 31, 2007, matchup — Martin might have been wondering what he got himself into.

His prized recruit and star player, Michael Beasley, forgot his shoes and didn’t make a basket until the final minute.

“Bill (Walker) lost his phone, I think. Clent (Stewart) didn’t have his shoes, either,” Pullen remembered. “It wasn’t the greatest trip we had made all season. But we still went out there and played. And we got beat.”

The Musketeers let them know about it, dissing the Wildcats by cracking jokes at the free throw line to turn a bad loss into something even worse.

Which might explain why this season’s game, still on some players’ minds nearly two years after the previous meeting, was such a physical affair. There were 57 fouls and 73 free throws, lots of hard screens and rough play in the post.

K-State fans braved a heavy snowstorm to attend the game, and when the Wildcats finished up the 71-56 victory, they snaked behind the media table to celebrate with the students — the kind of celebration normally saved for March, not December.

Xavier forward Jamel McLean doesn’t think anyone should get this confused with Carolina-Duke. But he has a memory, too.

“I don’t think it’s a real rivalry,” he said. “I mean, we played the past couple years. It’s a team we have a series with. We’ve got them, they got us. We’re about to go out there again and rally up and knock each other’s heads off.”

Kansas State will be playing 22 years to the date of its last trip to the regionals, back when Lon Kruger and Mitch Richmond led the Wildcats on a run that ended one loss short of the Final Four. K-State was beaten by Danny Manning and Kansas that year in the regional final, a story line that’s been oft-repeated over the years — certainly too often in the minds of those in the Little Apple.

But for as long as they last in this tournament, the Wildcats won’t have to be the “other” team from Kansas. The Jayhawks lost last weekend, removing from the tournament a team responsible for three of Kansas State’s seven losses this year.

“To compare us to Kansas, we’re going to have to start beating them first,” Martin said. “If we’re not beating them, we’re not getting too much done.”

Xavier, meanwhile, joins Michigan State as one of the only two programs to make the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament three years in a row.

“When you reach this point in the season, you’re not going to play a pushover,” Xavier coach Chris Mack said. “You’re going to play a team that’s earned it. We have a healthy respect for those guys.”

Today’s other matchups

EAST REGIONAL

No. 1 Kentucky vs. No. 12 Cornell

It would be tough to find a matchup of more different approaches to college basketball. Kentucky comes into the Carrier Dome with a roster full of future NBA players — including freshmen John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins and Eric Bledsoe. Coach John Calipari is seeking his third Final Four with as many schools, and this group hasn’t shown any signs of being too young to win a national championship.

Cornell starts three seniors and is a true team with a 7-foot defensive specialist (Jeff Foote), a dead-on three-point shooter (Ryan Wittman) and a steady point guard (Louis Dale). Don’t be misled thinking this team is an Ivy League throwback that uses most of the shot clock and waits until there is a backdoor open. The Big Red do that, but they also averaged 82.5 points in winning their first two tournament games by an average of 15.5 points.

No. 2 West Virginia vs. No. 11 Washington

All the talk around this game concerns West Virginia’s ability to handle the loss of starting point guard Darryl “Truck” Bryant, who broke his foot in practice Tuesday. Still, the Mountaineers have Da’Sean Butler, who hit two game-winning shots in the Big East tournament title run. Joe Mazzula, a fourth-year junior who averaged 2.2 points in 14.9 minutes this season, should get the ball, but don’t be surprised if coach Bob Huggins goes with a four-forward lineup.

Washington is one of the hottest teams in the country, having won nine straight, a streak that has allowed the Huskies to change what many considered to be an unsuccessful season. Their NCAA wins were different as they rallied from 15 points down in the second half to beat Marquette, and they led by as many as 23 in cruising past New Mexico. Quincy Pondexter and Isaiah Thomas need 20 points combined to become the highest-scoring duo in school history.

WEST REGIONAL

No. 1 Syracuse vs. No. 5 Butler

Syracuse wasn’t affected at all in the first two rounds by the absence of center Arinze Onuaku, who hurt his knee in the Big East tournament, and he won’t be there for the regional semifinal, either. Without Onuaku, the back of the 2-3 zone isn’t as tough to navigate, and the Orange will be down to a six-man rotation. Although the zone is what most people talk about, Syracuse is among the nation’s best in scoring (81.6) and shooting percentage (51.7).

Butler was a mid-major that spent a good part of the season ranked just outside the top 10. The Bulldogs steamrolled through the Horizon League and then squeaked by Murray State to reach this round. Six-foot-9 sophomore guard Gordon Hayward will be the key man against the zone. He will have to make sure the ball goes inside to come back out, and he will also have to find a way to get into the zone and hit the 12- to 15-foot jumper.