Kansas head coach Bill Self is seen on the video monitors of production equipment during a press conference on Saturday, March 26, 2011 at the Alamodome in San Antonio.

San Antonio ? Media members pursuing the David-and-Goliath angle ran into a major roadblock in Kansas University’s Marcus Morris on Saturday afternoon in the Alamodome.

The 6-foot-9, 235-pound junior reminded the masses in a marathon interview session that the top-seeded Jayhawks, who meet No. 11-seed Virginia Commonwealth in an Elite Eight game at 1:20 p.m. today, have been in the position of giant many, many, many times before.

“We’re Kansas. Growing up and watching Kansas, do you remember them ever being an underdog? Ever?” an animated Morris said.

“We have always been Goliath — all the time. We just have to embrace the role. The David and Goliath stuff is nothing. Teams are being beat,” he added, noting KU (35-2) is the last No. 1 seed still standing in the 2011 NCAAs.

“Whatever team is hot that day and whatever team is playing hard that day is going to win the game. It’s not about who is better and who’s bigger. Guys nowadays can play at any school. They have guys that could probably play at Kansas.”

As to Morris’ main point, it’s true KU for, oh, the last 28 years or so, has been favored in a vast majority of its games.

And today, Vegas oddsmakers list the Jayhawks as a whopping 11-point favorite against a Colonial Athletic Association VCU (27-11) squad that, in this tourney, already has knocked out BCS schools USC, Georgetown, Purdue and Florida State.

“I enjoy being the Goliath,” Morris said. We’ve been a No. 1 seed two years running, and we’ve been Goliath two years running. When have we ever been Cinderella? I don’t think ever in the history of Kansas we’ve been Cinderella. It’s a (favorite’s) role we’ve always embraced.”

Of course, to win as many games as KU has throughout the years, the Jayhawks have ignored the David-Goliath and Cinderella angles many times and merely come out and played ball.

“They are exciting teams,” KU junior center Markieff Morris said, when asked of Cinderellas. “That’s it. I don’t remember the movie too much.”

Big 12 power KU has never played VCU before. Overall, the Jayhawks are 2-0 versus the CAA, clobbering Hofstra, 101-65, in November of 2009 and Towson, 87-61, in November of 2006, both in Allen Fieldhouse.

“I feel like this season, if they lose tomorrow, they’ll be happy with this. They’ll be happy making it to the Elite Eight. They’ll be good with that, and we won’t,” KU junior Tyshawn Taylor said. “We want to win so bad. It’s like we came this far, we don’t want to stop now. I think that’s what that chip is,” he added of a collective Jayhawk chip on the shoulder no matter the foe.

“It’s not about what people are saying. It’s not about people wanting to cheer against us. It’s not even about the teams we are playing. It’s that we came this far and want to move onto the Final Four.”

To advance to next week’s Final Four in Houston, KU must beat a confident VCU team that has double-digit scorers in senior forward Jamie Skeen (15.1 ppg), junior shooting guard Bradford Burgess (14.4 ppg) and senior point guard Joey Rodriguez (10.6 ppg, 5.1 apg).

Burgess hit six of seven threes and scored 26 points in Friday’s Sweet 16 victory over Florida State.

“He’s on a roll,” KU coach Bill Self said of the 6-foot-6, 225-pounder from Midlothian, Va. “He’s a hard matchup because they’ll start him on the perimeter, and although he’s going to play on the perimeter, they’ll do things to get the big guys on him, and he can stretch it.”

KU’s Taylor, who stands 6-3, is wary of jitterbug point guard Rodriguez.

“Coach (Danny) Manning compared him to a smaller version of Clemente,” Taylor said of former Kansas State guard Denis Clemente. “I know how I guarded him, used my length. I can’t get up to him too close. I’ve got to give him some space.”

Overall, VCU, which averages 71.9 ppg, likes to run and sometimes press.

“They are more similar to Missouri than any team that I think we’ve played off the top of my head,” Self said. “I don’t think it’s one of those deals where they do it (press) every possession like Missouri can, but I thought their pressure and the press has been effective so far in the tournament. They are quick enough in all five spots that they get out and try to cause havoc.”

Like his players, Self was more than willing to discuss the intangibles entering today’s Elite Eight game.

Of being the lone No. 1 seed left, he said: “It’s exciting because we’re the one. The No. 1 seeds that have left the tournament is more a statement to what can happen in college basketball than anything else. We’ve been on that end of it. And those aren’t major upsets in my opinion. When you have this many good players and teams, things like that do happen.”

He conceded top seeds sometimes feel pressure in the Elite Eight. KU nudged Davidson, 59-57, in the Elite Eight en route to the 2008 national title.

“The whole marketing of the tournament is ‘Road to the Final Four,”’ Self said. “It’s almost like it is winning a championship to get there, and then you play a separate championship once you get there. It’s a great game. It’s a game with pressure. No reason to run from it. It exists. The key is playing loose and that kind of stuff. It is a game reality sets in. It’s so close to obtaining it. If you are not successful, which we haven’t been four times (in Elite Eight in his career against one win), it is a devastating thing … this is one that means a lot to so many.”

Or as KU’s Taylor pointed out: “Being one of the top four teams left in college basketball is big. You get a banner in your gym for that. You get rings for making it to the Final Four. If we lose now, we made it to the Elite Eight, but it’s not really that big. That’s what people talk about when they talk about a team: ‘They’ve had such-and-such Final Four appearances.’ It’s only one game, but it’s huge.”

For the record, Goliath/KU has 13 Final Four appearances; David/ VCU has none.

Not that that matters, Morris said, firing a slingshot at the media between the eyes.

“They are playing as well as anybody,” Morris said of the upstart Rams. “They’re a good team, a great team. They want it like we do. We know it’s right there for us like it is for them. We feel it’s there for us to take.”