photo by: Nick Krug

Kansas guard Devonte' Graham (4) and Kansas guard Frank Mason III stand side by side during a pair of free throws in the second half, Thursday, March 9, 2017 at Sprint Center.

With the top-ranked Kansas men’s basketball team losing in Thursday’s Big 12 quarterfinal game in Kansas City, Mo., one of the biggest questions surrounding Jayhawk Nation is not what went wrong, why it happened or how KU will fix it.*

More on all of that a little later today.*

Instead, Jayhawk fans everywhere are wondering if the loss did anything to impact KU’s chances at a No. 1 seed, and, perhaps more specifically, KU’s chances of returning to Kansas City for the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight at Sprint Center should the Jayhawks be fortunate enough to survive Rounds 1 and 2 in Tulsa.

All of this will be sorted out on Selection Sunday, of course, but KU fans aren’t used to waiting this long and having this much time to think about it. Most years, Kansas plays into the Big 12 semifinals or finals, which has allowed those games to take most of the focus. But now the speculation and worry has taken center stage.

According to ESPN.com writer Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology update — dated March 10 — the four teams owning the four 2 seeds in this year’s NCAA Tournament are Baylor, Kentucky, Louisville and Oregon.

Lunardi still has Kansas as a No. 1 seed in the Midwest, as do most of the other NCAA Tournament gurus who make this sort of thing their lives this time of year. That’s good sign No. 1.

Good sign No. 2 comes from the fact that there’s almost no way to imagine Kansas being passed up by any of those teams currently projected as 2 seeds. (For what it’s worth, Lunardi’s current 3 seeds are Arizona, Duke, Florida State and UCLA)

Like KU, Louisville and Baylor are also done playing until the Big Dance, with the Cardinals falling in the ACC Tournament to Duke on Thursday and Baylor losing in the Big 12 nightcap to K-State. So cross both of them off of the list. Their resumes weren’t better than KU’s going in and there’s nothing they can do now to make them better from here.

That leaves Kentucky and Oregon. Well, Kentucky’s resume is nowhere near as impressive as KU’s and, as if that weren’t already enough, the Jayhawks went into Rupp Arena and beat the Wildcats head to head earlier this season. So, even if UK runs through the SEC Tournament, all that will do is solidify the Wildcats’ place as a No. 2 seed. The SEC just isn’t a strong enough conference for a late run by the ‘Cats to push them past Kansas. Not even close.

That leaves Oregon, which won the Pac-12 regular season title and could make things interesting if they were to win the Pac-12 postseason title. Because of the way the bracket out west shapes up, though, the Ducks are only able to pick up one more quality win, not two. Oregon plays Cal in today’s semifinal while No. 3 UCLA and No. 7 Arizona play in the other semifinal.

Had Oregon been matched up with Arizona today and then faced UCLA tomorrow — and won both games — you might have been able to make a case that KU should be a little concerned about the Ducks stealing a 1 seed after a nice tourney run.

Mind you, I did say might there. Because even if that were to happen — which it can’t, so I’m not even sure why I’m still writing about it — the Jayhawks would still have a better overall resume than Oregon, which has an RPI strength of schedule of 55, compared to 29 for Kansas, and a 4-2 record against the Top 50, compared to 9-2 for the Jayhawks.

All things considered, it would be a pretty shocking development if the committee were to look at things and deem Oregon more worthy of a No. 1 seed than Kansas at this point. And, really, that’s about the only way I could see KU getting moved out of the Midwest region.

North Carolina will be No. 1 in the South. Villanova, which likely now will enter as the No. 1 overall seed, will be No. 1 in the East. And it looks as if one-loss Gonzaga will be No. 1 in the West. The Midwest is the only other place for Kansas to land unless the committee drops them, which I just can’t see happening.

Consider one more possibility: If Oregon’s Pac-12 tourney run is deemed impressive enough to merit consideration for a 1 seed, I think it would be more likely that the committee would drop Gonzaga to a 2 in the West and put Oregon as the 1 out there before dropping Kansas.

Seeding for the NCAA Tournament is a big picture sort of thing, built over weeks and months of work and competition. It’s not based solely on what happens one weekend or one day in early March. And because of that, the Jayhawks should rest easy the next couple of days and prepare for a path to the Final Four that includes stops in Tulsa and Kansas City.