Anaheim, Calif. ? A rematch against Arizona with a Final Four berth on the line … it gets no better than this for feisty, ultra-competitive Kansas University basketball coach Roy Williams.

“For me, personally, I’m ready to play because they beat me the last time. They beat our tails the last time,” Williams said of today’s 6:05 p.m. West Regional final at Arrowhead Pond — two months after KU’s 91-74 loss to the Wildcats at Allen Fieldhouse.

That was the game in which No. 2-seed Kansas (28-7) led by 20 points with 5:41 left in the first half and 52-39 at halftime before falling apart against No. 1-seed Arizona (28-3) the second half.

“It was a helpless kind of feeling,” Williams said. “I’ve never had that kind of experience particularly in the fieldhouse. We’ve lost games in the fieldhouse, but to have that kind of turnaround … we’ve done it to other teams. I’ve never had that done to us.”

In the first meeting, Arizona perimeter players Salim Stoudamire and Jason Gardner exploded for 32 and 23 points. KU’s Keith Langford led the Jayhawks with 27 points, but scored just five in a second half in which KU was outscored, 52-22.

In the second half, KU hit nine of 31 shots for 29 percent; the Wildcats hit

continued from page 1c

16 of 30 shots for 53.3 percent.

“The fact we lost to them the last time like that hurts,” said Langford, who says his sprained right ankle won’t affect him today just as guard Kirk Hinrich says he won’t be hindered by his bruised right hand.

“At the same time, even if this is the first time we were playing them all year, we’d come in with the expectation of winning the game,” Langford said. “We expect to win. There’s no fear coming into this game. What happened in January happened in January. We’re a better team now and they are too.”

Arizona’s 1-3-1 defense stymied KU in the second half of that game.

¢ 6Sports video: ‘Hawks understand how tough ‘Zona will be¢ Complete tournament coverage¢ Other tournament stories¢ KU fans remember ‘Candygate’ caper¢ Forget Arizona, can KU keep Roy?

“We settled for a lot of outside shots and didn’t make ’em,” said Hinrich, who is looking to bounce back from his two-point outing Thursday against Duke. “It was almost like they were daring us to take outside shots.

“We just didn’t do a good job of attacking it,” he said. “They are long, athletic and rebound well out of the zone. We did not move the ball the way we should have, that’s the bottom line. If we were more patient, we’d have had more success.”

On defense today, Hinrich will try to hold the 6-foot-1 Stoudamire, who averages 13.3 points a game, well under the 32 points he put on KU last time.

“He kind of has a swagger, a lot of confidence,” Hinrich said of Stoudamire, who hit 12 of 18 shots against KU. “It doesn’t matter how many he’s missed, he’ll make the next one. He has a scorer’s mentality. He plays hard.”

He’s not the Wildcats’ only weapon, of course.

Gardner, a 5-10 senior, who went to the free-throw line 12 times and made 10 against KU last time, averages 14.5 points a game. Forwards Rick Anderson and Luke Walton average 10.7 and 10.5 ppg and center Channing Frye 12.8.

“Their whole team can score in bunches,” Hinrich said. “They’ve got shooters, penetrators, athletes. It’s tough to match up with them.”

That doesn’t mean today’s task is impossible.

KU will be sky-high emotionally trying to reach its second straight Final Four. Plus, seniors Hinrich and Nick Collison, who had 33 points and 19 rebounds against Duke, are on missions to win the national title.

“Obviously when you start preparing for the game you start thinking about the last game,” Hinrich said. “But it’s a lot different. We’re so excited about having a chance to extend our season and go to the Final Four. We’ve got an opportunity to really accomplish some things.”

An opportunity to reach the Final Four again against a team that not only beat KU this year but defeated the top-seeded Jayhawks, 85-82, in a Sweet 16 game in Birmingham, Ala., in 1997. That game ended the Jayhawks’ glorious 34-2 season.

“We probably played our best half of the year and worst half of the year,” Williams said of the January meeting. “We’ve got to play our best game of the year.”