Tourney reminds VC of 1988, 2008

And then there were eight.

The Elite Eight, excuse me.

My bracket for the office pool, like millions of others across the country, took a hit especially in the Southeast and Southwest Regions. But my championship teams are still in tact - Kentucky and Kansas with Kentucky to cut down the nets in a few days in Houston. Patterson will tell you I picked Kentucky just because I have a love fest for teams named Wildcats. There's some truth to that, but in my 25 years of heading up an office pool I've always picked a longshot to win it all. Only once has a longshot won me anything, though.

Perhaps this is the year!

This tournament is reminding me more and more of 1988 and 2008 when the Jayhawks soared to championship heights. 1988, all the big boys lost in KU's path to a Midwest Regional championship date against Lon Kruger's K-State Wildcats. That pitted the Big Eight rivals against each other for the fourth time that year. KU won that game at Pontiac, Mich., to give KU a 2-2 split against K-State as each won on the opposing team's home floor and K-State won in the Big Eight Tournament.

KU then advanced to the Final Four that year at Kansas City's Kemper Arena. There, KU beat Duke then met up with Billy Tubbs' Oklahoma Sooners in the title game. KU and OU slugged it out like two heavyweights in a 50-50 halftime score in the 50th NCAA Championship game. Coach Larry Brown rolled up his sleeves at halftime and told Danny Manning, Chris Piper and the rest of the KU players it was time to play KU ball in the second half.

KU won which set up wild celebration scenes on the Plaza, Westport, Massachusetts Street in Lawrence and anywhere else where KU fans could gather.

Fast-forward to 2008. KU's road to San Antonio featured wins over a 16 seed, eight, 12 and 10. I think you probably know by now KU won the crown thanks to some Mario guy in the title game against Memphis.

Now it's 2011 and who's KU beaten in the first three rounds? A 16 seed, nine and 12 seed. Sunday, they meet 11th seeded Virginia Commonwealth in the Southwest Regional finals.

If KU wins Sunday, the Jayhawks will join Michigan State (2001) and North Carolina (1991) as the only schools to get that far without having to beat a higher seed than nine.

In case you weren't paying attention, did you notice the 10-year intervals above?

"When you're in the business long enough you're going to have things like that crop up," KU coach Bill Self told The Associated Press. "But I haven't thought about the (similarities) at all."

Self, prior to Friday's game against Richmond, pointed out that 12th seeded Davidson in 2008 came down to the last possession before KU won that Elite Eight game. Self mentioned it was the toughest tourney game for KU that year apart from the Memphis game.

"The field here is strong," Self told The AP. "It may not appear from a seeding standpoint to be as strong as 1, 2, 3 and 4 that are left, but I guarantee that there will be nobody that will be looking forward to playing anybody in this field right now."

KU will be playing in its 20th Elite Eight, only Kentucky (33), North Carolina (25) and UCLA (22) have appeared in more Elite Eights. K-State, a 2010 Elite Eighter, has taken part in a dozen of them over the years.

If KU is not playing for the national championship on April 4, I will be shocked. Clearly North Carolina and Kentucky have a tougher road than KU. Butler or Florida will await Kansas in the national semis assuming KU takes care of VCU which I am on record now of predicting an 82-60 Kansas win.

I'm not going to back off now. I'm still picking UK to beat KU in the final. UK may have all of those freshmen, but there's something about Kentucky I like. Plus, I'm due to win our office pool.

Around the Horn: As a K-State fan I was looking forward to college baseball. But my Bat Cats are off to an 0-4 start in Big 12 play after Friday's 5-4 loss at Baylor. The Wildcats started the year great, but are currently 12-8 overall. Kansas, which dropped a 10-inning 2-1 game Friday at A&M, is 10-11 overall, 2-2 in the conference.

Emporia State is off to a red-hot 18-1 start, including a lofty 14-0 log in the MIAA.