Kansas

NEW ORLEANS - Saturday night's second national semifinal at the Superdome looked very much like the first one, with the favorite taking a significant lead and the underdog looking as if it might never score. Both games changed dramatically in the second half, going from double-digit leads to ties. Kansas, however, was not Louisville. The Jayhawks came from way back and just kept coming, refusing to be deterred by playing from behind all night. Beyond the brilliant play of their star, Thomas Robinson, the Jayhawks (32-6)

WASHINGTON - Rick Santorum won the Kansas caucuses in a rout Saturday, and Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney countered in Wyoming, a weekend prelude to suddenly pivotal Southern primary showdowns in the week ahead. "Things have an amazing way of working out," Santorum told supporters in Missouri, where he traced his campaign through a series of highs and lows. He called his showing in Kansas a "comfortable win" that would give him the vast majority of the 40 delegates at stake.

This won't be the first time tall guys from Philly will play basketball for Kansas. This will be the first two-for-one deal. Markieff and Marcus Morris, the twins who paced Prep Charter to two consecutive PIAA Class AA state championships and now attend a South Jersey prep school, have made an oral commitment to join the Jayhawks next season. In September 1955, Overbrook grad Wilt Chamberlain enrolled at Kansas en route to becoming the most famous player in basketball history.

To fully appreciate the dominance of Kansas point guard Jacque Vaughn in yesterday's 76-51 win over Santa Clara, don't bother looking at his line in the box score. Look instead at the statistics of his counterpart, Steve Nash. Nash, who had 28 points in a first-round win over Maryland, missed his first eight shots and finished with seven points on 1-for-11 shooting as second-seeded Kansas (28-4) opened a 12-0 lead and never was threatened by the 10th-seeded Broncos (20-9).

"Kansas" put me in mind of the "Mad Magazine" parody of the old TV series "The Fugitive," titled, predictably enough, "The Phewgitive. " Richard Kimble pauses from his flight from the law (and his search for the one-armed man) in some small town, and everywhere he goes, there's a "Wanted" poster for Richard Kimble on the wall showing Kimble with exactly the same clothing and exactly the same facial expression as he has at that moment. Yet nobody recognizes him. In "Kansas," Matt Dillon and Andrew McCarthy play Doyle Kennedy and Wade Corey, two guys who rob a bank in a small town.

The preseason No. 1 nearly toppled the current team in that spot. Top-ranked Kansas, slowed by Cincinnati's attacking defense for a half, rallied from a 16-point deficit last night and used the play of Paul Pierce to beat the fourth-ranked Bearcats, 72-65, last night in the Great Eight at Chicago's United Center. "They intimidated us in the first half. The way we played in the first half we were soft and I don't think we're a soft team," Kansas coach Roy Williams said. Pierce scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half and Kansas (6-0)

It didn't look like Kansas until the second half of the second game at New York's Madison Square Garden. Then the Jayhawks, especially their preseason All-Americas Paul Pierce and Raef LaFrentz, lived up to their No. 2 ranking. Those two took over in the second half last night and led Kansas to a 73-58 victory over Florida State in the championship game of the Preseason NIT. LaFrentz and Pierce were each held to two points in the first half as the Jayhawks (6-0) trailed, 28-20, at halftime.

Scotty Hopson had 17 points to lead No. 16 Tennessee - with a lineup thinned by suspensions, dismissals and injuries - to a 76-68 upset of top-ranked Kansas in Knoxville, Tenn., last night. "It's pretty amazing what chemistry can do when guys put their minds to something and know their backs are up against the wall a little bit and they rally, and they don't quit and they believe in themselves," Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl said. Kansas' loss leaves No. 2 Texas and No. 3 Kentucky as the only unbeatens in Division I, and it was the fourth this weekend by a Top Ten team, joining No. 4 Purdue, No. 5 Duke, and No. 8 West Virginia.

Sherron Collins had career-high 33 points and made nearly every key play down the stretch, helping top-ranked Kansas pull out a 71-66 win over Cornell last night in Lawrence, Kan. Kansas (14-0) overcame a rare off night from the field - 36 percent - and shoddy defense in the first half, making just enough plays down the stretch in one of the toughest victories during its 51-game home winning streak. Cornell (12-3), the two-time Ivy League champion, got 24 points from Ryan Wittman, his shooting keeping Cornell in front well into the second half.

Kirk Hinrich scored 24 points and Michael Lee made three key free throws in the final seconds, lifting No. 12 Kansas past No. 21 Missouri, 76-70, last night. Nick Collison had 22 for the Jayhawks (16-5, 6-1 Big Twelve), who have won 13 of their last 15. Rickey Paulding's two free throws cut Kansas' lead, which had once been 13, to 71-69 with 1 minute, 7 seconds left. Then, with 50 seconds to go, center Arthur Johnson picked up his fifth foul for the Tigers (13-5, 4-3)

KANSAS CITY, Kan. - Denny Hamlin held off hard-charging Martin Truex Jr. down the stretch on Sunday to win at Kansas Speedway for the first time. Truex had dominated most of the STP 400, but Hamlin had gone to the front when his car hooked up under the first sunshine of the afternoon. Truex mounted a comeback, diving low with a couple of laps left, but he couldn't make the move stick and Hamlin pulled away. He coaxed his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota the rest of the way for his second win this season.

LAWRENCE, Kan. - Notre Dame tight end Mike Ragone has signed a grant-in-aid form to complete his transfer to Kansas, where he will be reunited with former coach Charlie Weis. Ragone, who was a star at Camden Catholic and a top recruit, has completed his undergraduate degree and will be eligible to play for the Jayhawks immediately. He joins quarterback Dayne Crist and linebacker Anthony McDonald as former Irish players who will finish their college careers in Lawrence. Weis recruited all three players to Notre Dame while he was the head coach in South Bend.

NEW ORLEANS - They could have started to play "My Old Kentucky Home" way early last night. Ashley Judd could have turned to Jay-Z and planned the after-party in the first half. What Kentucky did not dunk, it blocked. What the Wildcats did not affect, they at least sent a signal that trouble was looming. Kansas coach Bill Self had a resigned look on his face way before halftime. He had stolen his championship against John Calipari's Memphis team 4 years before. He would always have that.

NEW ORLEANS - Kansas coach Bill Self was perhaps 20 minutes removed from seeing his team secure a spot in Monday night's national championship game when he crystallized the critical issue. This Kentucky team, he said, is better than the Memphis team that outplayed his best team for 39 minutes in 2008. Left unsaid is that this Kansas team isn't anywhere near as good as the 2008 national champions. So, how exactly does Kansas beat Kentucky? It probably doesn't. "They've got guys that can make plays you can't coach," Self said.

NEW ORLEANS - In a real way, because the matchup on Monday once again places Kansas in the path of his team's try for a national championship, the shadow traced by the arc of Mario Chalmers' three-point shot in 2008 still falls across the career of John Calipari. The Kentucky coach claims he never watched the tape of that championship game. He doesn't need to review it to forever see Chalmers shoot that fallaway three with just two seconds left and with Derrick Rose in his face.

NEW ORLEANS - Kansas coach Bill Self was perhaps 20 minutes removed from seeing his team secure a spot in Monday night's national championship game when he crystallized the critical issue. This Kentucky team, he said, is better than the Memphis team that outplayed his best team for 39 minutes in 2008. Left unsaid is that this Kansas team isn't anywhere near as good as the 2008 national champions. So, how exactly does Kansas beat Kentucky? It probably doesn't. "They got guys that can make plays you can't coach, " Self said.

NEW ORLEANS - There will be another game Saturday night. It will have nothing to do with Kentucky, other than the winner will be playing some school from Kentucky on Monday night for the national championship. When Ohio State and Kansas take the floor at the Superdome, the 68-team NCAA Tournament will be down to three. There will be gloating and despair after Louisville plays Kentucky in the early game. Then there will be basketball between the Buckeyes and the Jayhawks, very good basketball.

NEW ORLEANS - Saturday night's second national semifinal at the Superdome looked very much like the first one, with the favorite taking a significant lead and the underdog looking as if it might never score. Both games changed dramatically in the second half, going from double-digit leads to ties. Kansas, however, was not Louisville. The Jayhawks came from way back and just kept coming, refusing to be deterred by playing from behind all night. Beyond the brilliant play of their star, Thomas Robinson, the Jayhawks (32-6)

Tyshawn Taylor broke out of his slump in a big way Sunday, scoring 22 points and leading Kansas back to the Final Four with an 80-67 victory over former coach Roy Williams and top-seeded North Carolina. The second-seeded Jayhawks (31-6) will play Ohio State on Saturday in their first appearance in the Final Four since 2008, when they won the national championship. And how's this for symmetry? Kansas began this year's tournament in Omaha, Neb., the same place as four years ago. As the game ended, Taylor - much maligned for his shooting struggles during the first three games of the NCAA tournament - ran to Kansas fans and raised both arms in the air. "There's no way to put into words the way we feel," Williams said.