In 1988, Kansas started its NCAA championship path in Nebraska and continued through to a football stadium in Detroit.</p><p>So it could be 20 years later.</p><p>But wait, there&#8217;s more.</p><p>On that 1988 Midwest Regional bracket, the Jayhawks played Vanderbilt in the Sweet 16 and Kansas State in the final.</p><p>Those teams could be on the same spots in this year&#8217;s bracket.</p><p>Want more? The coach of that Kansas State team, Lon Kruger, is now the UNLV coach. That could be Kansas&#8217; second-round opponent this year.</p><p>Then there&#8217;s Danny Manning, the 1988 hero, sitting on the Jayhawks&#8217; bench as an assistant.</p><p>Cue the Twilight Zone music.</p><p>Kansas is gunning for its first Final Four since 2003, the first under coach Bill Self. The Jayhawks got the No. 1 seed by winning the Big 12 tournament in a thriller over Texas and could be the deepest team in the field.</p><p>This is the only region with three champions from major conferences. The Jayhawks shared their title with Texas; second-seeded Georgetown won the Big East, and Wisconsin took the Big Ten and won its league tournament. But the Jayhawks need to look out for fifth-seeded Clemson in a potential Sweet 16 meeting. The Tigers knocked off Duke in the ACC semifinals and twice during the regular season lost to top-ranked North Carolina in overtime.</p><p>The ease with which Kent State won the Mid-American Conference and league tournament should concern Kruger and the Runnin&#8217; Rebels. The Golden Flashes are a disciplined team under coach Jim Christian, who is often mentioned as a candidate at higher-profile schools.</p><p>The committee may have commented on the weakness of the Big Ten by making the league champion Badgers a third seed instead of a No. 2. But this is a team good enough to win at Texas and Indiana and sweep Michigan State.</p><p><hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> <strong><span class="subhead">BEST MATCHUP</span></strong></p><p>Thank you, committee, for pairing No. 11 Kansas State with No. 6 Southern California and freshman sensations Michael Beasley and O.J. Mayo. This is the marquee meeting of the first round. Beasley wins the battle, but the Trojans, with Mayo playing with teammates who reached the Sweet 16 last year, wins the game.</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">UPSET SPECIAL</span></strong></p><p>In the first round, No. 10 Davidson, and its terrific guard Stephen Curry, takes out seventh-seeded Gonzaga. Curry is the nation&#8217;s fifth-leading scorer at 25.1 points per game and led a Wildcats team that stormed through the Southern Conference with a 20-0 record. They lost to North Carolina by four, UCLA by 12 and Duke by six.</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">PLAYER TO WATCH</span></strong></p><p>All eyes are on Beasley, the game&#8217;s most unstoppable player. We don&#8217;t think Beasley&#8217;s teammate, Bill Walker, will be giving any tips to Mayo, his former high school teammate.</p><p></div>