Print edition: 
OKLAHOMA CITY — This is the 72nd version of the NCAA Tournament. Kansas hasn't won them all, so it's easy to allow a piece of history to suggest that the Jayhawks' seemingly inevitable run deep into the bracket might not be so simple.
Never mind that KU has exorcised most demons from the recent past — the loss to Bucknell will be brought up every time the Jayhawks play a tournament game against a team from the Patriot League or in Oklahoma City, where that loss happened exactly five years ago Thursday.
Those memories might have sat with KU fans a little longer on Thursday, when Lehigh, from the Patriot League, took a lead into the first media timeout and led by eight when KU coach Bill Self called a timeout more than six minutes into the Jayhawks' eventual 90-74 win. The Jayhawks started cold from the floor despite getting several open shots and those fans became mostly silent.
There was virtually no way Kansas would be the first No. 1 seed to lose to a No. 16. But thoughts of the worst creep into one's mind whenever a 16 takes an early lead, especially since a top-seeded team has never lost in the first round. They were likely in the front of the minds of Jayhawk supporters on Thursday — not the back — because of Bucknell.
Everything negative that happens to Kansas in Oklahoma City after the Bucknell defeat is just a coincidence, though. Opened in 2002, the Ford Center isn't old enough to have ghosts to haunt the Jayhawks. Local high school stars J.R. Giddens and Darnell Jackson and freshman Xavier Henry left the state to play at Kansas.
"If you talk about that stuff a lot, then you're dwelling on the negatives as opposed to thinking positive the whole time," Self said on Wednesday."
It seems meaningless to point out trouble from the past because taking solace in good omens is just as futile. When KU won the national championship two years ago, it started as a No. 1 seed and beat UNLV in the second round. That could have happened this year, too, except UNLV lost its first-round game on Thursday to Northern Iowa.
That brings up another hurdle for the Jayhawks that, really, they've already cleared. Northern Iowa is from the Missouri Valley Conference, just like Bradley, which beat Kansas in the first round in 2006. The Panthers boast a 7-foot center, Jordan Eglseder, who could be ticketed for the NBA. Just like Bradley's Patrick O'Bryant four years ago.
Of course, Kansas already prevented upsets by defensive-minded Valley teams from becoming a trend when it beat Southern Illinois in 2007. But if the improbable happened once — or twice — it can happen again, no matter how much the evidence suggests otherwise.
Thursday, it took until the second half for memories of Bucknell to fade. KU trailed 12-4 when Self called the early timeout. The Jayhawks grabbed a 14-12 lead on a basket by Marcus Morris. They didn't lose the lead, but Lehigh was within two late in the first half before KU scored the final two baskets of the half.
What makes the Bucknell loss easier to forget is that none of the current Jayhawks remember it. Self and assistants Joe Dooley and Curtis Townsend lived it, but the players were all in high school — or junior high.
"We have a different team than what we played in '05," Self said Wednesday. "I don't think I even mentioned it to our players. I may have mentioned it at one time just to try to get their attention on us being ready, but that was a long time ago."
KU can eliminate one more question by escaping Oklahoma City with a Sweet 16 berth. A loss Saturday would have nothing to do with 2006 or 2005 or any other year, because in the NCAA Tournament the only time that matters is now.
