If someone had said that Kansas would be playing against UCLA in the NCAA tournament, most people would have figured it would take place in Atlanta — in the national semifinals or even the national championship game.

However, the two storied programs will instead go at it in San Jose with a Final Four berth at stake.

Ben Howland and the Bruins are trying to get back to the Final Four. They advanced to the national championship game a year ago, but were thoroughly outplayed by Billy Donovan's Florida Gators.

Bill Self is just trying to get there for the first time. The Kansas coach, who replaced Roy Williams in Lawrence four years ago, was dogged by a pair of consecutive first-round losses over the past two seasons.

Self somehow managed to retain a smile in Friday afternoon's news conference while being constantly reminded of the postseason failures.

"You're stuck on two years," said a smiling Self. "Geez."

The last time that Kansas hung a national championship banner was so long ago that Mario Chalmers needed teammate Russell Robinson to help him out on the podium and remind him it was 1988.

Those were the good ole days in Lawrence — when Danny Manning was roaming the baseline instead of the sidelines.

Kansas has advanced to the Elite Eight in four of the past six years and has a dozen Final Fours to its credit. The Jayhawks have won 14 consecutive games and finally have the monkey off their back.

"You can definitely tell the difference the second week than the first week," Kansas junior guard Russell Robinson said. "The guys are a lot more relaxed."

Not as relaxed as UCLA. All five of the Bruins starters received meaningful minutes in the team's somewhat unlikely run to the championship game a year ago. The Bruins were ranked No. 1 in the country for five weeks, but a late-season slide in losses to Washington and Cal cost them a top seed.

No difference, though, as Howland's team was awarded a No. 2 seed — and rewarded with playing the first four games in their home state.

The expectation is that Kansas will try and get up and down the court and make it a transition game, while the Bruins will attempt to slow it down and make it an ugly affair. Howland is adamant that won't be the case.

"If they allow us to push it, that will be great," Howland said. "We played Arizona in the 80s. I think the great thing about our team is we can play any style you want to play. You want to play a knock-down, drag-it-out Washington State or go up and down with Arizona and our guys can adjust."

The same can be said for Kansas, which prefers to play up-tempo — but proved it could win a half-court battle on Thursday night against Southern Illinois.

The history is nice and all, but it won't matter on Saturday night.

Whoever does advance just may have the inside track to the national title.