COLLEGE BASKETBALL : NCAA MEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP GAME : Hard to Tell Who’s Playing Favorites Now : Final Two: Kansas was impressed by Duke’s victory over UNLV, but Jayhawks aren’t surprised by their success.

Some serious back patting, enough to raise welts in most cases, took place here as Duke and Kansas happily prepared to play in tonight’s NCAA championship game. A regular lovefest, that’s what it was.

The Jayhawks couldn’t say enough nice things about Duke and its startling upset victory against top-ranked and previously unbeaten UNLV in Saturday’s tournament semifinal. Kansas forwards Mark Randall and Mike Maddox took turns, with straight faces, no less, telling everyone that, yes, they were virtually certain that Duke would beat Vegas.

“In my mind, I honestly thought Duke would win,” Randall said.

Kansas Coach Roy Williams did his part in paying homage to the Blue Devils. He immediately declared his Jayhawks the underdogs--a little trick he learned from former boss, Dean Smith--and reminded the assembled media that he, too, had warned of a Duke upset.

“But I’d like to think we have a chance,” he added.

Duke players and coaches were a little more restrained, but no less sincere in their praise of Kansas, which, no matter what Williams says, has shed its image of overachieving hayseeds from America’s bread basket. The most compelling evidence is Kansas’ tournament victories against Bobby Knight’s Indiana Hoosiers, Nolan Richardson’s Arkansas Razorbacks and Smith’s Tar Heels.

At last look, Knight was writing a column on the Final Four for a local newspaper, Richardson was living down this “40 minutes of hell” claim and Smith was still blushing about his ejection during the waning seconds of North Carolina’s semifinal loss.

Underdog? Phooey, said Duke.

“I think we have a similar respect for Kansas,” Blue Devil Coach Mike Krzyzewski said, when asked to compare Kansas with Vegas. “Kansas has done something this past month that we haven’t been able to do and that’s to beat North Carolina.”

The Jayhawks also have done something in the past 26 years that Duke hasn’t duplicated, either--win a national championship. Kansas earned its most recent title in 1988; Duke, which is making its fourth consecutive Final Four appearance and fifth in six years, has yet to earn a single championship trophy. It is also the third time in six seasons that Krzyzewski has led his team to the title game without a victory to show for his troubles. It has become his legacy of sorts--”Final Four Mike.”

“(A championship) has always been a dream and I’m going to continue to live that dream,” Krzyzewski said. Then he paused. “That sounds like an Elvis Presley song, a country song.”

In 1986, it was Louisville that beat Duke in the national final. Two years later, Kansas defeated the Blue Devils in the semifinal. In 1989, Seton Hall eliminated Krzyzewski’s team in the semifinal. And last season, UNLV embarrassed Duke, 103-73, in the championship game.

Shortly after the loss to Las Vegas, Krzyzewski met his family in his Denver hotel room. His mother, doing her best to console, said, “That’s all right, Mike. You’ll do better next year.”

Krzyzewski laughed when he recalled the story.

“We haven’t done better, but at least we’ve done the same,” he said.

Krzyzewski has now turned his full attention to Kansas. His team? That’s another story. By beating UNLV Saturday night, Duke avenged a humiliating defeat and also ended the Rebels’ hopes of an unbeaten season and second consecutive national championship. It was an exhilarating moment, but one that Krzyzewski wants his team to forget, at least for now.

“My main concern is how well we can focus and put the Vegas game behind us,” he said.

No problem, Duke point guard Bobby Hurley said.

“I don’t think this team is going to rest on anything,” he said. “I don’t think there will be a letdown. I know the guys are not satisfied with what we’ve done.”

The same goes for Williams, who boldly told his team weeks ago, when the tournament pairings were first announced, that the Jayhawks had a chance to win the championship. He then recited the results of North Carolina State’s miracle finish against Houston in the 1983 title game; of Villanova’s 1985 NCAA victory against prohibitive favorite Georgetown; of Kansas’ upset victory over Oklahoma in the 1988 championship.

That said, the Jayhawks are now one victory away from proving Williams correct. In their favor, forward Alonzo Jamison said, is the obligatory underdog attitude that the Jayhawks love to adopt in such moments.

“I feel like we have no pressure on us,” said Jamison, who confessed that he woke up during the wee hours of Sunday morning and spent considerable time just thinking about the try for a championship. “I think Duke might look over their shoulders, wondering if we’re going to play our game like we have all during the tournament.”