COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA MEN’S TOURNAMENT : MIDWEST REGIONAL : What’s Good for Kansas Might Not Be for the Mississippi

This is what the Midwest Regional, reduced to today’s game between No. 1-seeded Indiana and No. 2-seeded Kansas, has come to:

In an effort to gain every possible advantage, Kansas Coach Roy Williams instructed the driver of the Jayhawk team bus to pull over at Mississippi River’s edge a couple of days ago. That done, Williams ordered his players to depart the vehicle, approach the murky water and spit away.

The Environmental Protection Agency probably won’t be too pleased, but then again, it isn’t trying to win a national championship.

“I’m a little silly,” said Williams, who has also been known to pat the tombstones of Jayhawk coaching legends Phog Allen and James Naismith while on jogging jaunts back in Lawrence, Kan.

It was at the 1982 Final Four in New Orleans that Williams, then an assistant on Dean Smith’s North Carolina staff, was first told of the magical powers of the Mississippi.

“Someone told me it would be good luck to go spit in the Mississippi River,” he said. “We had Michael Jordan, James Worthy, Dean Smith, heck, what could Roy Williams do? So I went and spit in the Mississippi River. So I’ve done my part.”

It worked, too. Smith won his only NCAA championship that year, a piece of trivia not lost on Williams, who knows a good-luck charm when he sees one.

On the way to Thursday night’s regional semifinal against California, Williams said he noticed his players were too tight, too nervous. That’s when he ordered the detour and the impromptu spitting exercise.

“You think (Indiana) Coach (Bob) Knight would have his group do that?” asked Williams, who vowed that the Jayhawks would return to the banks of the great river before today’s game against the Hoosiers (31-3) for one last spitfest. “As coaches, you don’t have a lot you can do.”

That’s not exactly true. Williams and the Jayhawks (28-6) have the memory of a five-point victory over Indiana last December in Indianapolis. Guards Rex Walters and Adonis Jordan each scored 16 points and improved Williams’ record against Knight to 2-0.

Of course, don’t mention this to Kansas or Indiana. Four months is a lifetime in a basketball season, and both teams insist that today’s game will feature its share of changes.

“One thing we don’t want to do is turn this into the rematch of the century, into a grudge match,” Hoosier guard Greg Graham said.

For Indiana, the differences revolve around injuries. Center Alan Henderson, who scored six points and had nine rebounds and two blocks during the December loss to Kansas, has been reduced to a role player because of a damaged right knee. And freshman forward Brian Evans’ status for today’s game is in question because of a broken right thumb (his non-shooting hand) suffered in Thursday’s victory over Cal.

Still, the Hoosiers remain the favorite for no other reason than All-American forward Calbert Cheaney, whose 32 points against Louisville in the regional semifinal had Cardinal Coach Denny Crum groping for explanations.

There is also a matter of history to remember: During Knight’s 22 years at Indiana, the Hoosiers have never lost twice to a nonconference team in the same season. UCLA knows all about that. The Bruins beat the Hoosiers by 15 points to open the 1991-92 season and then were pummeled, 106-79, by Indiana in the NCAA tournament.

As for Kansas, Williams can rest easily knowing that Walters has emerged from a brief slump. In three tournament games, Walters is averaging 25 points, nearly 10 above his average.