It was the most improbable of national championships, this 1988 NCAA title won by a Kansas team that had lost 11 games and, seemingly, that many players during the season.

Quite frankly, many observers, this one included, thought the 1986 Jayhawk team that lost to Duke in the national semifinals was better. (Ditto for the 1997 and 1998 teams). The '86 team had better shooters in Ron Kellogg and Calvin Thompson, a true center in Greg Dreiling, a gifted point guard in Cedric Hunter and a supersub in Archie Marshall.

It also had Danny Manning, but while the incredibly gifted Manning was good enough that sophomore year to be named All-Big Eight, he wasn't yet ready to be a leader.

In 1988, he was. And did.

His supporting cast was nowhere near as talented as the group that lost in Dallas two years earlier (although some would argue they played better defense). But it didn't matter.

Manning did what Clyde Lovellette had done the last time KU won a national title. He carried the Jayhawks on his back.

OK, so he had some help from Larry Brown. If ever one player and one coach dominated a national tournament, this was it.

The enigmatic Brown, tormented and tested during a season that had more subplots than a B movie, pushed all the right buttons during KU's amazing tournament run. Of course, it doesn't hurt to have the nation's best college basketball player on the team.

The combination of Brown and Manning was just enough for Kansas to overcome -- as the title of a book about the championship season suggested -- all odds.

Among the oddities:

• Manning was the only Jayhawk who played in all 38 games.

• The Jayhawks lost four games in a row at one point, had a 12-8 record in the first week of February and were unranked going into the tournament. "We were just hoping to host an NIT game," Brown said when KU was 12-8.

• They were embarrassed in Hawaii and booed in Allen Fieldhouse.

• Four players who started at least one game were no longer on the team for the tournament. Senior forward Archie Marshall tore up his knee, junior center Marvin Branch flunked out, and Brown kicked off junior point guard Otis Livingston and freshman center Mike Masucci.

• Only 11 players suited up for the NCAA Tournament, and two of those were walk-ons from the football team.

• The Jayhawks' last three victories in the tournament were against teams that had defeated them in Allen Fieldhouse during the regular season.

Through it all, Brown's emotions ran the gamut.

He cussed after a pathetic showing in the Maui Classic where they lost to Iowa and Illinois. He cried after Archie Marshall ripped apart his knee in New York City. He ranted after 6-foot-10 center Marvin Branch was declared academically ineligible after the first semester.

He smiled when his team sagged, saying even though KU's homecourt winning streak had been snapped by K-State, he had fun because "it was the first time in a long time I felt good about our effort." And he fretted when it appeared a knee injury might sideline point guard Kevin Pritchard for the NCAA opener against Xavier.

But the Jayhawks caught a break -- the game was played on Friday, giving Pritchard an extra day to heal.

Lucky? Yes, they were.

Once in the tournament, high seeds kept tumbling right before the Jayhawks would have faced them. Instead of facing No. 3 seed North Carolina State in the second round at Lincoln, KU encountered No. 14 Murray State, which had stunned NC State in the first round. Then, No. 2 Pittsburgh was upset in the by No. 7 Vanderbilt, setting up a Sweet 16 matchup of KU and Vandy.

And when top-seeded Purdue lost to K-State in the other semifinal, an historic all-Kansas regional final pitted KU against No. 4 K-State Š for the fourth time.

The Mitch Richmond-led Wildcats had been the better team throughout the season, defeating KU twice, including a victory in Allen Fieldhouse that snapped the Jayhawks' 55-game homecourt win streak. And just two weeks earlier, K-State had soundly beaten KU in the Big Eight Tournament.

But in the game that counted, an unlikely hero, Scooter Barry, scored a career-high 15 points in a 71-58 victory that sent KU back to Kansas City.

Once there, they floored Duke -- and point guard Quin Snyder -- with an incredible start in the semifinal game, then shocked Oklahoma in the final. KU's 83-79 victory in the championship game was Brown's finest hour.

Manning's, too.

Brown chose to play Russian Roulette, running with the Sooners during a scintillating 50-50 first-half classic, before slamming on the brakes in the second half and turning the game over to his defense and Manning. Manning finished with 31 points and 18 rebounds.

Three days later, another improbable chapter Š Brown was in Los Angeles interviewing for the UCLA job. He initially told the Bruins yes, then returned to Lawrence and changed his mind during a bizarre press conference in Allen Fieldhouse.

A month later, Brown accepted another job, with the NBA's San Antonio Spurs. This time, he didn't change his mind.