Here's your Fantasyland

Kansas, Duke and Arizona? Why not bring the Lakers, too?

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Michael Eisner need not fret if there’s a sudden drop in Disneyland attendance this weekend.

For the next few days, Orange County’s biggest attraction won’t involve mouse ears or another Jack Black drunk slacker movie. Rather, it’s the Blue Devils, Jayhawks, Wildcats and Irish.

Arizona, Duke and Kansas in the same regional? As college basketball’s almighty baldhead might say: Are you serious!?!

Did someone at the selection committee break out the preseason Top 25 and just start going down the list?

"When I saw who was in this [region]," Arizona coach Lute Olson said, "I knew no one was going to accuse [Arizona athletic director and selection committee chairman] Jim Livengood of showing any favoritism to us. It’s unbelievable to have the programs that we have here at the [Arrowhead] Pond."

Just how deep is this regional?

Let’s just say that since 1997, Arizona, Duke and Kansas have accounted for 11 of the tournament’s 28 No. 1 seeds.

The third-seeded Blue Devils will be wearing dark uniforms in an NCAA tournament game for what seems like the first time since the advent of the 3-point line, or at least since the famed Taymon Domzalski era.

"Usually if you’re the underdog, people root for you," Duke guard Chris Duhon said. "But I don’t think anyone’s going to be rooting for us."

It’s to the point that poor Notre Dame has had four straight 20-win seasons yet is considered the outsider of the bunch. (The good news is, the Irish’s football team could probably beat the other three’s combined squads).

"You have three very consistent programs where the coaches have been there for a long time," Irish coach Mike Brey said. "I use all three of them as models."

So do a lot of people, which is why it’s inconceivable to think that a little more than 48 hours from now there may be only one -- or none -- still alive in this tournament.

While there’s no shortage of storylines at all four regions this weekend -- improbable Butler and Auburn in the East, Maryland’s repeat quest in the South and Kentucky’s 25-game win streak in the Midwest -- a crush of media has made its way west, and not just because it’s sunnier here than in Albany, N.Y.

It’s hard to remember a much more compelling Sweet 16 doubleheader, starting Thursday night with the Arizona-Notre Dame undercard, followed by the much-anticipated Duke-Kansas main event.

Anaheim may be 2,000 miles away, but they’ll be watching the first one with great interest in Indianapolis, where point guards Jason Gardner (Arizona) and Chris Thomas (Notre Dame) were high school rivals and former Indiana Mr. Basketballs separated by just two years.

Thomas’ Pike teams got the better of Gardner’s North Central teams in three of their four meetings, but both won state titles and both have remained friendly rivals from the time the two first played in the same summer league back in middle school.

Brey was on hand last summer when the two were Nike All-America Camp counselors and went head-to-head in some notably intense pickup games with other college players.

"They went on to the court friends," Brey said, "but once they checked it up, they started playing like they were trying to tear each other's heart out."

While Thomas (18.7 points per game, 7.0 assists) is more of a scorer than Gardner (14.3, 4.9), both are the undisputed floor leaders of teams with eerily similar styles. They both love to get out and run and launch the 3-pointer -- Arizona with Gardner and Salim Stoudamire, Notre Dame with Thomas and Matt Carroll -- and they both have underrated but important post presence, the Wildcats with center Channing Frye, the Irish with Torin Francis.

If those two don’t cause the Pond’s scoreboard to explode, Duke and Kansas just might. They are two teams that make their living off the fast break, but they’ll have to step up their defense to cut off each other’s bread-and-butter.

For the Blue Devils, it’s the 3-ball, which J.J. Redick, Dahntay Jones and Daniel Ewing drain nearly at will. For the Jayhawks, it’s the slashing and penetrating of Kirk Hinrich and Keith Langford, compounded by the presence of bruiser Nick Collison inside.

For all that Roy Williams has accomplished at Kansas -- nine conference titles, three Final Fours and the highest winning percentage (.807) of any active coach -- he is winless in three tries against Mike Krzyzewski, a fact that has to be extra gnawing for a born-and-bred Tar Heel.

This will be the first time, however, his team is favored to beat Duke. And while one Sweet 16 win won’t quash the critics who deride Williams’ tournament resume, it would certainly be sweet for a team that’s been through an up-and-down year, dropping three of its first six, losing star Wayne Simien to injury and bowing out in the semifinals of the Big 12 tournament to archrival Missouri.

"You’re talking about a team that’s had a No. 1 seed five of the last six years," said Hinrich, who lost a 69-64 second-round heartbreaker to Duke his freshman year. "If we beat them, it would be a great accomplishment."

It certainly would, and if you pull it off, Kirk, we’ve got a lovely present waiting for you: a couple hours at the pool, then go practice for Arizona or Notre Dame.

"How many times have you watched ever watched all those people on the selection shows and they all agree?" asked Kansas’ Williams. "They all agreed that this was the toughest region."

They were right that day, and they’d be right if they said it now.

After all, that’s why we’re here.

Stewart Mandel covers college sports for SI.com.