1 Kansas Survives Western Kentucky Upset Bid Kansas coach Bill Self predicted this week that a No. 1 seed would someday lose to a No. He didn't know his Jayhawks would be trying to fend off being the first. The South Region's top seed needed 17 points from Jeff Withey, and a series of foul shots from Ben McLemore and Naadir Tharpe down the stretch, to hold off scrappy Western Kentucky 64-57 Friday night and avoid another upset on a day full of them in the NCAA tournament. "We're pleased we won, and didn't play our best by any stretch," Self said. They controlled the game for the most part. We're happy to advance, but certainly not pleased with how we played. The Jayhawks (30-5), flummoxed by the Hilltoppers' full-court pressure, trailed 31-30 at halftime. Kansas eventually built an 11-point lead in the second half, but couldn't put Western Kentucky away until McLemore's two foul shots with 11 seconds left. McLemore and Travis Releford scored 11 each for the Jayhawks, who wearily advanced to play No. 8 seed North Carolina and former coach Roy Williams in the South Regional on Sunday. "A North Carolina-Kansas game, everybody comes to play," the Jayhawks' Elijah Johnson said. Roy is coming back, there's going to be a lot of fans pumped up, and we'll be pumped. The marquee matchup between a pair of college basketball blue blood almost didn't happen. Western Kentucky guard T.J. Price, left, is fouled by Kansas center Jeff Withey (5) during the first half of a second-round game in the NCAA college basketball tournament at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo., Friday, March 22, 2013. North Carolina squandered a big lead before holding on to beat Villanova 78-71, and then the Jayhawks watched Western Kentucky do everything it could to spring one more upset. Jamal Crook scored 13 points and T.J. Price had 12 for the Hilltoppers (20-16), who would have made history by becoming the first No. 16 seed to upend a No. "We knew what we had to do," Crook said, "regardless of what seed we were." Earlier in the day, No. 15 seed Florida Gulf Coast stunned second-seeded Georgetown, perhaps emboldening the Sun Belt champions. And on the same floor at the Sprint Center, 13th-seeded La Salle knocked off Kansas State and No. 12 seed Ole Miss beat fifth-seeded Wisconsin. Alas, the undersized team in red couldn't hang tough with the bigger guys in blue down the stretch, allowing Kansas to reach 30 wins for the fourth straight season - the first time that's happened in Division I men's basketball, after Memphis was forced to vacate the 2008 season. "They kind of surprised us with how good they were, to be honest," Withey said. We definitely took them lightly, being a No. They came out and fought us really hard. Since the NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, 16 seeds are winless against No. 1 seeds in 116 games, including Southern's heartbreaking 64-58 loss to Gonzaga on Thursday. "I think the entire country got a glimpse of what they're made of, a lot of character, a lot of heart," Western Kentucky coach Ray Harper said. A lot of people doubted us this season. We went through a lot of adversity, and adversity will tell you a lot about people. Western Kentucky spent the first half pinning Kansas against the ropes. Price hit an opener 3-pointer in the opening minute, George Fant was able to use his superior quickness against the bigger Withey in the paint, and the Hilltoppers - who needed four wins to capture the Sun Belt tournament title and the league's automatic bid - slowly built a 20-16 lead. The heavily pro-Kansas crowd fell quiet, even as Jayhawks coach Bill Self turned up the volume on the sideline, laying into his team for its lethargic start.