Michigan State had just bounced Kansas from last year's Sweet 16 and freshman Marcus Morris sat dejected on the bus headed to the Minneapolis airport. His season was over. It was time to send a text. It wasn't to his mother, Thomasine, the hospital housekeeper who kept him and his twin brother Markieff off the mean streets of their North Philadelphia neighborhood. It was to Andrea Hudy, Kansas' assistant athletic director for sport performance. 'We basically told her we were ready to change,' Marcus said. 'We were going to be dedicated to the gym. We were going to take maybe two days off. And we wanted to become new players. And we wanted her to show us the way to be better players.' Notice he said 'we' instead of 'I.' The twins rarely use the pronoun 'I.' Talk to them and you think there's a 'MORRS' across the back of their uniforms -- no 'I.' They are Kansas' twin terrors inside and they can only be separated by a keen eye that can tell Marcus' 6-foot-8, 229-pound frame from Markieff's 6-9, 237-pound body. That's up from 215 and 212 pounds, respectively. In one year, the Morrises have gone from the novelty act twins always endure growing up to major factors in top-seeded, top-ranked Kansas' attempt at a second national title in three years. 'We had no shot to be where we're at if it weren't for Markieff and Marcus,' said coach Bill Self whose 32-2 Jayhawks play 16th-seed Lehigh (22-10) Thursday night here in the first round of the Midwest Regional. 'They both had really good freshmen years. A lot of people don't think so because they were inconsistent. I never coached that many freshmen that weren't a little bit inconsistent,' Self said. The improvement can't just be marked in numbers. Markieff's numbers have jumped from 4.6 points and 4.4 rebounds to 6.8 and 5.4 coming off the bench, and Marcus has gone from 7.4 and 4.7 to 12.3 and 6.1 as the starting power forward. But it's the balance and depth they have given a front line that already has a lottery pick in center Cole Aldrich. 'I think Marcus could be as improved as any player in America,' Self said, 'and they certainly make us harder to guard because they give us balance.' Said Kansas State coach Frank Martin, whose Wildcats lost three times to the Jayhawks: 'They're two grown men now. They can run, shoot, rebound. They're tougher.' They give the Jayhawks a toughness that can only be provided by behemoths who are best friends and grew up in North Philly. In the Big 12 Tournament opener against Texas Tech, Darko Cohadarevic committed a hard foul on Markieff. When Markieff tried getting up, Cohadarevic pushed him back down. Marcus entered the fray as if saving his brother from a house fire. 'It's not just with him but any player on our team,' Marcus said. 'That toughness has to come from somebody. We can't take anything from anybody. I had to step up to show we weren't going to back down.' That comes natural in North Philly, where the laundry list of drugs and death is as part of the fabric as the bricks in Society Hill. But their mother, Thomasine, was tougher than any street thug the twins encountered. But she flexed with a smile. She merely laughed when she learned they switched classes for a day in third grade. By the time Marcus graduated from Prep Charter High School, he not only led it to the 2006 and '07 state titles but he was voted most likely to succeed. 'She started early,' Marcus said. 'When we started growing up and going outside, she was always talking to us about going to school and getting an education. When we did bad in school, she never cut us any breaks.' Being young for their grade, however, they delayed college for a year and went to Apex Academy in Pennsauken, N.J. They had attracted the attention of Memphis coach John Calipari, who received quick oral commitments. Too quick. As their season wore on, Calipari's attention wore out. 'I really didn't feel a close vibe,' Marcus said. 'Calipari is a great coach. His assistants are great assistants. Derek Kellogg -- he's now at UMass -- he's a great assistant and I was very close to Derek Kellogg. But me and Calipari, we weren't that close. 'Once I committed, I could talk to him anytime I wanted to. I rarely talked to him at all. He started recruiting other guys who were at the same position and the guys he said he wouldn't recruit he did.' Two years later, the Morrises are ready to send another text, this time at the end of the Final Four. 