Thus it was appropriate, I guess, that Bob Stoops, coach of Oklahoma’s national football champions, would announce he wasn’t leaving at a basketball venue.

During halftime of Saturday’s Kansas-Oklahoma game at the Noble Center, Stoops told to a thrilled throng that rumors he might leave for the Cleveland Browns were grossly exaggerated.

“Regardless of what you’ve heard,” Stoops said, “I’m going to be here for a long, long time.”

You can imagine the decibel level after Stoops uttered those words over the public address system.

OK, I know you’re not reading this because you want to read about Oklahoma football. You know how the Sooners came out of nowhere and stunned the college football world by posting a 13-0 record. You want to read about Kansas basketball.

Here’s the point: Oklahoma didn’t climb to the top of the mountain by being soft. The Sooners had to be tough both physically and mentally. In the same vein, you know the knock on Kansas basketball. The Jayhawks have been tough physically, but mentally well, you saw that Wake Forest game last month in Winston-Salem.

On Saturday afternoon, Kansas ran into a buzzsaw no less menacing than the Jayhawks faced on Tobacco Road, and they did NOT wither this time.

To tell the truth, if Kansas had been scheduled to play in Norman last year I doubt if the Jayhawks would have won. As it was, KU barely escaped the Sooners with a 53-50 win in Allen Fieldhouse.

“This isn’t last year,” OU coach Kelvin Sampson said. “And this isn’t November or December. Kansas is a veteran team now and they know how to play on the road.”

Echoed OU senior forward Nolan Johnson: “The difference for this (Kansas) team is they have a lot of experience. Last year, those guys Collison, Hinrich and Gooden were freshmen. Now they know what to expect.”

So, please, no more talk about the Jayhawks playing soft on the road. No more complaints about blowing big leads and no more whining about Eric Chenowith being a seven-footer who plays like he’s 6-5.

Chenowith may never live down his pitiful performance at Wake Forest one late free throw accounted for all his points against the Demon Deacons but I’ll bet OU’s Sampson would have loved to have the 7-foot KU senior on Saturday.

Chenowith killed the Sooners with 15 rebounds and, even though he was credited with only one blocked shot, the hulking senior played a big role in altering OU shots, mostly by the 6-4 Johnson, who likes to go one-on-one out front, then wheel inside and pop a little 10-footer.

Johnson missed 12 of his 18 shots, and I’m sure at least half of them were altered by the Jayhawks, particularly Chenowith.

And how about the way the Jayhawks responded to the Sooners wiping out their 12-point lead and forging a 40-40 tie with a few ticks more than 11 minutes remaining?

Two quick baskets by Collison, who came off the bench in this one (we never know if he or Drew Gooden will start), stopped the bleeding and the Sooners never led again.

A true measure of a team is its ability to win with poor statistics. Kansas did that at Ohio State three weeks ago and again on Saturday.

“If you had told me we would hold Kansas to 43 percent shooting and they’d score just 69 points,” Sampson said, “I would have thought we’d win.”

Now all the Jayhawks have to do is prove they can win at home.

I’m joking, of course, but it’s been so long since the Jayhawks have played a game in Allen Fieldhouse you have to wonder if they remember what it’ll be like.

When the Jayhawks entertain Nebraska on Wednesday, it will be only their second home outing in the last 47 days and their first since Dec. 16.

All that time away from Allen Fieldhouse seems to have been beneficial, though. If ever a Kansas basketball team came home road-toughened, it’s this one.