On the same day the famed Pennsylvania rodent emerged from a burrow and saw his shadow, superstitiously signifying six more weeks of bad weather, Kansas University basketball fans were secure in the prospect of six more weeks at least of good basketball.

Make that, real good basketball.

Saturday’s 100-73 send-up of Colorado, long-time cousin though the Buffaloes may be, only served to reinforce the suspicion the Jayhawks are a bona fide threat to win the national championship.

Of course, the presence of a dozen members of KU’s 1952 NCAA championship team for their 50th reunion heightened the awareness that the 2002 edition of the Jayhawks could also be a team of destiny.

As always, what will be will be, but it goes without saying that members of this year’s KU team would love to return and be honored during halftime of a game in the year 2052.

That’s right. Two thousand and fifty-two.

“I’d be 71 then,” said junior forward Nick Collison, smiling. “Hopefully, I’ll live to be that age. I hope I can walk then, too. But even if they wheeled me out it would still be a great feeling.”

Collison stressed that he and his teammates are in awe of what the ’52 Jayhawks accomplished.

“What those guys did, every team wants to do from the first day of practice,” Collison said. “If we could come back like that, it would be great.”

Earlier in the week, coach Roy Williams mentioned he might come out of the locker room to witness the halftime ceremonies, and many thought he would with the Jayhawks hully-gullying to a 58-31 bulge at the break. But Williams opted to let the spotlight shine on the Jayhawks’ septuagenarian standouts, including his mentor, Dean Smith.

Not that Williams would allow their exploits to go unmentioned in his pregame discourse.

“He said he probably wouldn’t be here in 50 years,” senior guard Jeff Boschee reported, “but he said he hoped a lot of us would be.”

If Williams is around in February of 2052, he’ll be 101 years old, and, with all due respect to Collison, Williams is the one who would probably have to be wheeled onto the floor. Not that he couldn’t throw a T-shirt into the crowd on his way in through the northwest tunnel.

“It’s kind of funny to think that far into the future,” reserve guard Brett Ballard said, “but I think this team can do big things.”

Added guard Kirk Hinrich: “Yeah, it would be awesome to be asked back. That would be a great accomplishment.”

Heck, by then, people may have even forgotten all about Harry Potter, but probably not. (By the way, if this were a hundred years ago, would Texas A&M’s Reed Rowdies have chanted “Huckleberry Finn, Huckleberry Finn” at Hinrich instead?).

All in all, it isn’t difficult to become euphoric about a team that has played perhaps the two best back-to-back games in Kansas University’s storied basketball history.

Saturday’s win came five days after the 105-73 stoning of Missouri and was uncannily similar, a near mirror image. KU outscored MU, 62-31, in the second half and blistered the Buffs, 58-31, in the first half. Last Monday night, the Jayhawks nursed a 43-42 halftime lead over Mizzou. Saturday’s second-half score was KU 42, CU 42.

It is ridiculous to think the Jayhawks will continue ringing up triple-digit scores all the way to the NCAA championship game at the Georgia Dome. At the same time, though, we don’t need a woodchuck wizard to tell us good KU days in February and March will far outnumber the bad.