And for that she can thank her boss: Kansas coach Roy Williams, whose plucky Jayhawks play Syracuse tonight for the NCAA championship.

“All the former players are trying to come to the game, because the NBA is off Monday,” said Stephens, who as Williams’ secretary normally fills 250 ticket orders for the team, players’ parents and others connected with the program.

This time, she’s working overtime. Jacque Vaughn called. So did Drew Gooden and Scot Pollard. Larry Brown dropped her a line.

And Sunday afternoon, as she dined on crawfish cakes at Pat O’Brien’s in the French Quarter, none other than Dean Smith rang her wireless phone. That’s right: The man Williams still calls “coach” and reveres as a mentor and father figure will be at tonight’s national title game at the Superdome, the same place Smith won his first national title, in 1982, with Williams on the North Carolina bench as an assistant.

Stephens, sporting a $15 crimson-blue-and-gold feather boa, smiles sheepishly when asked about her growing flock.

“They’re a family,” Stephens said, touring Bourbon Street with her own family: husband Dave Stephens and two children and their spouses. “They’re all still family.”

Hundreds of KU fans, friends and, yes, families spent Sunday strolling the streets of the French Quarter, roaming the Riverwalk along the banks of the Mississippi River and dining on etouffee and beignets — anything to relax before tonight’s monumental matchup.

Tipoff is set for 8:22 p.m.

Show me your ‘Hawks

New Orleans attorney and 1996 KU graduate Ronna Steele will be in the quarter tonight for what she’s counting on to be a wild celebration.

Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photos

She’s the one with the second-floor apartment in the LaBranche Building at 627 1/2 Royal Street, the place with two “Kansas Jayhawks” seat covers tied to her metal railing and 100 pounds of plastic beads ready for tossing to the street below.

Non-Jayhawks need not even ask.

“We want everybody to know this is a Jayhawk balcony,” she said, standing on her new bright crimson carpet in the 163-year-old building. “We’re throwing these beads only to KU fans. Go Jayhawks!”

Mike Murphy, a 1986 KU graduate, and brother Pat Murphy might stop by — if they can find the place. As they did following Saturday’s night’s victory over Marquette, the brothers intend to celebrate tonight’s game by “drinking a lot,” Mike Murphy reports, and not wasting any time catching winks.

“We’ll be up all night,” he said, nursing a bottle of Ozarka Natural Spring Water to drown his hangover. “Our (airport) shuttle comes at 4 in the morning, so we’re not going to sleep.”

Take two Advil and…

Carla Bukalski, a 1994 KU graduate, flew in from Chicago and managed to catch both games at the Superdome before hitting Bourbon Street and staying out until 5 a.m. Sunday.

She staved off the brain reverberations of six Hurricanes by taking two Advil before going to sleep. Up five hours later, Bukalski awakened — well, if not refreshed, at least well enough to make it back to the quarter for lunch.

“Two Advil and a big greasy breakfast — eggs and bacon,” she said, revealing her secret for hangover care. “I’ll do it again Tuesday.”

KU sophomore Eric Slatten and his sister, Brooke Slatten, are doing their part by flying their colors high above the Crescent City. They’ve hung a crimson-and-blue KU flag inside the window of their room on the 41st floor of the Sheraton Hotel, where the KU team is staying and thousands of fans will cram into for the final pregame pep rally of the year.

But Eric Slatten knows he still has work to do.

“Last night my dad came back to the room and went to bed at 2 in the morning,” he said. “I was in bed by 11:30. I’ll have to make up for it.”

Members of the Luce family, KU fans in from South Carolina, are summoning help from above for more than a KU championship.

Julie Luce, mother of this band of fans, sported a blue T-shirt with a modified American flag on the front. The changes: A Jayhawk replaces the field of stars, and “In Roy We Trust” is inscribed across the bottom.

Heavenly requests

“We’re praying hard — that we win and for Roy to stay,” Julie Luce said.

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Her daughter, Wendy Franklin, admits to “praying more for Roy to stay.”

Williams is rumored to be sought after by the University of North Carolina to fill its vacant head coaching position. It’s a topic Williams repeatedly has chosen not to visit during the Final Four, but one that fans and others can’t seem to shake.

Even as he takes another shot at earning his first national championship as a head coach.

“Roy’s the Dean Smith of Kansas, but he won’t be if he leaves,” said Bob Luce, a KU grad and Julie’s husband. “It’d be like getting a divorce if he leaves. Everybody in Lawrence loves him.”