Kansas players celebrate after winning the Big 12 men's NCAA college basketball championship game against Kansas State, Saturday, March 16, 2013, in Kansas City, Mo. Kansas won the game 70-54. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

Western Kentucky and Kansas last played 16 years ago, but the two programs aren’t as separated by history as it might seem.

Ray Harper, Bill Self, Kurtis Townsend and Jamal Crook can all point to parts of their past that involve their respective counterparts.Harper spoke Sunday about his time as coach at Oklahoma City University from 2005-08. While there, he allowed Darnell Jackson to come work out with his team on his campus before Jackson’s senior season at KU.

“We let him stay in Oklahoma City for the summer and we worked him out,” Harper recalled. “He was projected to be a backup and he ended up as their starting center and they won the national championship and he ended up being a draft pick.”

Jackson averaged 6.7 rebounds his senior season and would go on to be drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers later that year after the Jayhawks beat Memphis 75-68 in overtime in the national championship.

The 6-foot-8-inch forward, who attended the same high school as WKU junior guard Brandon Harris at Northwest Classen in Oklahoma City, had eight points and eight rebounds in that win.

Jackson’s mother Shawn told the Lawrence Journal-World in a profile in 2008 that playing with players at OKC helped his confidence.Self, coach at Kansas then and now, hasn’t forgotten the start of that relationship with Harper, either.

“I’ve known Ray Harper a while,” Self said. “He’s won national championships and of course he was the coach at Oklahoma City University and I became more acquainted with him there. He has just done a phenomenal job in the year-and-a-half that he’s been there (at WKU).”

Self doesn’t have to look too far down his own bench to find another WKU connection.Townsend, now an assistant at KU, played point guard on the Hill from 1978-80 under WKU coach Gene Keady.The Hilltoppers went 38-19 in those two seasons and won the Ohio Valley Conference championship in 1980 before losing 89-85 to Virginia Tech in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Self said Townsend was a part of the early WKU scouting report when Self jokingly told the Jayhawks that Townsend was, “the greatest player to play there.””Oh yeah, KT’s fired up,” Self said. “He did love his time there and he does love his alma mater, but he won’t have as much love for them this week I don’t think.”

Crook, a senior point guard, has ties to Kansas senior guard Elijah Johnson. Both played high school basketball in Las Vegas.”When I lived out in Vegas my senior year, I got a chance to play against him and I played AAU with him a little bit,” Crook said. “I owe him. I played him my first game I played in, my debut, and they beat us. I’ll remember that game in the back of my head as we do go down there and take this ride.”

Johnson scored 18 points in a 78-77 Cheyenne win over Crook’s Durango.

Western Kentucky and Kansas are scheduled to meet at 8:50 p.m. Friday at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo.