Maybe it's best this way. Maybe a college basketball team that exists just under the national radar, a major program in stature and yet one playing amongst a collection of mid-major types, enjoys advantages not afforded the Dukes and Arizonas of the world. Maybe way out there in Tulsa, Okla., where the water is clean and the crime rate low, competing in the Western Athletic Conference keeps those wearing hightops grounded and absent of pressure.

It certainly keeps them winning.

Always, it seems, Tulsa is winning.

	All Dante Swanson did last season was hit a 49 percent of his 3-pointers -- tops in the country.

Seasons pass and championships are won and hopes and dreams are crushed across the nation, but those who play in the four-year old Reynolds Center just keep going about their business. We are talking some very Duke-like numbers of 85 wins the past three years; of an Elite Eight finish in 2000; of an NIT title the following season.

Yep, way out there in Tulsa, where you can reach eight different lakes in under an hour and nearly 73 percent of metropolitan businesses have five or fewer employees.

"We've always been considered the underdog," says second-year coach John Phillips. "It has been our ambition to be considered a top 25 program, a major program, one that can contend for its conference championship every year and go deep in the NCAA Tournament.

"But we also realize that while expectations and rankings are nice this time of year, college basketball teams are not judged on how well they do in December, but rather in the spring."

Fact: The WAC includes 10 teams and -- despite the presence of Division I football -- several are distinct examples of mid-major programs. Or haven't you seen the facilities at San Jose State?

But in Tulsa, there exists a stalwart reputation built from making six of the past eight NCAA fields, twice advancing to the Sweet 16.

The Golden Hurricane again sits among the few favorites (Hawaii being the other) to contend for a conference title this season, and it's not wacky to think Phillips and his team will be alive the second week of NCAAs.

And maybe longer.

They talk about winning a national championship at Tulsa and no one within 1,000 miles of the Broken Arrow Expressway blinks. It's not as if others of Tulsa's ilk haven't seriously flirted with the notion.

Utah, then a member of the WAC before splitting with seven others to form the Mountain West Conference, stood 40 minutes from a national title against Kentucky in 1998. Gonzaga, the program most often mentioned with Tulsa as the best major-from-a-mid-major-conference (or is that vise versa for Tulsa?), reached three straight Sweet 16s before last season.

Tulsa is really a remarkable story, given the revolving door that has been its head coaching position the past decade. Tubby Smith. Steve Robinson. Bill Self. Buzz Peterson. Now, Phillips.

The face changes; the grand accomplishments do not.

"I think success carries over," says Phillips. "I think you always need to have that belief that you're not going to be intimidated, that you're not going to let things slip one inch, no matter how many changes are made."

	“	We basically beat size with quickness. We take pride in usually being the smaller team and winning. ... Ever since I have been here, all we have done is win games. ”
		— Dante Swanson, Tulsa senior guard

Phillips is Tulsa born and you can bet the ever-changing lineup of head coaches has ceased for the next, oh, 15 years or so. A former high school coach for 17 years, he assisted the Golden Hurricane for four seasons under Self and then Peterson before taking over. He doesn't mince words when discussing goals, which include snipping down a net come Final Four weekend.

Major programs build a championship model different ways, and Tulsa's idea of the consummate example isn't very big. In fact, it has everything to do with creating matchup problems via several deft-shooting guards, combating an annual lack of size with an annual surplus of rabbits.

'We basically beat size with quickness," says guard Dante Swanson. "We take pride in usually being the smaller team and winning. Ever since I have been here, all we have done is win games. I remember my first season. We went to the Elite Eight and you could really see people taking notice that this was a major program.

"Now, this year, they're talking about the Sweet 16 or maybe the Elite Eight. But to us, it will be a big disappointment if we don't make it to the Final Four."

It's not as if Tulsa has ignored the factors that traditionally help teams advance into major status. Phillips agrees his program's rise has been aided by things like scholarship limitations, the 5/8 rule and early defections to the NBA -- not to mention unknowns slipping through the recruiting cracks of elite teams. All of it plays a part.

The WAC has always aspired to be something more than most view it, and a program like Tulsa has the resources to make it happen. On paper, schools like Tulsa and Hawaii seem to be more mid-level programs from Bowl Championship Series conferences than anything resembling the best of mid-major leagues.

Still, Phillips is patient enough to know great teams aren't built overnight, and that last season's 27-7 record is a distant memory to most outside city limits. But there is no surrogate for experience, and Tulsa returns four starters.

Gone is all-conference pick Greg Harrington (13.0 ppg, 5.2 apg), the program's all-time winningest player. But the senior Swanson led the nation in 3-point shooting last year and senior Antonio Reed is as quick a guard as the conference knows. Kevin Johnson, a 6-foot-8 senior forward, has twice been named second-team all-conference.

Translation: The pieces are in place for a memorable run.

A Final Four run?

"I believe we can win (a national championship) here," says Phillips. "When we came here six years ago, (Self) told me we could do it and I believed him. Basketball is totally different than other teams sports. You just need a couple really good players and some guys who fit whatever else the teams needs.

"The young men who have chosen Tulsa have done a tremendous job developing and getting better as players. Gonzaga, Tulsa, still being called mid-majors by some, the schools with not as much notoriety as others ... none of that matters."

Not when you win this much.

Tulsa is big-time, for sure.

Major, in fact.

Ed Graney of the San Diego Union-Tribune is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached at ed.graney@uniontrib.com.