SAN ANTONIO — Kansas' Kirk Hinrich completed a spinning, 360-degree slam dunk on Thursday afternoon at the Alamodome.
Pretty impressive for a guy with a bruised left thigh.
KU's Kenny Gregory lofts a jump shot during practice at the Alamodome on Thursday in San Antonio. The Jayhawks will meet Illinois tonight in a Midwest Regional semifinal.
"I'm moving around a lot better," said the 6-foot-3 Hinrich, who says he's close to 100 percent heading into tonight's NCAA Midwest Regional semifinal against Illinois (9:20 p.m., Alamodome).
He hurt his thigh in Sunday's second-round win over Syracuse.
"I feel fine. As long as it doesn't get hit again, I don't think it'll bother me. I'm ready to go. We're all ready to go," KU's sophomore point guard added.
The No. 4-seeded Jayhawks (26-6) are ready for their biggest test of the year 26-7, top-seeded Illinois.
"They're the best team we'll have faced all year and it will take our best game of the year to beat them," Hinrich said.
The Illini enter with one of the nation's top backcourts soph point guard Frank Williams and junior two-guard Cory Bradford, who some say will exploit less athletic KU guards Hinrich and Jeff Boschee.
"I don't know where people get that," said Hinrich, who looked pretty athletic on his shootaround slam, which thrilled a crowd of about 1,000 fans.
"I do not think our guards will be exploited."
Boschee thinks it's a great, even, guard matchup.
"I think it's really close," Boschee said. "Kirk and Frank are pretty equal in talent and Cory and I shoot it extremely well."
The KU-U of I tale of the tape looks something like this:
At the point, it's Williams, a 6-3, 205-pound sophomore, versus Hinrich, a 6-31/2, 180-pound second-year player.
Williams averages 14.7 points and 4.4 assists, Hinrich 11.4 points; 7.1 assists.
"Frank Williams can do so many different things," Hinrich said. "He can shoot the ball, get it inside, finish. He does a great job running their team. What he does and all their guards do is apply tough pressure. They try to steal every pass. Inside the three-point line, they don't try to give you any more ground."
Williams is one of the quicker players in the U.S.
Kansas guard Jeff Boschee (with basketball) and his teammates stretch. The Jayhawks limbered up before a shootaround at the Alamodome on Thursday in San Antonio.
"He's at worst one of the top three or four point guards in the country," KU coach Roy Williams gushed. "He scores, penetrates, has great hands, makes other shots for other players.
"He's confident, but not cocky. He's very sure of himself but not arrogant. He makes everybody feel a heck of a lot more comfortable."
At shooting guard, it's Bradford, a 6-3, 200-pound junior versus KU junior Boschee, 6-1, 185. Boschee has hit 67 threes in 182 tries and averages 11.4 points a game. Bradford has made 59 threes in 163 tries for a 9.7 average.
"He's a shooter, very explosive, who really helps their team. He's a good player," Boschee said of the Illini sharpshooter.
KU's starting guards have 340 assists against 168 turnovers. Illinois' guards have totaled 181 assists and 140 turnovers.
"I feel good about our guards. Offensively they share the ball. They have as good an assist/error ratio as any one-two men left in the tournament," KU's Williams said. "They try very hard defensively, but at times physical limitations make it more difficult."
Kansas' Nick Collison, left, visits with CBS broadcaster Dick Enberg.
KU's guards have faced tough matchups before.
"We play against some great guards in the Big 12," Boschee said, citing Iowa State as an example. "I don't think Frank Williams is any better than Jamaal Tinsley. I don't think Cory Bradford is any better than (Kantrail) Horton. We've stood up to the challenge before."
A year ago, Hinrich outplayed Duke's Jason Williams in KU's 69-65 second-round tourney loss.
Williams scored six points on 2-of-15 shooting with eight turnovers and six assists. Hinrich had 12 points, six assists and three bobbles.
"Obviously I was real upset we lost that game," Hinrich said. "But as a team and myself, I realized what we can accomplish in this tournament. We know what it takes.
"We will be ready to play. We will come out and play hard."
So will Illinois.
Basically the same Illini team clubbed KU, 84-70, last season at Chicago's United Center.
"We've got to match their 'physicalness' and compete," said Hinrich. "We can't get out-toughed."
The matchup between Kansas' Kirk Hinrich and Illinois' Frank Williams, above, could be crucial to the outcome tonight.
Marcus Griffin (6-9, 235), Sergio McClain (6-4, 230), Lucas Johnson (6-8, 230), Brian Cook (6-10, 240) and Damir Krupalija (6-9, 230) all are fierce on the boards.
"We just don't have the width of those guys," Williams said. "Sometimes those kind of guys just flex their arms and you end up stumbling five to six feet away. Our guys flex their arms and nothing happens. We're concerned from a rebounding standpoint.
"Defensively the same thing. They barely put a hand on you to move you and it may not be perceived as being a foul. They are moving you because they are so strong. They are one of the strongest teams if not the strongest team we'll play all year long."
Illinois is also deeper than KU, playing up to nine people to KU's six or seven.
"We're a little thinner than I'd like to be," Williams said. "But I've said 100 times, the timeouts are so long you don't need to rest people by substituting. You rest them during timeouts."
The winner of tonight's game will meet either Arizona or Mississippi on Sunday for a berth in the Final Four. Time of that game has yet to be determined.
Hinrich
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