St. Louis ? Like the most famous action hero of all, Kirk Hinrich appears to have powers beyond those of mortal men.

“He is Superman. Yeah, he’s Superman. That’s a perfect name for him,” Kansas forward Drew Gooden said after Hinrich, KU’s injured guard, put on a magical display, scoring 15 points and collecting eight assists in the Jayhawks’ 86-63 second-round NCAA Midwest Regional victory over Stanford on Saturday night at Edward Jones Dome.

KU's Kirk Hinrich, center, finds himself surrounded by a trio of Stanford defenders from left, Rob Little, Teyo Johnson and Josh Childress. Despite a sprained ankle, Hinrich had 15 points and eight assists in KU's 86-63 rout of Stanford on Saturday in St. Louis.

“Kirk could barely walk two days ago. For him to do what he did tonight that is impressive,” Gooden added.

What junior guard Hinrich did was play 21 minutes despite suffering a severe ankle sprain 47 hours earlier in a first-round victory over Holy Cross.

Hinrich left the dome with the aid of crutches on Thursday, then inflicted pain on Stanford two nights later.

“I guess I’m a fast healer,” Hinrich said.

He did not start the game Keith Langford answered the bell and played stifling defense on Stanford’s Casey Jacobsen as the Jayhawks raced to a 15-0 lead, a run that basically assured KU a spot in next Friday’s Sweet 16 in Madison, Wis.

But Hinrich entered with 13:05 left in the first half and KU up, 20-6. He scored eight points in the next five minutes as KU pulled away, 31-15.

He was all over the court, hitting the deck for loose balls a whopping eight times.

To Kansas coach Roy Williams, KU fans and Hinrich himself, it seemed almost impossible the junior guard was so effective after suffering his severe sprain against the Crusaders.

“He is as tough a youngster as I’ve ever coached,” said Williams, who told Hinrich at a 12:30 p.m. shootaround Friday that Williams would make a game-time decision regarding Hinrich’s availability.

Hinrich looked good during warmups and told the coach so during a pivotal interchange before the game.

“Coach turned to me and said, ‘Be honest. How does it feel?”’ Hinrich related. “I said, ‘It feels good.’ I said, ‘Coach I feel I could help the team.”’

Williams broke into a grin because he knows Hinrich would lie in order to take the court in a big game.

“We were laughing about it,” Hinrich said. “Coach said, ‘Seriously, if it hurts you’ve got to tell me.’ I said, ‘Seriously, I can help the team.”’

So Williams decided to start Keith Langford Williams informed the team of that decision in a pregame talk but was determined to let Hinrich play early on to test the ankle.

“Even when we were ahead 15-0, I was anxious. I was thinking, ‘He’s got to give me a chance,”’ Hinrich said. “I was really anxious to get in the game.”

Hinrich looked good, so Williams let him play 21 minutes.

“There were a couple of situations where it hurt when I tried to slow down,” Hinrich said. “For the most part I felt good. I had the adrenaline going. Before the game I was listening to some guy talking about martial arts mind over matter, a guy breaking blocks with his feet. I basically tried to forget that there even was an injury.”

Hinrich said his ankle felt “90 to 95 percent” during the game and, despite the ankle feeling stiff after the contest, said he’d be fine for next Friday’s game against either Illinois or Creighton.

“When I went in the game, I felt no pressure,” Hinrich said. “If the ankle felt bad I’d come out. If it felt good I’d stay in. We survived and hopefully I’ll be 100 percent next Friday.”

Williams is glad everything worked out.

“Last night all night I was torn up trying to decide what would be best if there was a decision to be made,” Williams said. “I wanted it to be, ‘There was no way he would play,’ or ‘No problem whatsoever he could play.’ During warmups he said he felt better than he did at 12:30, so at that point I decided to give him a chance. I didn’t know if I’d put him in a couple of minutes to see how he was moving and take him out or leave him out there the rest of the night, which is what we did.”

Hinrich wasn’t the whole story, of course.

Langford, Jeff Boschee (five threes, 19 points), Hinrich and Brett Ballard each took turns guarding Jacobsen, who did score 24 points off 8-of-18 shooting. He scored 12 the first half on 3-of-9 shooting as KU blazed to an insurmountable 48-26 lead.

Also, Nick Collison bounced back from his six-turnover, five-point outing against Holy Cross by scoring 17 points with 13 boards. He had eight points in KU’s 15-0 surge to start the game.

Gooden had 15 points and six boards as KU hit 52.2 percent of its shots to Stanford’s 37.1 percent.

It seems the Jayhawks were inspired just watching Hinrich play.

KU's Kirk Hinrich, left, tries to put the brakes on Stanford's Casey Jacobsen.

“Coach told us to be ready to play without Kirk,” said Langford, who had two points and two assists in his first start, drawing raves for his defense on Jacobsen. “It went through the guys’ minds we might not have Kirk, so we were all ready to go. When he came in, it fired us up. He basically carried us the first half.”

Hinrich was big, but KU’s defense was perhaps bigger in that back-breaking 15-0 surge.

“All five of our guys were out on the floor defending,” Williams said. “Keith and Aaron were very active on defense early. They came up with some steals.”

KU totaled seven steals with Boschee totaling three.

“We were very motivated,” Boschee said. “We were concerned about Kirk’s ankle and I personally was motivated by some things Stanford’s players said about us in the press before the game, that we were not invincible. It ticked me off to tell you the truth.”

As a result

“Our defense was ridiculous,” Boschee said. “They could barely catch a pass. We’re really a good team when we play defense like that.”