MADISON, WIS. ? A burning question was on the minds of many as Roy Williams hopped off Kansas’ team bus and strolled into the Madison Concourse Hotel lobby on Wednesday night.

“Will you,” Williams, KU’s basketball coach, was asked, “have your Jayhawks spit in Lake Mendota or Lake Monona this week for good luck?”

Those two lakes grace this picturesque Big Ten city, much like the Mississippi River flows through St. Louis, site of last week’s team spitting expedition prior to KU’s second-round NCAA Midwest Regional victory over Stanford.

“I don’t know,” Williams responded after a hearty laugh. “I told somebody today we’ve got to find out some of the Wisconsin lore, find out what is the good luck up here and make sure I get to do that.”

Williams was in a good mood after KU’s players and coaches arrived in Madison on Wednesday via a 154-seat charter flight out of Topeka.

“I hear they have some great ice cream here,” said Williams, who has been to nearby Milwaukee but had never set foot in Madison  home of the University of Wisconsin and Friday night’s Sweet 16 battle against Illinois  until Wednesday. “Everybody can talk about the cheese and the brats and stuff, but if the ice cream is that good here, I’m really interested.”

Thoughts of banana splits and milkshakes were not the only reasons Williams was jazzed upon his arrival here.

Junior guard Kirk Hinrich, who suffered a severe ankle sprain in the first half of last Thursday’s victory over Holy Cross, and played 21 minutes against Stanford, practiced some the past two days and is expected to play Friday night.

“We’ve tried to be really careful with Kirk,” Williams said. “He didn’t practice Sunday or Monday. On Tuesday he had no live action, did basically all dummy offense (running the court in non-contact drills). Today I let him sneak in one or two (contact) plays. He tried to sneak in a couple of more so I got him out completely.

“He still has some pain, yet we hope each and every day it’ll get a little better.”

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Ticket update: Officially, all tickets have been sold for Friday’s and Sunday’s NCAA Midwest Regional basketball games at 17,129-seat Kohl Center.

Money talks, however, and there is a way for KU fans with bulging wallets to secure seats for Friday night’s game against Illinois and, if KU wins, Sunday’s regional final against Oregon or Texas.

A representative of Ticket King in Milwaukee on Wednesday afternoon told the Journal-World that the company had plenty of tickets available, but for well over the face value of $110 for three games.

“We’re quoting $295 and up per person, approaching $650 on the lower level,” Ticket King president John Lamoreaux said. “We have a decent supply and we’ll be acquiring more seats. We have offices set up in Madison where tickets can be picked up by Kansas fans or any fans.”

Lamoreaux said if KU fans wanted to attend only Sunday’s Midwest Regional final, they’d be smart to wait to purchase tickets until Saturday.

Fans of the two losing teams Friday will be trying to unload tickets outside the arena.

One problem for the fans of losing teams, however, is that ticket scalping is illegal in Madison. According to the Wisconsin State Journal, a Madison city ordinance says, “No person shall buy or sell or offer to sell any ticket to any event  for more than the priceprinting on such ticket.”

What’s more, University of Wisconsin police officers might issue tickets to individuals selling tickets at any price on campus property. The fine is $151.

“You can’t sell anything on campus without university permission,” Lt. Glen Miller told the State Journal.

The regional has been sold out for months. The University of Wisconsin received 9,000 tickets for the event and sold them quickly to men’s basketball season ticket holders. Each team received 1,250 tickets.

Kansas has distributed 1,575 tickets, splitting with Illinois the unused tickets allotted to Oregon and Texas.

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Charter flight: KU associate athletic director Richard Konzem said Wednesday’s short hour-long flight from Topeka was about 30 minutes late in taking off.

“We were a little behind schedule. We had a big mob in Topeka,” he said of fans cheering the Jayhawks. “Our plane was a little late getting into Topeka and then we had a little delay getting weather clearance for the route here. They were faxing back and forth the weather reports from Atlanta to Topeka. They originally faxed back the Atlanta to Topeka weather report not Topeka to Madison.”