St. Louis ? Admittedly, Georgia Tech men’s basketball coach Paul Hewitt knows next to nothing about Kansas University, his next opponent.

It wouldn’t be fair to call him unprepared, though. Superstitious, yes, but not unprepared.

“That’s one of my silly superstitions,” Hewitt said. “I don’t watch the next team until we get past the first team.”

Well, it looks to be a crash course in Jayhawk 101 for Hewitt today. Behind a second-half rally and tremendous courage after losing their top player, the third-seeded Yellow Jackets defeated 10th-seeded Nevada, 72-67, Friday at the Edward Jones Dome.

KU is next for Georgia Tech (26-9), which is in the Elite Eight for the first time since 1990.

“On any given night, anyone’s liable to step up,” Tech point guard Jarrett Jack said. “We’re a very unselfish team.”

Good thing for Yellow Jacket fans, because whether Georgia Tech goes into Sunday with one of its top standouts remains to be seen. Junior guard B.J. Elder, the team’s leading scorer averaging 16.2 points per game going into Friday’s game, sprained his ankle early in the first half Friday and didn’t return. He scored zero points in three minutes.

Hewitt wouldn’t speculate on the extent of Elder’s injury, but said the team planned to have him Sunday.

“Our trainer’s got a big job ahead of him the next couple of days,” Hewitt said. “Right now, we’re planning on him playing. If he doesn’t, we’ll do the best we can.”

Georgia Tech's Isma'il Muhammad, right, fires a pass in front of Nevada's Jermaine Washington in the Yellow Jackets' 72-67 victory. The win Friday in St. Louis set up a showdown with Kansas University on Sunday for the St. Louis Regional championship and a trip to the Final Four.

Against Nevada, the Yellow Jackets seemed fine without him. Trailing 39-34 at halftime, Georgia Tech looked to senior Marvin Lewis to pick up the scoring load. Averaging just 11.0 points per game coming in, Lewis erupted for 23 Friday, hitting four of nine three-point attempts.

Two of Lewis’ threes came after Nevada took a 58-57 lead with 6:43 to play. It gave the Yellow Jackets a 63-58 advantage, and they never trailed again.

“When B.J. goes down,” Jack said, “Marvin’s definitely our No. 1 option.”

Lewis scored 13 of his points in the second half, his last a free throw with 48 seconds left that put Tech up 70-67.

Nevada guard Todd Okeson — a Weskan, Kan., native — missed a jump shot on the ensuing possession, and Yellow Jacket senior Clarence Moore hit two more charities with under 25 seconds to play to ice the victory.

With Nevada out of the way, Hewitt and the Yellow Jackets have roughly 36 hours to prepare for the Jayhawks, 100-74 winners over Alabama-Birmingham earlier Friday. Hewitt’s somewhat clueless, but some of his players have an idea on what makes KU tick.

“They definitely have a great nucleus,” Jack said. “Wayne Simien down low, Keith Langford on the perimeter and Aaron Miles running the point.

“We’re going just come out and run our stuff and execute.”

Georgia Tech standout B.J. Elder nurses an injured ankle during the second half against Nevada. The Yellow Jackets won Friday in St. Louis, advancing to play Kansas University on Sunday.