UNLV players sign autographs for fans after an open practice Thursday at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas Rebels, among the 12 teams remaining in the NCAA Tournament, play Oregon tonight. Photos by K.M. Cannon. UNLV fan Ted Williams of St. Louis watches during the Rebels' open practice Thursday at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis. UNLV's Marcus Lawrence laughs Thursday while using a video camera in the locker room at Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis. With Lawrence, from left, are Kevin Kruger, Scott Hoffman, Curtis Terry, Joe Darger, Matt Shaw and Gaston Essengue. The Rebels play Oregon tonight.

ST. LOUIS -- Former baseball player Ted Williams -- no, not that one -- said it best Thursday at the Edward Jones Dome: "It's been a long dry spell, baby."

Not cryogenically frozen, this Williams -- a middle infielder who played at UNLV from 1986-88 -- was rather animated from the neck up as one of just a few Rebels basketball fans who took in seventh-seeded UNLV's mandatory public workout for tonight's 6:40 p.m. PDT NCAA Tournament Midwest Regional semifinal against No. 3 seed Oregon.

"I'm riding pretty high right now, just like back in '87 when Armon Gilliam, Freddie Banks and the rest of the guys were tearing through the tournament to the Final Four," said Williams, sitting in the middle of 300 or so generally local college basketball fans who turned out on a day of steady rain to watch the four teams in this regional go through a variety of for-the-media-cameras drills. "I've got my ticket for (tonight), and if they win -- which is a real possibility, I think -- I'll be back here Sunday for them."

Williams, a 41-year-old logistics manager for a St. Louis plumbing tube company, purchased his ticket locally. But at least 900 Rebels fans as of Thursday afternoon, according to UNLV athletic director Mike Hamrick, had bought tickets through the school and were expected to attend tonight's game.

Each school must purchase a minimum of 500 tickets for the weekend session -- at a cost of $152 apiece -- for public sale and then is eligible to buy an extra 750, if needed.

Hamrick estimated at least 1,000 fans would make the half-cross-country trek, with most scheduled to arrive later Thursday or by midafternoon today, considering the change in time zones and the late local start time for the Rebels' game.

The tip-off of tonight's contest, to be televised by CBS, will be seen by the whole country, but approximately 17 minutes into the broadcast 94 percent of the country will be switched to the East Regional semifinal between top-seeded North Carolina and fifth-seeded Southern California. Southern Nevada will be part of the 6 percent that will stay with UNLV-Oregon.

Meanwhile, for Williams to finally have a chance to revisit the one-time success of UNLV basketball -- in his own backyard, no less -- after such a long period of the program having struggled was almost too much to comprehend Thursday.

"It's been tough to follow them, what with their new TV deal (with CSTV)," Williams said of the 30-6 Rebels. "But I've been staying up on them on the Internet most of the season. Then when the (Mountain West Conference Tournament) championship game was on TV that I could get, man, it was like the old days at the Thomas & Mack (Center).

"It was pretty awesome that night."

For Paul Ellis, 49, sitting front row and close to midcourt, Thursday's workout was a chance for a relatively new UNLV fan to reconnect with an old friend.

Ellis, in the early 1980s, was a junior college coach who supplemented his limited income by working summer camps that current UNLV coach Lon Kruger had when he was at Kansas State.

"I got to know a lot of the coaches, and Lon was always the classiest of class acts," said Ellis, sitting with his 9-year-old son, P.J. "It's great to see him back in the spotlight like this. He really deserves it."

Ellis, who runs a junior national golf tour, has not seen UNLV's opponent play this season, but from what he has seen of the Rebels, he believes they have the necessary unity to beat almost anybody, including the athletic Ducks.

"Lon's teams always have been about creating and operating with chemistry, so this year's team is really no different," Ellis said. "Now, that's not to say he hasn't had his share of big-time players in the past, but his best teams have always been the ones with just a bunch of good guys playing good ball together.

"That's what this team has been about all season. ... And 30 wins? That pretty much says it all."

Well, not quite.

According to a half-dozen St. Louis University High School students screaming from the front row, a team is defined by its star power -- and on the Rebels, at least to freshman Tim Cooney, UNLV's star is the player he quickly nicknamed "El Diablo" -- senior forward Wendell White.

But why "El Diablo," which translates from Spanish into "the devil"?

"He's just the man!" Cooney said, not really giving an accurate explanation. "He does everything. And he's got really cool shoes, too."

So, "El Diablo" and his team-leading 14.6 points and 6.2 rebounds per game leads UNLV to victory tonight?

"Oregon, all day," answered Mike Bertarelli, a freshman friend sitting two seats over. "Hey, it is what it is."