By Staff     Feb 27, 2003

KU head coach Roy Williams comments from Thursday’s press conference:

On the status of sophomore Wayne Simien’s injured shoulder: “Its not as good as we would like for him to be. That’s for sure. Last night, as you know, it was 48 seconds into the game, he had his arms up, and a kid ran into the front of of his body, and all of the sudden it (shoulder) popped. It was different from the other (problems), what we had been calling tweaks, because that has always just been the ligaments and everything. In that shoulder joint, there’s a socket that it (shoulder) sits in, and the first time, it popped out all the way completely, and last night, evidently, it popped out to the edge and then went right back in. He was able to get it back in himself just by moving it.

The doctors didn’t have to do anything, so it was a little bit different kind of deal. They did an X-ray this morning and the doctors decided that the best-case scenario was to keep him out a couple of weeks, probably even through the Big 12 Conference Tournament. That was the best case scenario. Or we could just shut it down and say that what we had tried to do had worked, but it didn’t work long term. So since since then, Wayne has talked to his family and I have talked to Wayne. It’s just gotten to be such a burden that every time he flinches or something its got everybody worried that he’s hurting himself again. Basically, we’ve made the decision. Wayne and I met around 10:15, something like that this morning, and we’re basically shutting it down for the rest of the season. And we’ll go ahead and schedule the surgery and get on with the rehab.”

On the emotional pain of losing Simien: “I think it (own emotional pain) can only be surpassed by his mom and dad. You know, if you’re a parent, when your child hurts, you hurt sometimes even more in different ways. I think that’s the only people that could have it be more difficult than it has been for me. You know it’s strange, there’s a lot of things that go on behind the scenes that you try to see if you’re doing the right things. Basically, as I said last night, the decision was made a long time ago that you can either play hurt or you stop playing. So Wayne wanted to try to play. The fact of the matter is, January 22 at the Colorado game, Wayne was basically medically released the day before that. And I chose not to play him until the Iowa State game here on February 16. You can add it up yourself, 24 or 25 days as extra precaution. One of the questions I’ve asked in the last week is basically “Is it going to get better than what we’re going through right now?” And the answer was no.

We tried, again, to allow the youngster to play. And as I said last night, if you had given me a choice, a hundred years ago when I was playing, to play hurt or not play, I would have chosen to play hurt as well because you only have so many opportunities. You know, all the critics can come out of the woodwork. I’m getting letters every day about (people saying) maybe you should let him see this specialist and that specialist. But folks, I feel 100 percent confident and comfortable with everything that we did. If I were to ask you which professional organization was probably more sound than anyone’s, I would think that you would say, ‘The NFL (National Football League).’ Those franchises seem to go for so much more money and one of the specialists that we’ve got dealing with this thing is the specialist that goes through all the combine workouts with the NFL. And he specializes in shoulders. One of the specialists that we’ve been dealing with is the guy that deals with all those quarterback prospects that go through the combines. And all those shoulder people or people that have shoulder problems, he’s the guy that deals with all of them.

Another specialist that we’ve been dealing with is a guy that does some work for the Denver Nuggets and Denver Broncos. It’s another guy that must be pretty good. Those guys that own those franchises don’t just let some guy off the street deal with those kinds of things. We’ve dealt with those (guys), I have complete confidence in our doctors here. Everything they’ve told us throughout the entire thing was right on the money. They said it was going to hurt. There had been some hope initially, that the body would heal itself, but there was some doubt that that was going to happen. And that was explained to Wayne all the time. And like I said (earlier in the season), we’d pretty much made the decision that surgery was going to be done after the season was over regardless if he had been able to continue playing. In hindsight, you can look back and say, ‘Well, what would have happened if you’d have held him out for two more weeks?’ Well, the fact of the matter is, nobody knows. He hurt his arm one day in practice reaching for a pass and there was nobody around him. I think he had been walking to class and dropped a book and reached down to pick up his book and did the same thing (injure it). You guys saw him in the game the other day. He took a tremendously hard shot, I guess it was in the Iowa State game. He flinched a little bit, kept playing, made the free throws.

And yet, this thing last night, if you look at it on tape, it was like a fly on a horses rear end. I mean there was not much to it. It was not a big contact (play). He’s probably taken that kind of contact 15 or 20 times much more difficult than what he did. Medically, on January 22, we could have played him at that time but we were trying to be really cautious and held him out fill February 16 and he was about chomping at the bit at that time (to get out and play). Lets say that we had held him out till now, and not played him until today. He could have gone out in the game Saturday and done the same thing. So there’s no perfect answer. I happen to think, that what we tried to do really worked. I am really positive that it worked very well. Wayne Simien got to play three conference games, and needlessly to say, was pretty big in those conference games.

You guys know how I’m always trying to get everybody to enjoy the moment and enjoy the journey. Wayne Simien never felt better in his life in the Colorado game. 20 minutes, 21 points, 13 rebounds. The ovation he got from the crowd. I’m getting cold chills (just thinking about it). You know how corny I am anyway. But the admiration and the respect the people had trying in that game and the toughness that he’s shown, you can’t have any better moments than that as an athlete. If you had told me, ‘If you had held him out 38 days you would get four games out of him.’ Yeah, I’d have probably taken that. But at the same time you don’t know. This not exact science as it is anyway. He gave it an unbelievable shot. The doctors gave it an unbelievable shot. I think it worked. Three games, we’re not going to count 48 seconds. It’s a shame we’ve got to put those in his averages because zero and zero in 48 seconds still counts as a full game.

Wayne was important to his teammates. His teammates had a great deal of respect (for him). Monday afternoon of this week, after his treatment, he said, ‘Coach, it’s just feeling better.’ He said that each and every time it seems to come back quicker and doesn’t hurt as much. And I asked the doctors at that time, ‘Should we expect that?’ And he said, ‘Well not really.’ Again, I’m always thinking that maybe the bodies going to heal itself. He tried and gave a heck of a chance. I tried to get in touch with Mr. Miyagi to see if he could clap his hands together and rub his shoulders but other than that the weirdos will still come out and criticize things. But other than Mr. Miyagi, I thought we tried everything we possibly could, and so did that kid.”

On when Simien will have surgery on his shoulder: “It will probably be down the road a little bit. I know they’re not going to rush in. It could be as long as a month. We want to wait until the right person is available. We know who that is, but still we’ve got to wait and see if he can do it. And at the same time, for this type of surgery, apparently according to the doctors, it (the surgery) is so much more successful when you let things calm down and there’s not any inflammation or anything like that in there. My guess is that it will somewhere around the end of March.”

On the length of time anticipated for Simien to recover from surgery: “I think that three and a half to four months (will be the recovery time). They think it’s a little shorter than it was last time that he did the surgery. Last time, they were talking about maybe four and a half to five months. And they think it will be shorter this time. The injury is not as significant and it’s different. Plus, just like anything, they get better with the type of surgery. I’m not a doctor. I hear things, and it sounds to me like basically they’re going to tighten things up in the shoulder. That’s about all they’re going to do. There’s not any structural damage, there’s not any (bone) chips, there’s not anything that’s pulled away from a bone or anything like that. I think that just because it is so loose in there it would allow that dislocation or subluxation. I think the whole process appears to me as just a tightening up of all those things in that joint.”

“Basically, they are going to tighten things up and make it more difficult to dislocate.”

On if the rest of the team has been told that Simien will have surgery: “No. Wayne and I met at about 10:15 this morning. I talked to doctor Randle twice, I’ve talked to doctor McGee twice. Wayne and I hugged, shook hands and went on about our merry way.”

On Simien’s decision to shut down playing for the rest of the 2002-2003 season: “I think he was thinking about the team when he made the decision to try to play. Again, I don’t know if we have to share all our personal things with you guys. I don’t think it’s the public’s business. But when a kid sits there and says, ‘You know coach, its hard for mom to site there and see me wince all the time.’ Again, I don’t think it’s anybody’s business. I think the team’s really handled it well. They haven’t been sitting there wondering if Wayne’s going to play, or wondering if Wayne’s not going to play. They’ve been a very mature group about it.”

On the way the difficulty of winning on the road in the Big 12: “I think it’s college basketball, period. But I think that our league, the home crowd in our league is awfully important. You got to be pretty doggone good wherever you go to be able to handle that. Of the top five or six teams in our league, there’s only two losses at home. That means a lot of people have been having a lot of trouble going in and playing in those places. And yet, some of the bottom four or five teams have a lot of home loses. So I think that the talent on the court is still most important. But at the same time, college basketball, the comfort level that you feel playing at home, the support you get from your home crowd, is extremely important. And some people just feel so much more comfortable there that they (home teams) are going to play better.

You know, Oklahoma, whom I just flat out love, they are a big time basketball team. I mean those guys shoot 50-something percent (against us). Quannas (White) is 7-for-9, Hollis (Price) is 8-for-14. I mean last night, you know, those were the same guys. They didn’t shoot it well last night. Again, a lot of that has to do with the comfort level of being in your own building. But again, Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma State, Missouri, we’ve all had some pretty good wins on the road, too. But the teams at the bottom of the standings are the ones who have really been struggling on the road.”

On past teams ability to win on the road: “Last year, probably more so from the talent level, we just thought we were going to beat you. Whereas in 1997, it was more like, we don’t give a darn, we are going to beat you. I think we went to Kansas State and shot like 27 percent and won the game. We didn’t care. The bottom line was at the end of the game, we were going to have more points. I think in ’97 it was more of a mentality and attitude and last year was more talent and the attitude along with it.”

On playing on the road: “We stumbled at Colorado, and we would have liked for a 12-foot baseline jumpshot to go in but it didn’t. At yet at Oklahoma, we were sorry, I mean we were god awful, and yet we turned it around and made an awfully nice run at the end. We go to Iowa State early, while they were still winning and their crowd was still into it for them and we were remarkable up there. I think that was our first conference road game, and at that time they were like, 10-1 or 10-2 and so things were rosy for them too. We’ve have had some other games where we didn’t get off to as good a start, like in Manhattan, and then all of the sudden we were remarkable in the end. I’ve got confidence in this team going on the road. We didn’t play well early in the first half and the first five minutes of the second half on Sunday at OU, but we’ve gone on the road and played pretty doggone good.”

On the consistency of Kansas basketball and if anything has changed over the years: “We have been fairly consistent and that is something we are really proud of. There’s no question about that, and our record (is another thing proud of). We have the best record on the road so far, knock on wood, in the Big 12. So an attitude of being able to go somewhere and play somebody regardless of which gym it was, and being positive and confident, I think it’s something we’ve always tried to do. We’ve always tried to guard people. The biggest thing we’ve probably changed, (is that) we don’t trap as much as we used to, particularly on the road any more. I think as long as you try extremely hard and guard people, and you’re unselfish, you’ve got a chance to win. And I felt that way 15 years ago and I still feel that way today. But I do think personnel makes you change some things more than others.”

On seniors Kirk Hinrich and Nick Collison: “I’ve probably gotten too dramatic, but, I’m being truthful. I think that if they hadn’t of renewed my faith in the recruiting process, that you could do it the right way and be successful and you could find people out there that just cared about what was best for their son and wanted to truthfully enjoy the college experience, I wouldn’t be sitting her right now. Because I had gotten to the point that I had really started having reservations about the recruiting part of college coaching. That it (had become) so demeaning and ridiculous. It wouldn’t have been any much fun if it hadn’t been for those three guys (Collison, Hinrich and Drew Gooden) and their families. You’d probably be enjoying a much more lively press conference today because you’d have somebody else up here than me.”

On Saturday’s challenge against Oklahoma State: “I think the first thing we’ve got to do is be able understand Wayne’s deal and put that behind us and understand that we’ve still got some great opportunities, and then specifically focus on Oklahoma State a fantastic defensive ball club. We’ve got to do a good job on Victor Williams, (Melvin) Sanders, (Tony) Allen on the perimeter, we have to make sure Andre Williams doesn’t block all our shots, and (Ivan) McFarlin and those guys don’t score inside. They are one of the two or three best defensive teams in our league. We can’t allow their defense to dominate the game. Some of their big games, their defense has dominated the game. So we’ve got to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

On junior Jeff Graves: “It’s strange because people are saying things like, with Wayne back, Jeff’s role is not as important, but in some ways I thought Jeff was going to be more important to us, while Wayne was getting healthier, if Wayne did continue to play. He did hit a little bit of a lull. I thought he did some nice things last night. There’s no question that he’s going to be asked to continue to be a big part of our team, but I think he was going to have to do that, even with Wayne back. He has to stay out of foul trouble because he really can do some nice things out there. The thing is, is when he makes a mistake now, he immediately realizes it. He’s a very bright kid. He needs to take that instead of realizing it (mistakes) after it happens, realizing before it happens and change it. I don’t know where we would be today without him and how important he’s been to our team, and yet I’ve been pretty doggone tough on Jeff. He’s done some nice things.”