Not because of the right shoulder he injured last year or the left knee he hurt this preseason.

It’s because of the left ankle he twisted at practice on Friday at Kemper Arena.

“It was swollen the size of a tennis ball,” said Simien, who sprained his ankle after stepping on a teammate’s foot while driving to the hoop at practice.

“I refused to let that hold me back. I’ve had enough of these injuries. You know me the walking ice cube.”

Scott McClurg/Journal-World Photo

Simien was able to play after icing the ankle big-time on Friday night and Saturday morning.

“At shootaround (Saturday) I could see coach (Roy) Williams had his glare on me while I was testing it out,” said Simien, who said he won’t need X-rays. “I tried to get it loose so coach wouldn’t hesitate in letting me play. I’m used to playing in pain, no big deal.”

Simien provided a needed boost. He scored 10 points, all in the second half with six rebounds.

“Wayne,” Kirk Hinrich said, “is a tough kid.”

Historic night: Williams on Drew Gooden, who became the 43rd player in KU history to score 1,000 points:

“It is an honor. He’s the 43rd guy and we’ve been playing the game of basketball 103 or 104 years at Kansas. It’s pretty impressive,” Williams said.

The public address announcer made the announcement as the game continued, not during a stoppage.

Pritchard observes from press row: Former Kansas University point guard Kevin Pritchard had mixed emotions while watching Saturday night’s KU-Tulsa game.

Pritchard played for Williams at Kansas and Tulsa coach John Phillips at Tulsa’s Edison High.

“I’m a Jayhawk through and through,” Pritchard said, asked which team he wanted to win.

“I love coach Williams. I love coach Phillips also,” said Pritchard, who viewed the game from press row just eight hours after his Kansas City Knights clobbered Chicago, 132-75, in ABA action at Kemper.

“I’m scouting tonight,” Pritchard said with a grin.

Not really.

He’d already put in a long day of work, arriving at Kemper at 7 a.m. for the noon ABA game.

“Coach Phillips is a players’ coach,” Pritchard said of the first-year Golden Hurricane coach who took over for Buzz Peterson, who left after one year to take over Tennessee’s program. “He treats every player differently but equally. Everybody in Tulsa is thrilled to death they’ve got one of their own.

“That job has been kind of a transition job for coaches. Now they’ve got somebody who will stay there a long, long time. He’ll stay as long as they will have him and they will want coach Phillips around for years to come.”

Pritchard’s Knights are off to a 3-0 start. The ex-Jayhawk guard regularly confers with Williams about basketball.

“I’ve got a great bunch of guys to work with,” Pritchard said of the Knights. “It’s going to be a fun year.”

Streaking: Kansas won its 22nd straight regular season game at Kemper Arena, KU’s home away from home.

“It doesn’t really stand out,” Williams said, referring to that streak.

Ohio State was the last nonconference team to beat KU at Kemper, 64-61, on Jan. 2, 1983.

“I hope we have a lot of winning streaks. The only time I’ve thought of any streak whatsoever was when we were about to break the homecourt win streak (of 55 games; KU won 62 in row from 1993-98),” Williams noted. “When I first came here I saw somebody had won 55 in a row at home (Larry Brown’s teams from ’84-88) and that was impressive to me. I thought it was something I wanted to be part of, that and have C.B. (McGrath), Billy (Thomas), Raef (LaFrentz) never to lose a home game. I may be corny and am corny, but that streak meant a lot. The others I don’t pay attention to.”

Williams on Kemper Arena: “It’s good for the people who normally can’t get a ticket to see us play in the fieldhouse and gives others an opportunity to see us play.

“It’s not like playing in the fieldhouse where you have the veteran fans who really cheer at the right times and know how much they help us.

“We play here every year. We play here more than other teams, still I’ve never lost a game because of a building and never had a building win a game.”