Thad Allender/Journal-World PhotoWayne Simien, who had missed 27 games in his college basketball career, didn’t want to sit out No. 28 Wednesday night.
In fact, Simien, Kansas University’s 6-foot-9, 250-pound junior forward who has a slightly strained groin, made his case for playing to coach Bill Self during a dinnertime chat.
“At the pregame meal, he said, ‘Coach, if you change your mind, I can go,”’ Self reported after the Simien-less Jayhawks pounded Fort Hays State, 80-40, at Allen Fieldhouse.
The softie-at-heart Self wished he could accommodate the Leavenworth junior, but KU’s doctors, trainers and coaches figured it might be best to rest Simien before Saturday’s game against Oregon.
“I thought if you were going to hold him out, this would be the best time to do so,” said Self, noting Simien had not been close to 100-percent healthy since the Michigan State game Nov. 25.
Simien strained his groin at a practice before the Michigan State game and inadvertently did the splits at practice Nov. 27, but still was able to play in ensuing games against TCU and Stanford.
“All he does is just tweak it, which has kind of held him back,” said Self, who held Simien out of scrimmage situations at practice Monday and Tuesday. “We said, ‘Sit him for a few days, and let it calm down.’ Hopefully he’ll be ready to go by Saturday, and we believe he will.”
Except for Simien and Michael Lee (collarbone injury), all of the Jayhawks played — and played a lot against the NCAA Division Two Tigers.
Seldom-used Moulaye Niang logged 18 minutes, scoring three points, while fellow reserves Christian Moody, Nick Bahe and Omar Wilkes played 11 minutes each.
Wilkes had nine points — seven in seven minutes the first half as KU led, 34-19, at the break. Moody had four points, and Bahe hit the first three of his college career.
“I was happy for those guys,” said freshman J.R. Giddens, who started and scored 12 points, as did Keith Langford.
David Padgett led the way with 19 points and eight boards.
“When you practice every day and don’t get to play, it stinks. They get to sweat, get dirty and take off their warmups. That’s always fun,” Giddens added. “They get to kick our butts every day in practice, so it’s about time they got in and kicked somebody else’s butt.”
Self said he made the decision to empty the bench after watching tape of Saturday’s 64-58 loss to the Cardinal.
“Those guys deserved to play. Normally, they play late and do not feel they had a chance to play through some things,” Self said. “I think Moulaye and Christian had a chance to play seven, eight minutes consecutively in the first half, by far more than they’ve played.”
The Jayhawks forced 18 turnovers and held Fort Hays State to 32.7 percent shooting and 40 points, the lowest total in Allen Fieldhouse by an opponent since Brown’s 45 points in the 1988-89 season.
“It’s what we needed. We needed to have a good defensive game,” Langford said.
As far as the offense, KU missed its final 11 shots of the first half and finished at 42.7 percent shooting. KU made seven of 25 threes. Giddens hit two treys in six tries, and Jeremy Case busted a slump by hitting two of six threes after going 0-for-5 through KU’s first four games.
“I thought it was a game we needed to get some confidence,” Self said. “Defensively, we did some good things. We rebounded well. Offensively, we executed better. We just missed shots. Once again we were 5-for-22 threes before Jeremy hit two of the last three. We have to shoot better behind the arc because people will pack it in and play zone. We’ve got better shooters than we’ve shot it.”
Maybe somebody like Wilkes will be the answer.
“I see Omar as a guy off our bench who will play in the next couple of games, and we’ll see what he can do,” Self said. “Omar deserves opportunities as much as anybody else. “
Simien was unavailable for comment after the game.
KU will head to Kansas City, Mo., to take on Oregon at 1 p.m. Saturday at Kemper Arena.
Kansas University had no problem winning its first men’s basketball game without sophomore power forward Wayne Simien.
Can the 10-3 Jayhawks — who pounded 10-2 Iowa State, 83-54, on Monday night — continue to win without Big Dub?
“Yes. Everything is possible with this team we have,” said junior power forward Jeff Graves, who has replaced the injured Simien in the starting lineup.
Graves, a 6-foot-9, 269-pounder out of Iowa Western Community College, scored seven points and grabbed 10 rebounds versus the Cyclones.
He had his first career double-double — 10 points, 12 boards — in last Saturday’s 100-46 rout of UMKC, the game in which Simien suffered a dislocated shoulder.
The 6-9, 255-pound Simien, who said Wednesday he has a gut feeling he doesn’t need surgery, definitely will miss Saturday’s 12:45 p.m. home battle against Nebraska.
Graves, meanwhile, has averaged 8.5 points and 11 rebounds his last two games, logging 32 minutes versus ISU and 25 versus UMKC.
“I feel I can do this every night,” Graves said. “I feel the confidence the team has in me. That makes me want to play even harder.”
Graves, who’s rather nimble for a big guy, had four steals against Iowa State, but suffered three turnovers.
“Jeff has better post moves than he showed (against ISU),” KU coach Roy Williams said. “He had three turnovers just turning around fumbling it out of bounds. He had 10 rebounds and came up with some loose balls. He does have very good hands. Hopefully this has given him confidence.
“We’ve needed Jeff all year long. If Jeff had come in shape to start with (instead of 30 pounds overweight) maybe he’d have more experience now. The fact of the matter is he didn’t. But he has worked hard, gotten the pounds off and now he is at the point he can contribute.”
Williams said Graves, who spent a lot of time on the treadmill after practices in order to shed the excess weight, is helped by the presence of 6-9, 255-pound Nick Collison, who leads KU in scoring at 19.9 points a game.
“It’s very important for Jeff to play with Nick because he has an experienced guy in there with him,” Williams said.
Collison burned Iowa State for 31 points off 11-of-15 shooting.
“He showed everybody why he is one of the best big men in the country,” Graves said. “Nick is a great player.”
KU next plays Nebraska at 12:45 p.m. Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.
Simien optimistic: Speaking at halftime of the KU-K-State women’s game Wednesday, Simien said he doesn’t expect to need surgery on his right shoulder.
“That’s just a feeling I have,” Simien said. “I’ll know more on Friday when the doctor takes a look at it again. When I know more, you’ll know more. I’m just trying to stay optimistic about it.”
Future Jayhawks on McDonald’s ballot: KU signees J.R. Giddens, Omar Wilkes and David Padgett are three of the 120 players being considered for the McDonald’s All-America game, set for March 26 in Cleveland.
The fact Giddens’ criminal theft case has been resolved quickly should help the 6-5 Oklahoma City John Marshall guard’s chances. He scored 24 points in Tuesday’s 56-48 win over OKC Northeast.
“He is a top 10 player who has not been convicted of anything. He is a member of good standing on his high school team. There’s no reason to keep him out of the McDonald’s game,” said McDonald’s voter Greg Swaim of Oklahoma City-based gregswaim.com. “In a tight situation, some probably would not vote for him, but he clearly is one of the country’s top 10 players.”
The McDonald’s voters will pare the list from 120 to 50 to the final 20 players in February.
“I personally will bust my hump to lobby voters to let him in the game,” Swaim said. “I’ve known J.R. a long time to be a good kid. I hope he learns a lesson from this. Like someone told me, ‘It’s not necessarily against the law to be stupid.’ I talked to his AAU coach and everybody thinks he’s learned a valuable lesson. Everybody should listen when your mother tells you, ‘Nothing good ever happens after midnight.'”
Giddens was arrested Dec. 19 with three others on felony complaints of conspiracy to commit grand larceny from a retailer, concealing stolen property and obtaining property by false pretense.
On Tuesday, Giddens’ attorney noted that “things have been resolved (out of court) that will not jeopardize his future basketball career.”
McDonald’s voter Mike Sullivan of rivalshoops.com said he would not vote for Giddens if the prep senior admitted he was guilty of a crime. Any player convicted of a crime is ineligible for the McDonald’s game.
“If there was an admission of guilt I would not vote for somebody. It’s not what McDonald’s All America is about,” Sullivan said.
“We’ve all made mistakes. It comes down to knowing right and wrong. If some relative was involved with all this, I would have no problem voting for the guy,” Sullivan added.
Sullivan said he believed Padgett, 6-11 from Reno, Nev., would make the team, but Wilkes, 6-4 from Los Angeles, faced an uphill battle.
