University of Colorado basketball center David Harrison and Kansas University forward Wayne Simien hung out together while serving as counselors at the Nike camp last summer in Indianapolis.
In fact, it’s rumored the two are friends.
“You get along with David, right?” Simien was asked after the Jayhawks’ 70-51 victory Sunday over Iowa State at Allen Fieldhouse.
“Uh … sure,” Simien said, doing a double-take, then breaking into a big grin. “I mean, we are pretty good buddies off the court. Last summer we talked a lot and everything.
“You guys (writers) know how he is sometimes,” Simien said of Harrison, who clashed with KU’s Drew Gooden a year ago and has made some colorful statements about KU in the past. “It’s hard to tell with him.”
Simien was asked whether players in the Big 12 Conference — not specifically the 7-foot, 250-pound Harrison — would try to attack his tender right shoulder in upcoming games.
CU big men Harrison and Stephane Pelle come to town for a game that tips off at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at Allen Fieldhouse.
“Hopefully it’s not the case,” said Simien, who was hacked hard from behind by Iowa State’s Marcus Jefferson on Sunday, tweaking his shoulder in the process. “I’ll go at their heads just like they’ll come at mine. As the season goes on, the mind-set of all players is a will to win.”
KU coach Roy Williams said Simien’s shoulder, which was dislocated Jan. 4, is not 100 percent and “probably won’t be 100 percent the rest of the season.”
Simien tweaked his shoulder in Sunday’s game and again in practice Monday.
“He will tweak it again. He may tweak it three or four more times. He tweaked it today just reaching for a ball,” Williams said Monday.
“It’s like playing with a sprained ankle. We hope he can improve and get a few more minutes each and every game. We take it each day at a time. I’ll back off (today) and hopefully he’ll be ready for Wednesday.”
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Buffs expect tough crowd: Colorado coach Ricardo Patton was asked what the atmosphere would be like Wednesday night at Allen Fieldhouse.
“Hostile,” he said. “There will be 16,000 screaming fans. For whatever reason that environment has always been hostile toward us. Certainly with David there is some bad blood. I don’t expect anything to be different than it has been. It won’t be anything new to us.”
Last year, a fan screamed insults at Harrison outside CU’s locker room after KU’s 100-73 win. Harrison showed class and defused the situation by shaking the fan’s hand.
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Walking Larry: An Iowa reporter asked Williams if at halftime Sunday he complained to the officials about ISU coach Larry Eustachy’s penchant for wandering out of the coach’s box.
“There’s no telling what I say to the officials during the course of the game,” Williams said with a laugh. “I don’t recollect if I did that or not.”
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Tickets available: A limited number of tickets are available for Wednesday’s game and also the Texas A&M game Feb. 26. The seats are available through the KU ticket office at 1-800-34-HAWKS.
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Incident humbles Giddens: KU signee J.R. Giddens, a 6-5 guard from Oklahoma City’s John Marshall High, said he had learned a lesson from his recent brush with the law. He was arrested on felony theft charges at a Wal-Mart in December, but the case was resolved with Giddens facing no punishment.
“It’s kind of a little wake-up call,” said Giddens, who attended Sunday’s KU-ISU game. “You’ve got to grow up. You are in the eye of the media and have to do everything on a straight line. If you do something wrong, everyone will know about it.”
Asked if Williams had made him run as punishment for showing poor judgment, Giddens said: “I don’t have to run laps. Coach Williams told me what’s going on. I’m cool. Everybody will be mad, but we can’t look back. We have to look ahead.”
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Early start: Wednesday’s game starts at 6:30 p.m. Here’s why:
“It’s a Jayhawk TV game, which means it is not part of the Big 12 package,” KU media relations director Mitch Germann said. “If you televise a game the same night as a Big 12 (TV) game, there is a window. You can’t be in the same window of that game.
“We had to start the game at 6:30 or play it on a different day. If we played at 7 p.m., we would be going head-to-head against the Big 12 game (Oklahoma State-Oklahoma). Playing at 6:30, we will overlap a half hour at most.”
