“You should never say a day is a real downer when you are involved in athletics, but this was one of those. This is a tough scenario,” an emotional Williams said after the Jayhawks routed UMKC, 100-46, on Saturday at Kemper Arena.

There appeared to be two losers Saturday — the Kangaroos, who fell to a 1-11, and the Jayhawks (9-3), who were dealt a crushing blow when sophomore forward Wayne Simien dislocated his right shoulder midway through the first half.

The 6-foot-9, 255-pounder jammed his right arm into the rim while trying to block a Michael Watson layup with KU leading, 28-8.

“It’s nothing I can describe,” Simien said of the pain he felt when his hand, “got jammed up in the rim. My arm stayed and my weight kept going forward.”

Williams referred to Simien as a “model citizen, model student, model kid… I can’t emphasize what a great youngster that is.”

The former Leavenworth High standout separated the same shoulder twice his senior year at Leavenworth and faced about six months of rehab after undergoing surgery to repair torn ligaments after the second separation.

On Saturday, the shoulder was put back into place in a Kemper Arena locker room by KU doctor Larry Magee. Simien returned to the bench to a standing ovation with 7:31 remaining, his arm heavily wrapped and in a sling and the prognosis not looking positive with the power forward to miss at least seven to 10 days.

“The pain was definitely worse than the other two I experienced in high school,” Simien said. “I had surgery to hopefully prevent this injury again. I guess it just didn’t work out. I still remain optimistic. I will do what the doctors tell me and we’ll put our heads together and hopefully I’ll try to be back and get in Big 12 play.”

Yet Simien knows his body, and Saturday’s pain told him this one could again require lots of rehab.

“They might have to go back in and do some repair work,” Simien said. “That’s not for sure until we get tests run. If it is, if I have to do that, it might be it for me this season. I don’t plan on having it happen.

“I know I’m going to do everything possible to try to come back as soon as possible, but keep in mind I’ve still got the rest of my career ahead of me and not try to make any stupid mistakes, just do what the doctors tell me.”

Williams said halftime was difficult

“It’s hard to talk to ’em at halftime when Wayne is on the table and everybody’s concerned about him,” he said.

The coach said Simien would miss at least two to three games. He guessed nothing would happen for a week to 10 days as doctors evaluated how Simien reponded to rehab.

But …

“My predictions would be foolish,” Williams said. “If the doctors don’t know, I don’t know. It’d all be guesses at this time.”

The oft-injured Simien’s spirits were higher than one might expect after the game. The fans’ cheers helped, as did a gesture from walk-on Brett Olson, who dedicated his dunk, which gave KU 100 points, to Simien.

“That was awful nice. Brett got that dunk and pointed over to me. It felt real good,” said Simien, who is averaging 17 points and 9.4 rebounds a game.

Simien also knows whatever the scenario, he has bounced back from shoulder woes before and thinks he can again.

“A lot of things can still happen,” he said. “I’m trying to stay as positive as I can. Of course it’s frustrating, but I’ll try to do everything possible. I’ve always bounced back stronger from stuff like this, hopefully it’ll be the case with this injury.

“They said as hard as I did work over the summertime to strengthen my shoulder, they think that might save my season, because of the muscle mass around my shoulder. Hopefully the work I did in the offseason will help save my season this year.”

The good news for KU entering Monday’s 8 p.m. league opener at Iowa State is that senior guard Kirk Hinrich tuned up Saturday by scoring a career-high 29 points off a career-best seven three-pointers.

Also, backup big man Jeff Graves had a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds.

Williams said Graves would start in Simien’s place Monday.

“We have to. We have nobody else,” Williams said, noting center Moulaye Niang left for Senegal for a week after Saturday’s game to attend his father’s funeral. “We will be a little short-handed, but we’ve still got to play. They are not going to postpone the game or anything like that.”