Scott McClurg/Journal-World PhotoKansas City, Mo. ? Wayne Simien did what he could to help the Kansas University men’s basketball team Wednesday: high-five his teammates, give them words of encouragement and pump them up whenever he got the chance.
He has been here before, and that’s why no one could blame Simien if he had a lousy attitude about his latest injury.
That’s not the case, though.
“I took it the best I could,” Simien said after KU’s 73-62 victory over Wisconsin-Milwaukee at Kemper Arena. “It is what it is. I couldn’t do too much about it. I needed to get it repaired, and that’s the bottom line.”
Simien had surgery Monday to fix a damaged ligament in his left thumb. He could miss up to six weeks, but Simien is shooting to be back a lot sooner. He’ll have stitches removed a week from today and will be free to get back in the swing of things after that.
Until then, he’s banned from anything physical — including riding a stationary bike.
“We’ll get the stitches out and see how I feel,” Simien said. ” I just have to wait right now and be patient.”
Simien could miss up to four games, including huge nonconference tilts with top-10 powers Georgia Tech and Kentucky in early January. But he should be back to 100 percent by March and the postseason, when it really counts.
“That’s something we considered,” Simien said. “I’ll be around toward the prime of the season, but I’ll try to be around as soon as possible.”
The 6-foot-9 Leavenworth native hurt the thumb in the second half of Saturday’s game against South Carolina when he was hacked as he was about to go up for a shot inside. He left the court briefly, then returned and played the rest of the game. An MRI on Sunday revealed the damage, and after deliberation between Simien, his parents and KU coach Bill Self, Simien had surgery Monday in Lawrence.
“I wanted to think about it,” Simien said. “Coach contacted some people as far as the next level is concerned, and I got together with my family and prayed about it and stuff like that. It wasn’t a real quick decision, but I took a couple of days to think about it and made the best one.”
The crippled thumb is just another in a long line of setbacks for the forward.
He missed parts of his freshman year after undergoing left knee surgery, missed 22 games his sophomore year because of a dislocated right shoulder, then dealt with a nagging groin injury throughout his junior season.
Perhaps he’s immune to how frustrating an injury is supposed to be, because he wasn’t a bit down in the dumps Wednesday.
“I feel good,” he said with a smile. “I’m already ahead of the game, I feel like.”
6Sports video: Jayhawks defeat Panthers
Hear Bill, players: Wisconsin-Milwaukee postgame comments
Photo Gallery: KU vs. Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Get the stats: KU vs. Wisconsin-Milwaukee box score
Scorecard: Grade KU’s performance against Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Sign up for cell phone updates
Sign up for e-mail updates