Simien tied his own KU record for most free throws made in a half, canning 11 of 11 attempts and providing most of the Jayhawks’ early offense in Saturday’s 89-60 victory over Colorado at Allen Fieldhouse.

Simien, who helped the Jayhawks to a 40-33 halftime lead, didn’t attempt a free throw in the second half but finished with a game-high 25 points off 7-of-14 shooting and perfect charity work to go with his 12 rebounds.

“Cool, sweet, good,” Simien said with a grin, told by media representatives he had passed Kirk Hinrich, who hit 10 free throws in a half versus Kansas State in 2002. KU officials later said the rule book had been updated, and Simien actually tied his own record of 11 swished in the second half of last year’s NCAA Tournament victory over Alabama-Birmingham.

“It’s just free throws, man, nothing major,” added Simien, who has made 17 of 19 free throws in the three games he has played since discarding the splint that protected his surgically repaired thumb.

With the splint, he made just 31 of 47 charities for 66 percent.

“It feels good to get my niche back from the free-throw line,” said Simien, a 77.8 percent free-thrower overall. “Getting out of the cast, holding the ball differently … it’s felt good the last couple of games.”

His 15 points the first half, coupled with Christian Moody’s nine points, provided the bulk of the production as KU struggled to its seven-point margin at the break.

The 6-foot-9, 255-pound Simien scored 10 points as the Jayhawks busted open a five-point game (51-46 with 13:11 left) and stormed to the 29-point victory, the Jayhawks’ 22nd straight victory over Colorado at home and 31st win in the last 32 games versus CU.

“Wayne knocking down free throws was big. It gave us a lead,” KU senior point guard Aaron Miles said. “He was our only offense the first half.”

Simien wouldn’t agree with that totally, but indicated the Jayhawks (20-1 overall, 10-0 Big 12 Conference) were flat early on.

“We didn’t really do much as a team. We were standing around,” Simien said.

The turning point — one that helped KU record a 20-win season for the 16th straight year — came after a timeout with 11:30 left, KU up, 57-50.

“Basically he told us we stink, basically, in so many words,” Kansas senior Keith Langford said of coach Bill Self’s message. “When we play like that, we are only fooling ourselves.

6Sports video: Jayhawks continue conference roll Hear Bill, players: Colorado postgame comments Photo Gallery: KU vs. Colorado Get the stats: KU vs. Colorado box score Scorecard: Grade KU’s performance against Colorado Vote for the top Allen Fieldhouse moments Buffs roughed up Woodling: Jayhawks go for the throat … and step on it KU’s Langford shrugs off injury Buffs bemoan fouls Notebook Talk about the game on our message boards Sign up for cell phone updates Sign up for e-mail updates

“We’re up by single digits at home against Colorado … we shouldn’t be doing that. We don’t have many games where we can have fun, be all celebrating, get Nick Bahe, Stephen Vinson, guys on the bench in the game and feeling good, too.”

The Jayhawks did clear the bench the final 3 1/2 minutes, courtesy of their impressive 28-7 run that gave KU an 85-57 margin at 2:14.

“We played good, made shots. The dam kind of broke for them,” Self said of the Buffs (12-10, 4-7). “We didn’t play well the first half. We let them hang around. They scored on the last possession, which is inexcusable the way they did it (on coast-to-coast layup by Marcus Hall which took the guard four seconds to complete). It makes it look like we don’t know what we’re doing giving up points that way.”

Self stood on the sidelines and applauded during the second-half surge.

“After that we put it together, started making shots. It’s about the best we played for a period of time in a long while. It was fun,” Self said.

Miles, who had just one point with eight turnovers and six assists in Wednesday’s victory at Kansas State, bounced back nicely, hitting six of eight shot. Though he had just two points and five assists in the first half, he finished with 17 points, nine assists and just two turnovers in 29 minutes.

The 17 points were three off a career-high.

“You knew Aaron would bounce back,” Self said. “I didn’t think he played great the first half. He was exceptional the second half.”

“Obviously, I want to play better than eight turnovers,” Miles said. “But the thing is we won that game (against KSU). Tonight, I tried to play with energy. We played with energy and a lot of emotion the second half, being aggressive. It’s a big win because we’re 10-0 in the league going into Texas Tech on Monday.

Self wasn’t overly impressed to hit the 20-win mark.

“It’s nice. I don’t know if it means a ton. They said it’s 16 years in a row,” Self said of 20-win campaigns on Mt. Oread. “There’s a lot of good teams and players. Coach (Roy) Williams and his staff did a fabulous job here forever.

“The only thing it means is, if it doesn’t extend to 25 or 26, they’ll be looking for a new coach soon because the standard has been set. You’ve got good players, you should win games. Certainly Kansas has had great players over time. It is a great start. This group has done a good job.”