Think of all of the time he has missed. Think of it purely in cold, mathematical terms. Since Wayne Simien arrived at Kansas, the Jayhawks have played 32 basketball games without him.
Now, think of what Simien has missed from an emotional standpoint. Competing in the Maui Invitational. The chance to play Kentucky at Rupp Arena. Two Kansas-Missouri rivalry games. Most painful of all, the 2003 Final Four. If he had played all of those games and produced at his career average of 13.9 points per game, he would be on his way to a position among the Jayhawks’ top five all-time scorers.
No matter how you account for it, there is one sure way to atone for it: Make this season last forever.
The Jayhawks can play only through April 4, the championship game of the NCAA tournament. But if they reach that night and win, there will be no need for Simien to look back with regret. He will have matched Kansas All-Americans Clyde Lovellette and Danny Manning in the most important statistical category.
“I think about it a little bit, especially as the home games are really winding down,” Simien says. “Everything around here is almost a special occasion to me. Being from Kansas, watching them since childhood, I’ll be a part of a great legacy. And I’m hoping to leave one of the greatest legacies, hopefully win a championship.”
Simien missed four games this season with torn ligaments in his thumb. When the Jayhawks dissected Texas last weekend, he still was wearing a small protective cast that caused him to fumble a pass or two. But Simien never was better.
A 6-foot-8-inch power forward, Simien excels at scoring in a 10-foot radius around the basket, whether on the block or on short turnaround jumpers. He was the principal reason Texas’ attempt at a 2-3 zone defense disintegrated within eight minutes.
This was the closest Kansas has come to validating its selection as preseason No. 1 in the Associated Press poll.
“We still are a team that has yet to play its best ball,” coach Bill Self says. “We put in more time learning how to win games when he was hurt. Then when he came back, we didn’t know how to play. We were like hunting and pecking on a typewriter.”
If last season taught anything, it’s that a team with the material to build toward a championship needn’t complete the job before Christmas. Or, for that matter, Valentine’s Day.
Connecticut did not truly find the formula to dominate until coach Jim Calhoun sat All-American Emeka Okafor during the early games of the Big East tournament. That forced his teammates to become more aggressive (Ben Gordon), confident (Rashad Anderson) and precise (Taliek Brown). It helped Okafor not to have to play three consecutive days with an aching back.
Similarly, Kansas’ development was accelerated because of Simien’s absence. Freshman big men Sasha Kaun and C.J. Giles saw their minutes and responsibilities increase. Kaun is rapidly improving, though Self still could afford to trust him more often, and Giles was becoming a defensive force before he went down with a foot injury.
Without Simien, the Jayhawks had to abandon their high-low offensive system. Self installed a drive-and-kick scheme, emphasizing perimeter shooting. That was sporadically effective, so the team wouldn’t want to rely entirely on playing that way.
But, as point guard Aaron Miles says, “It was a new dimension we added to the playbook.”
Simien has five games left at Allen Fieldhouse. That’s how rapidly this is closing on him. In the 50 years they’ve called Allen home, no Jayhawk selected as a consensus All-American was a native Kansan.
Simien could change that, but it’s not as important as playing as many games as possible before changing out of his uniform for the final time.
