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Bill Self looked like a guy who wanted to play in, not coach, a basketball game Friday night. "He was pumped up. He was ready. He was so pumped up, if he could have put on a uniform, he'd have been out there," Kansas University junior guard Keith Langford said of the Jayhawks' energetic, 40-year-old first-year coach, all fired up in the locker room before the 2003-04 season-opener against Tennessee-Chattanooga. Self, who played at Oklahoma State, of course wore a suit and tie, not a Kansas basketball uniform, in his happy KU debut -- a 90-76 victory over the Mocs at Allen Fieldhouse.

Critics won't be using the word "soft" to describe Kansas University this basketball season. The Jayhawks brought their hard hats to Allen Fieldhouse Tuesday night, outscrapping and outslugging Michigan State in an 81-74 nonconference basketball victory that at times resembled a rugby match with so many players diving on loose balls and bumping bodies. "We were in attack mode all night. We were going at their heads like they were going at ours," said KU junior forward Wayne Simien, who muscled his way for a career-high 28 points in 38 minutes and grabbed eight boards. I think it's close to the toughest I've seen (KU) play in terms of diving, being physical, hitting back. When everyone has no fear, it's amazing what we can do. If we play like that, and I think we will, I don't think there's many teams who can beat us."

Kansas University's run as No. 1 might prove to be fun after all. The Jayhawks, who looked like they needed a jolt of caffeine hours after being proclaimed the country's top-rated team, turned a one-point halftime lead into a resounding 85-66 victory over unranked Texas Christian Monday night at Meyer Coliseum. "This is real satisfying," said KU junior guard Keith Langford, who scored 17 points the second half and 24 overall while playing in his home town. "Not so much on an individual level, but for the sake of the team. This is the first time we played a game ranked No. 1. The last couple of times we were ranked No. 1 (two seasons ago), we lost right away. I wanted to cut that streak out."

There will be a new No. 1 team in men's college basketball Monday. "What, you think we can't hang on?" Kansas University coach Bill Self quipped after Saturday's 64-58 loss to Stanford in the Wooden Classic at The Pond. In a word, coach, no. The top-ranked Jayhawks will sink several slots in the rankings after turning in their worst offensive performance since a 56-point stinker against North Carolina at last year's Preseason NIT in New York. "Losing the No. 1 rating doesn't matter," KU point guard Aaron Miles said. "What matters is we lost."

Wayne Simien, who had missed 27 games in his college basketball career, didn't want to sit out No. 28 Wednesday night. In fact, Simien, Kansas University's 6-foot-9, 250-pound junior forward who has a slightly strained groin, made his case for playing to coach Bill Self during a dinnertime chat. "At the pregame meal, he said, ÔCoach, if you change your mind, I can go,''' Self reported after the Simien-less Jayhawks pounded Fort Hays State, 80-40, at Allen Fieldhouse. The softie-at-heart Self wished he could accommodate the Leavenworth junior, but KU's doctors, trainers and coaches figured it might be best to rest Simien before Saturday's game against Oregon.

A bunch of bad memories resurfaced as Wayne Simien lugged his gear into a Kemper Arena locker room late Saturday morning. "I walked in and looked right at that table. It felt like I'd returned to the scene of the crime," Simien said, pointing to the trainers' table where he sat in terrible pain last Jan. 4 after his right shoulder was displaced in the first half of a blowout win over UMKC. "That wasn't too pleasant. But after this ... this is good." Kansas University's junior forward exorcised some Kemper demons by scoring 19 points and grabbing a career-high 14 rebounds in the fifth-ranked Jayhawks' 77-67 victory Saturday over unranked Oregon.

Kansas University's men's basketball players picked a perfect time and place to model their new bright-red uniforms. So says junior power forward and lifelong Kansan Wayne Simien, who grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds while scoring 15 points in the Jayhawks' 72-52 victory Saturday over UC Santa Barbara at the University of Nevada's Lawlor Events Center. "I thought they were appropriate for the holiday season," said Simien, who was a toddler the last time KU wore red -- in a 1986 Final Four semifinal loss to Duke in Dallas. "They were like Santa Claus uniforms ... all red."

Like a bad blackjack player, Kansas University's men's basketball squad busted Sunday night at Lawlor Events Center. In suffering the first blowout loss of the Bill Self era, the No. 6-ranked Jayhawks totally went bankrupt in this gambling mecca. Nevada's unranked Wolf Pack looked more like an old Jerry Tarkanian UNLV team than an unheralded WAC squad in a 75-61 win over the Jayhawks. Nevada fans stormed the court after the Wolf Pack's biggest win in school history and the program's second against a ranked team. The first came against UNLV in the early 1990s.

The Nevada trip officially has been erased from the memory banks of Kansas University's men's basketball players. "Those weren't the real Jayhawks out in Nevada. Tonight we showed the way the Jayhawks can play," KU freshman guard J.R. Giddens said after the No. 13-ranked Jayhawks' 78-46 bounce-back victory over Binghamton University Monday night at Allen Fieldhouse. The win came eight days after KU's 75-61 loss to Nevada in Reno. "The last game we played was horrible," said Giddens, who scored a game-high 16 points Monday off 5-of-9 shooting and grabbed seven rebounds. "You guys have me thinking about that again. I never want to think about that game again."

One of the New Year's resolutions for Kansas University's men's basketball team is to feed big man Wayne Simien the ball. "Coach has been emphasizing it over and over again. My teammates definitely made a concerted effort to pound it inside tonight," Simien, KU's once-ignored junior forward, said after feasting for 23 points in the Jayhawks' 86-79 victory Friday over Villanova at Allen Fieldhouse. It marked Simien's first 20-point outing since his 27-pointer Nov. 25 against Michigan State. He hit seven of 15 shots and had double-digit field-goal attempts for the first time since the Oregon game five games ago.

Who knows? Maybe No. 12-ranked Kansas University's stunning home loss to unheralded, unranked Richmond just might help the Jayhawks. That's the hope of KU's players, caught in the Spiders' web, 69-68, Thursday night at Allen Fieldhouse. "We needed a slap in the face," said KU junior Keith Langford, who scored 18 points and grabbed six rebounds. "I'm upset we lost, but it's done. We've got to play Colorado Sunday (1 p.m., Allen Fieldhouse). Thank God this wasn't a Big 12 game. While it's disappointing, maybe we can learn from it and be better off in conference play." Langford said the team wouldn't be demoralized by the defeat.