Ironman Kirk Hinrich will sit out the first game of his college basketball career on Wednesday night.

Hinrich, a 6-foot-3 senior guard from Sioux City, Iowa, who has played in 108 straight games, will not dress for the Kansas-Central Missouri State contest, which tips off at 7 p.m. at Allen Fieldhouse.

Hinrich is expected to be back for Saturday’s contest at Oregon, keeping alive his streak of consecutive games played against NCAA Div. I teams.

He suffered a back strain in last Wednesday’s 67-56 Preseason NIT semifinal loss to North Carolina and played in pain during Friday’s 83-73 loss to Florida in the consolation finals in New York.

“We’ve done extensive tests on Kirk and it is still diagnosed as a back strain,” KU coach Roy Williams said. “I decided I wanted to see if it’d help him to have five straight days off with no practice. I fully expect him to resume practice later in the week and then play against Oregon.”

The Jayhawks did not practice Saturday and Sunday. Everybody but Hinrich practiced two hours on Monday. Hinrich took the court and shot free throws after the practice.

“Hopefully with five days off, it’ll be better. I’m not looking back on it, (but) I probably shouldn’t have played him Friday night,” Williams said. “He felt much better and thought he could go. He wanted to try it desperately. He wanted to see if he could help us win, yet his back bothered him so much he’s 2-for-8 (shooting).”

Even with a bad back, Hinrich earned defensive player of the game honors against the Gators.

“He is just relentless, as tough as you can possibly be,” Williams said.

Sophomore power forward Wayne Simien, who twisted his right ankle twice against North Carolina, practiced Monday, and barring any other problems, should play Wednesday. Simien has tendinitis in his right ankle.

“He will probably have some pain in the ankle a long time, maybe even the whole season,” Williams said. “It’s something we can rest him for two months and there’s a chance he’d be better. (Even then) you don’t know if he’d hurt it the first day he comes out or starts trying to condition. Wayne is a tough youngster. He had a tough time in New York, but Wayne worked very hard in practice today and is doing some nice things.”

Kansas coach Roy Williams, right, consoles senior guard Kirk Hinrich in the final minutes of the NIT consolation game against Florida. Hinrich injured his back last week in New York and won't play Wednesday against Central Missouri State.

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No intensity: Williams told his Monday night “Hawk Talk” radio show audience he still doesn’t understand the team’s lack of fire in Wednesday’s loss to North Carolina.

“I was stunned. Mike Montgomery of Stanford said, ‘Roy I’ve seen your teams for 15 years. I’ve probably seen 50 games and I’ve never seen a team of yours that little emotionally into it and not being alert and not being as active as they were that night.’

“I said, ‘I agree with you.’ Why did it happen? We’ve had some meetings and talks trying to figure out why it happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

The Jayhawk players and coaches held a team meeting after eating 40 pounds of turkey, 8 pounds of ham and 248 home made dinner rolls at the home of Roy and Wanda Williams on Sunday night.

“We’ve had a couple instances, guys showing up a little bit late or right on time. That kind of thing. I ended up blasting them in New York. I said, ‘We don’t act like that. That’s going to change. We’re not going to have that any more,”’ Williams said. “Kids have to step forward. This team is pulling together even more. We’ve had some open discussions like last night after Thanksgiving dinner. It’s something I’m not that concerned about. I think it’s going to be a basketball team that will be together.”

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Hard workout: Williams was active at practice Monday, barking orders all over the court during drills.

“We had a really good, brisk practice for two hours,” Williams said. “We’ve got to have a lot of those.

Kansas guard Kirk Hinrich drives to the basket against Florida. Hinrich is expected to sit out Wednesday's home game against Central Missouri State. The senior injured his back last week during the Preseason NIT at New York.

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Free speech: Williams was asked by a Hawk Talk caller if he’d ever “had a talk with” one of the mothers of a KU player who the caller said likes to “stir things up,” on Internet message boards.

Williams said he wasn’t sure who the caller was talking about. The caller was referring to Keith Langford’s mom, who is a frequent contributor on phog.net’s message board. She speaks her mind – with some positive and negative comments about recruiting, coaching decisions in games and the like.

“I never had a discussion with ’em about it,” Williams said. “It is America. Do I appreciate it? If it’s negative, not one iota. I don’t care if it’s your mom, my mom, anybody’s mom, I don’t appreciate any negativity about our basketball team. But it is America.”

Williams isn’t a big fan of the Internet.

“If you ever see Roy Williams in a chat room you know it’s a lie,” he said.