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Wayne Simien's surgically repaired right shoulder has survived its first hard knock of the season.

Simien was leveled by Nebraska's John Turek late in the second half, the KU freshman power forward shrugging off the hit, stepping to the line and icing a pair of free throws.

"I definitely feel good knowing my shoulder can take those kind of whacks," Simien said after scoring 12 points and grabbing 10 boards in 17 minutes. "It felt good to be able to shake it off. I didn't even ask to see the doctor about it."

Simien admits he was a bit nervous when he felt the hard contact on his shoulder.

"Of course, I was a little scared," he said. "I felt pain a bit. I didn't want to show it. Of course coach saw and asked the referee if I was OK. I was fine."

KU coach Roy Williams was very happy to see Simien's shoulder respond in a positive way.

"I was concerned. It's the shoulder he had the surgery on and was out six, seven months," Williams said. "He said it was all right. I asked the official, Frank Bosone, to make sure. That gave him a couple seconds to catch his breath. Frank came back and said he was fine.

"I said I want to watch the first free throw. If it was an airball I'd take him out. He makes the free throws and wants to stay in. It's a good sign for me. He took a pretty hard blow out there. The doctors ought to feel pretty good about that. He took a hard blow and came right back."

Back-handed compliment: KU junior forward Drew Gooden said the Jayhawks benefited from playing a good team like Nebraska.

"When I say they're a good team they're fundamentally sound, they set a lot of picks and they roll," Gooden said. "It's really tough to play them. That's why I said they're a good team. But you look as far as talent, they don't have so much talent, but they're still a good team.

"I think we just showed our dominance the first half."

The Jayhawks rolled to leads of 25-4, 31-6, 48-17 and 57-24 by halftime.

Does Gooden think the 39-point victory proved KU worthy of the No. 1 ranking?

"Yeah, I do," he said. "We lost our first game. All the other teams in the top three, top four already lost once, so I think we deserve to be up there with them."

Dish record: Guard Aaron Miles set a KU freshman record with 12 assists against two turnovers, passing former Jayhawk Jacque Vaughn.

"He was 7-0 at half," Williams said of assists to turnovers. "He is doing some good things for us. He can shoot better than he is right now (1 of 5), but doing many good things."

Of the feat, Miles said: "Jacque Vaughn is a great player, an NBA player. To pass his record I thank God."

High socks: KU junior guard Kirk Hinrich decided to wear his socks high Wednesday. He scored 13 points with eight assists and six rebounds.

"I've worn them like that in practice a couple times. Today I grabbed 'em, put them on and decided to wear them like that tonight, for no reason I guess," he said.

Cochran blanked: Williams was a bit surprised NU's Cary Cochran didn't score.

Hounded by Hinrich and others, the senior guard managed just three shots.

"He might have been a little injured. I almost felt he was limping around out there. We did try to focus on him," Williams said. "He's hurt us so much in the past. He'll probably make 50 against us in Lincoln."

Lee three: Michael Lee hit a long three early in the second half and received a thunderous ovation.

"It felt real good. We have great fans. They make you feel like you are making the biggest shot of your life," Lee said after scoring five points in eight minutes. "That was a lot of fun tonight. We came out and played hard against a good conference team."

Recruiting: Williams has been hitting the recruiting trail hard this semester.

Williams was in Chicago on Tuesday to watch Proviso East High play Addison Trail High. Proviso East has a prime prospect in 6-foot-3 junior shooting guard Shannon Brown. His teammate, 5-10 senior point guard Dee Brown (no relation) has signed with Illinois and will take over for Frank Williams at the point next season.

Shannon Brown is reportedly considering KU, Illinois and many others. He plays for the Illinois Warriors AAU team.

On Monday, Williams traveled to Iowa to watch KU signee Jeff Graves come close to a triple-double for Iowa Western Community College. The 6-9 power forward scored 25 points, grabbed nine rebounds and had eight steals in Iowa Western's 107-75 win over Iowa Lakes Community College.

Graves has fully recovered from arthroscopic knee surgery.

"I was trying to play even harder with coach Williams watching. I ended up missing some easy shots," Graves said.

Stats, facts: KU's 57 points were the most in a half of a conference game since a 63-point outing against Texas in 1998. Miles' 12 assists tied him for sixth place in a single game since assist records started to be compiled in 1973-74. Gooden (12), Collison (13) and Simien (10) had double-figure rebounding to tie for the most in a single game in the Williams era, done four other times. The three also had double-doubles which tied them for the most players with double-doubles in a game in the Williams era.

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