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, ‘Coach, 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.

“I thought if you were going to hold him out, this would be the best time to do so,” said Self, noting Simien had not been close to 100-percent healthy since the Michigan State game Nov. 25.

Simien strained his groin at a practice before the Michigan State game and inadvertently did the splits at practice Nov. 27, but still was able to play in ensuing games against TCU and Stanford.

“All he does is just tweak it, which has kind of held him back,” said Self, who held Simien out of scrimmage situations at practice Monday and Tuesday. “We said, ‘Sit him for a few days, and let it calm down.’ Hopefully he’ll be ready to go by Saturday, and we believe he will.”

Except for Simien and Michael Lee (collarbone injury), all of the Jayhawks played — and played a lot against the NCAA Division Two Tigers.

Seldom-used Moulaye Niang logged 18 minutes, scoring three points, while fellow reserves Christian Moody, Nick Bahe and Omar Wilkes played 11 minutes each.

Kansas University freshman David Padgett shoots for two of his game-high 19 points against Fort Hays State's Ryan Shriver (34). Padgett led the Jayhawks to an 80-40 rout of the Tigers Wednesday at Allen Fieldhouse.

Wilkes had nine points — seven in seven minutes the first half as KU led, 34-19, at the break. Moody had four points, and Bahe hit the first three of his college career.

“I was happy for those guys,” said freshman J.R. Giddens, who started and scored 12 points, as did Keith Langford.

David Padgett led the way with 19 points and eight boards.

“When you practice every day and don’t get to play, it stinks. They get to sweat, get dirty and take off their warmups. That’s always fun,” Giddens added. “They get to kick our butts every day in practice, so it’s about time they got in and kicked somebody else’s butt.”

Self said he made the decision to empty the bench after watching tape of Saturday’s 64-58 loss to the Cardinal.

“Those guys deserved to play. Normally, they play late and do not feel they had a chance to play through some things,” Self said. “I think Moulaye and Christian had a chance to play seven, eight minutes consecutively in the first half, by far more than they’ve played.”

The Jayhawks forced 18 turnovers and held Fort Hays State to 32.7 percent shooting and 40 points, the lowest total in Allen Fieldhouse by an opponent since Brown’s 45 points in the 1988-89 season.

“It’s what we needed. We needed to have a good defensive game,” Langford said.

As far as the offense, KU missed its final 11 shots of the first half and finished at 42.7 percent shooting. KU made seven of 25 threes. Giddens hit two treys in six tries, and Jeremy Case busted a slump by hitting two of six threes after going 0-for-5 through KU’s first four games.

“I thought it was a game we needed to get some confidence,” Self said. “Defensively, we did some good things. We rebounded well. Offensively, we executed better. We just missed shots. Once again we were 5-for-22 threes before Jeremy hit two of the last three. We have to shoot better behind the arc because people will pack it in and play zone. We’ve got better shooters than we’ve shot it.”

Maybe somebody like Wilkes will be the answer.

“I see Omar as a guy off our bench who will play in the next couple of games, and we’ll see what he can do,” Self said. “Omar deserves opportunities as much as anybody else. “

Simien was unavailable for comment after the game.

KU will head to Kansas City, Mo., to take on Oregon at 1 p.m. Saturday at Kemper Arena.