Kansas University forward Wayne Simien will miss his 10th consecutive game Saturday afternoon when the Jayhawks travel to Kansas State.

“He will not play. We’re not there yet,” KU coach Roy Williams said of the 6-foot-9, 255-pounder who dislocated his right shoulder against UMKC on Jan. 4. “I am more encouraged this week than I was last week. I think he’s getting better.”

Simien has been taking part in some contact drills at practice, Williams indicated.

“I think when you look at it, it was only a month ago. What we said was that after a week to 10 days we’ll look at it,” Williams said.

“I think people misinterpreted that as after a week to 10 days, he’d be able to come back and play.

“I never thought that one time. Even that Saturday night when we played UMKC and I was at the hospital and they were showing me the MRI, I never thought one second that we were going to get him back in a week to 10 days. It’s just that type of injury. You just have to evaluate as you go along. You get to a point where he can play and he is comfortable with it. We’re not there yet.”

Contrary to rumor, Simien won’t be flying to New York to see a specialist.

“We haven’t done that,” Williams said. “We’ve consulted with (the specialist). He’s talked to the doctors and looked at the MRI. You can pick up the phone nowadays and send an MRI over the phone. There are at least two specialists our people have talked to directly and talked to several other people too.”

And the consensus remains Simien will “stay the course” while practicing and continuing rehab.

• Knight’s milestone: Williams says he admires Texas Tech coach Bob Knight, who won his 800th game Wednesday against Nebraska.

“It’s a lot. Eight hundred wins and Eddie Sutton’s 1,000 games (coached) … I don’t know if I’ll ever see that kind of stuff,” said Williams, who planned on phoning Knight and Oklahoma State coach Sutton Thursday.

“Eight hundred wins, and to do it the way he’s done it — every single day doing it the right way with no shortcuts — is pretty doggone impressive.”

He recalled his favorite Bob Knight moment: “I guess the best one I can tell you about is when he yelled up to my wife last year (to ask) where his brownies were. That’s the best one, but there are a lot of good ones with him.”

• Manning back in NBA: Former KU All-American Danny Manning, who Wednesday signed with the Detroit Pistons, had practiced with the Jayhawks twice a week this season while waiting for an NBA offer.

“I’m thrilled for him,” Williams said. “I’ve spoken to two or three teams during this process. Danny added a great deal to our squad. If you remember the play the other night in the Missouri game when the ball came to Nick (Collison) as he came up to the elbow of the high post and turned and made the little bounce pass to Kirk (Hinrich) and Kirk laid it up … I’d like to say that was my coaching, but I really believe the reason Nick made that little bounce pass was because Danny Manning chewed up our starters so many times with the little bounce passes on backdoor cuts.

“I haven’t asked Nick about it yet, to see if that is the reason he did it, or if he’s going to give his old coach credit or not, but I’ve got to think that seeing Danny make so many of those passes has helped our club. He is just a great youngster. It’s amazing, 15 years in the NBA. That’s pretty impressive.”

Asked if Manning’s example is why he made the pass, Collison said: “Yeah, probably. The thing I was most surprised about was his attitude … he’d come and help us out. He’s played 14 years in the NBA and still he’d listen to what coach was trying to do. He’s very skilled, so smart. He really knows how to play in any situation.”