Kansas University had no problem winning its first men’s basketball game without sophomore power forward Wayne Simien.

Can the 10-3 Jayhawks — who pounded 10-2 Iowa State, 83-54, on Monday night — continue to win without Big Dub?

“Yes. Everything is possible with this team we have,” said junior power forward Jeff Graves, who has replaced the injured Simien in the starting lineup.

Graves, a 6-foot-9, 269-pounder out of Iowa Western Community College, scored seven points and grabbed 10 rebounds versus the Cyclones.

He had his first career double-double — 10 points, 12 boards — in last Saturday’s 100-46 rout of UMKC, the game in which Simien suffered a dislocated shoulder.

The 6-9, 255-pound Simien, who said Wednesday he has a gut feeling he doesn’t need surgery, definitely will miss Saturday’s 12:45 p.m. home battle against Nebraska.

Graves, meanwhile, has averaged 8.5 points and 11 rebounds his last two games, logging 32 minutes versus ISU and 25 versus UMKC.

“I feel I can do this every night,” Graves said. “I feel the confidence the team has in me. That makes me want to play even harder.”

Graves, who’s rather nimble for a big guy, had four steals against Iowa State, but suffered three turnovers.

“Jeff has better post moves than he showed (against ISU),” KU coach Roy Williams said. “He had three turnovers just turning around fumbling it out of bounds. He had 10 rebounds and came up with some loose balls. He does have very good hands. Hopefully this has given him confidence.

“We’ve needed Jeff all year long. If Jeff had come in shape to start with (instead of 30 pounds overweight) maybe he’d have more experience now. The fact of the matter is he didn’t. But he has worked hard, gotten the pounds off and now he is at the point he can contribute.”

Williams said Graves, who spent a lot of time on the treadmill after practices in order to shed the excess weight, is helped by the presence of 6-9, 255-pound Nick Collison, who leads KU in scoring at 19.9 points a game.

“It’s very important for Jeff to play with Nick because he has an experienced guy in there with him,” Williams said.

Collison burned Iowa State for 31 points off 11-of-15 shooting.

“He showed everybody why he is one of the best big men in the country,” Graves said. “Nick is a great player.”

KU next plays Nebraska at 12:45 p.m. Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.

“That’s just a feeling I have,” Simien said. “I’ll know more on Friday when the doctor takes a look at it again. When I know more, you’ll know more. I’m just trying to stay optimistic about it.”

The fact Giddens’ criminal theft case has been resolved quickly should help the 6-5 Oklahoma City John Marshall guard’s chances. He scored 24 points in Tuesday’s 56-48 win over OKC Northeast.

“He is a top 10 player who has not been convicted of anything. He is a member of good standing on his high school team. There’s no reason to keep him out of the McDonald’s game,” said McDonald’s voter Greg Swaim of Oklahoma City-based gregswaim.com. “In a tight situation, some probably would not vote for him, but he clearly is one of the country’s top 10 players.”

The McDonald’s voters will pare the list from 120 to 50 to the final 20 players in February.

“I personally will bust my hump to lobby voters to let him in the game,” Swaim said. “I’ve known J.R. a long time to be a good kid. I hope he learns a lesson from this. Like someone told me, ‘It’s not necessarily against the law to be stupid.’ I talked to his AAU coach and everybody thinks he’s learned a valuable lesson. Everybody should listen when your mother tells you, ‘Nothing good ever happens after midnight.'”

Giddens was arrested Dec. 19 with three others on felony complaints of conspiracy to commit grand larceny from a retailer, concealing stolen property and obtaining property by false pretense.

On Tuesday, Giddens’ attorney noted that “things have been resolved (out of court) that will not jeopardize his future basketball career.”

McDonald’s voter Mike Sullivan of rivalshoops.com said he would not vote for Giddens if the prep senior admitted he was guilty of a crime. Any player convicted of a crime is ineligible for the McDonald’s game.

“If there was an admission of guilt I would not vote for somebody. It’s not what McDonald’s All America is about,” Sullivan said.

“We’ve all made mistakes. It comes down to knowing right and wrong. If some relative was involved with all this, I would have no problem voting for the guy,” Sullivan added.

Sullivan said he believed Padgett, 6-11 from Reno, Nev., would make the team, but Wilkes, 6-4 from Los Angeles, faced an uphill battle.