Kansas University will honor the memories and careers of four men’s basketball players at halftime of Wednesday’s KU-Wyoming game.

The Jayhawk athletic department will retire the jerseys of Tus Ackerman, Gale Gordon, Al Peterson and Fred Pralle.

Family members of both Ackerman and Pralle will be on hand to represent those two players. All four of the honorees are deceased.

Drew Gooden of the Memphis Grizzlies will return for jersey retirement ceremonies at halftime of Saturday’s KU-Kansas State game.

Paul Pierce will be honored at halftime on Jan. 25 versus Arizona; Jo Jo White at the Texas game on Jan. 27 and Raef LaFrentz at the Feb. 16 game against Iowa State. Howard Engleman’s jersey will be retired at the Oklahoma State game on March 1.

The KU women’s team will retire Angela Aycock’s jersey at halftime of the KU-Missouri men’s game on Feb. 3. Tamecka Dixon will have her jersey retired at a date to be determined.

The bulk of the banners are expected to arrive today. KU coach Roy Williams is hopeful something can be worked out to where the banners are able to be unfurled at the time the player is honored.

“My goal was to try to get those up the day we retire the jersey. I think it adds something to the ceremony where you can pull a string and all of a sudden the jersey appears,” Williams said Monday on his Hawk Talk radio show. “I think we have a problem with the number of beams up there or the platform, where to hang them now. Hopefully we can get that solved.”

The banners will eventually hang all the way across the rafters of the south end of the fieldhouse. They will be in chronological order of the years the honorees played.

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Niang returns: KU freshman Moulaye Niang returned from his native Senegal on Sunday afternoon. He had been in West Africa from Wednesday night until Saturday night.

“I really felt sorry for him. He had worst trip you can ever imagine,” Williams said.

Niang’s flight from Kansas City to Cincinnati on Saturday, Jan. 4, was canceled, so he flew out Jan. 5.

“He got to Paris Monday morning and stayed in the airport all day. His flight was canceled. He went to the airport Tuesday and stayed there all day. His Tuesday flight was canceled,” Williams said. “He finally got out on Wednesday and missed the funeral because he got there so late Wednesday night. It was just a terrible scenario. … It was just a terrible situation spending 2 1/2 days in the Paris airport. It was tough on him, plus the severity of where he’s trying to go.”

Niang returned to KU on Sunday night and is expected to play Wednesday. “His conditioning is off quite a bit,” Williams said.

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Sling disappears: Wayne Simien, who is recovering from a dislocated shoulder, no longer has to wear the sling on his right arm.

“He can dribble the basketball. He can get his arm above his head and can shoot in close,” Williams said. “I said, ‘Start working on left-handed layups and dunks.”’

Simien will be examined again next week. There’s no timetable for his return yet, but nothing thus far has indicated the need for surgery.

“They (doctors) are guardedly optimistic is the best way to put it,” Williams said.

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NCAA rules: The NCAA is considering penalties for schools with low graduation rates. Scholarships might be removed and/or teams could miss the postseason if rates don’t meet a certain standard.

“There are parts of it I do like — particularly if you give someone advance notice to know what’s going on, if it’s not something you put in play yesterday,” Williams said on Hawk Talk.

Williams is in favor of stiffening rules to make sure athletes are making satisfactory progress toward a degree.

“Kids should go to college with the idea they are going to try to get their degree,” he said.

As far a a postseason ban, that’d be mighty stiff. “It would be,” the coach said, “but as long as you let people know what the rules are in advance. You’ve got to adjust.”