Kansas City, Mo. ? Hard work in practice has paid for Kansas University freshman forward Darnell Jackson, who will start in place of the injured Wayne Simien in tonight’s game against Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Tipoff is 7 p.m. at Kemper Arena with a live telecast on Sunflower Broadband channels 13, 15.

“I think he’s played the best of the three over the last three weeks,” KU coach Bill Self said, explaining his decision to go with the 6-foot-8 Jackson instead of freshmen big men C.J. Giles and Sasha Kaun.

“His effort is getting more consistent. He is more a presence. Guys are starting to trust him more throwing the ball to him.”

Jackson, who averages 5.0 points and 3.0 rebounds, will start, but Self will use different combinations to replace Simien, who will miss six to 10 games following left thumb surgery.

“There will be numerous times we’ll go small,” Self said. “We’ve got a different mode we can play with Alex (Galindo) as four man. We’ve worked on Keith (Langford) and J.R. (Giddens) out there, one of them being a four man. We need to get two of the three (frosh big men) to step up.”

Self also could up the minutes of guards Russell Robinson and Michael Lee.

“I don’t think anything changes with Mike,” Self said. “We go small he could be in the game. We go big he could be in the game. He could be in at the end of the game in place of Russell or one of our other guys.”

Self said the team had held no “pity-parties.”

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“I would say there’s been bigger challenges,” Self said, asked if this was the biggest challenge of his career. “It certainly magnifies things. There’s less margin for error and you have to get everybody on the same page more so now than ever.

“I’m not looking forward to playing without Wayne, but I’m looking forward to developing other guys so we have some depth going into February.”

Self has asked his players for maximum effort.

“I told the guys yesterday it’s impossible to give 100 percent every day — focus, energy, effort, concentration, all those things. Nobody is perfect, but can we all give five percent more? I think it’s what it’s going to take, all give a little bit more than we’ve been giving, coaches included,” Self said.

Simien, who was resting Tuesday in Leavenworth following Monday’s surgery, is expected to attend tonight’s game.

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Wrong doctor: Because of incorrect information provided to media, it was reported erroneously that a Kansas City hand specialist performed the surgery on Simien’s left thumb. The surgery was performed by Dr. Neal Lintecum, a Lawrence surgeon.

Simien, who earlier Monday had been fitted for casts and splints in case he wanted to play with the injury, decided at 3:30 p.m. he wanted surgery. The surgery was performed shortly after.

“He tried the same cast Kareem Rush played with,” Self said. “The bottom line was he was still in enough pain and couldn’t do much of anything (with cast). We knew if we were going to have surgery we wanted to have it because every day may count.”

Simien will not need a pin inserted in his thumb. He will be able to shoot on the side and condition the next four to six weeks. But he must not have contact on his thumb, which had a ligament pulled away from a bone.

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UK tip set: Tip time for the Jan. 9 Kansas at Kentucky game will be 3:30 p.m. on CBS.