Kansas University sophomore Jeremy Case and junior Stephen Vinson will not play in tonight’s Late Night in the Phog scrimmage because of groin injuries.

Case, who is expected to miss the first two weeks of practice, said he had a hairline fracture of the pelvic bone. He first suffered the injury stretching prior to the camp game against KU’s alumni team last June.

“I can’t play. I can ride the bike, but no squats,” he said. “I hope to be back as soon as possible.”

Vinson said he had “a torn groin, a pulled groin. I’ve had more tests on my entire body. We’ll try to do some things tomorrow that might make it feel better.”

Freshman forward Darnell Jackson said he was fully recovered from arthroscopic ankle surgery he had immediately after KU’s trip to Canada. However, he’s just “80 percent overall” because of a recent bout of walking pneumonia.

“It was scary for a while, but I’m getting stronger,” said Jackson, who hopes to play in tonight’s scrimmage.

Junior Jeff Hawkins suffered a herniated disk in his back the fourth day of KU’s boot camp.

“I had an epidural shot, and my back feels good now. I’m getting a lot of treatment,” said Hawkins, who should play tonight.

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Staff addition: Self has added former University of Illinois walk-on player Nate Mast to the staff as an administrative assistant. Mast is a graduate student in architecture at KU.

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Red-shirt update: Self said freshman walk-on Matt Kleinmann would take a red shirt. The other two candidates are Case and sophomore Nick Bahe.

“Jeremy is nicked up right now and will not practice a few weeks,” Self said. “I don’t want to say definitely, but there’s a great chance that will happen. Nick has played pretty well and may warrant playing time. The final decisions will be in November.”

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Cub reporter: Logan Heley only comes up to Wayne Simien’s waist, but that didn’t stop Heley, a sixth-grader from East Antioch School in Shawnee Mission, from rubbing reporters’ notebooks with the rest of the throng of media members covering Thursday’s KU basketball media day at Allen Fieldhouse.

Heley — who pens for Kids Sports News, a publication located in Shawnee which promotes sports coverage by and for Kansas City area youth — might have sparked the biggest smile from Simien all evening when he asked “Big Dub” what he remembered from the sixth grade.

“Recess,” Simien said with a big smile. “We had like two recesses a day, and we always played kickball. I was always the No. 1 draft pick because I had the big leg.

“Recess, man, cherish it,” Simien told a smiling Heley.

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Welcome back: Hawkins, who was suspended from the team the first day of school until the first day of boot camp, said he was heartened by his teammates’ response to his return to the squad.

“They wrote on the board (in locker room), ‘Welcome back Hawk,’ which made me feel really good,” he said.

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