Wayne Simien departed Thursday for Los Angeles for this weekend’s Wooden Award ceremonies.

Simien, Kansas University’s senior power forward from Leavenworth, today will coach a team of underprivileged children in the Wooden After School All-Star basketball tournament.

Saturday, Simien will attend the nationally televised Wooden Awards show (noon, CBS) where he will learn the winner of the honor, which goes to college basketball’s top player.

Other finalists include Naismith Award winner Andrew Bogut (Utah), Dee Brown (Illinois), Sean May (North Carolina) and J.J. Redick (Duke).

“It may not be the Heisman, but this is the Heisman for college basketball,” said Simien, who last weekend was in St. Louis for the Naismith Awards banquet. “It feels great to be on the list, recognized as one of the top five players in the United States.”

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Hoops Summit: KU signee Julian Wright, a 6-foot-9 guard/forward from Homewood-Flossmoor High in suburban Chicago, will represent the U.S. in Saturday’s Nike Hoops Summit at the FedEx Forum in Memphis. The game (6:30 p.m., Fox Sports Midwest, Sunflower Broadband Channel 36) matches America’s top high school seniors against a 19-and-under World Select team.

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Recruiting: KU coach Bill Self on Thursday was in Dallas recruiting Darrell Arthur, a 6-9, 220-pound junior forward from South Oak Cliff High. Arthur, who could make an immediate jump to the NBA, is considering KU, Oklahoma, North Carolina, Texas and SMU.

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Early picks: CBS Sportsline.com’s Gregg Doyel has tapped Kansas No. 18 in his 2005-06 men’s basketball preseason poll. Oklahoma is No. 1, Texas No. 11, Texas Tech No. 14 and Oklahoma State No. 23. North Carolina is fourth, Louisville fifth and Illinois 20th. Andy Katz’s ESPN.com poll does not include Kansas. KU is unranked in a poll that has UConn at No. 1, Texas at No. 5 and Oklahoma at No. 7. North Carolina is third, Louisville 11th and Illinois 24th.

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No points for Miles: KU point guard Aaron Miles did not score with six assists and four turnovers in 27 minutes in Norfolk’s 103-69 win over Tidewater Thursday at the Portsmouth (Va.) Invitational tourney for NBA prospects. Miles was 0-for-3 from the field with six rebounds.