Kansas City, Mo. ? Stephen Vinson fiddled with one of the many microphones placed in front of him Saturday afternoon in a crowded Kemper Arena interview room.

“This is new to me. You’ve got to be patient with me,” Vinson, Kansas University’s senior guard, told media members, a big smile creasing his face.

Never at the top of the media’s interview request list before this weekend, Vinson was a mandatory sound bite for all who covered the Jayhawks’ 69-56 victory over California.

The Lawrence High graduate’s presence on the court helped KU snap out of an early funk.

The Jayhawks missed nine of their first 10 shots and suffered eight turnovers in falling behind 12-3 before Vinson and Micah Downs helped steady the ship.

Vinson collected career highs of six points, six assists and 25 minutes.

He played 12 minutes the first half and 13 the second and was on the court not only as the final horn sounded, but during an 18-3 run that turned a 40-38 lead into a back-breaking 58-41 margin with 6:47 left.

Was Saturday’s effort the highlight of his KU career?

“I think so,” Vinson said. “Just getting to play down to the wire in an important game … to see us win made it so fun. It was the most fun I’ve had, that’s for sure.”

Kansas University's C.J. Giles (33) goes for two of his game-high 17 points in the Jayhawks' 69-56 victory over Cal as the Bears' Richard Midgley (15) defends. Giles also had a team-best nine rebounds in the victory Saturday in Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Mo.

The 6-foot-2 point guard — a walk-on his first three seasons awarded a scholarship this year — showed a lot of guts in playing at all.

He missed practice Thursday while suffering from chronic back pain and the flareup of last season’s groin injury.

“Today was definitely up in the air. Modern medicine … I can’t believe I actually got a chance to play today,” Vinson said. “I felt a lot better yesterday. Today, it (pain) was in my past. I wasn’t even thinking about it. I have an old body. I’ve gotten used to it.”

KU coach Bill Self is mighty thankful Vinson was able to answer the call against the Golden Bears.

He had five assists the first half as KU battled back from the early nine-point deficit and lagged, 34-31, at the break.

And his play was instrumental in the pivotal 18-3 second-half burst. After Brandon Rush hit a three, Vinson cashed a driving layup off a feed from Julian Wright and sprawled to the floor as the ball fell through the hoop.

On KU’s next possession, he fed C.J. Giles (17 points, nine boards) for a bucket, and, after a Downs stickback, again fed Giles for a slam.

“I really believe that he should be the standard. That’s his nickname, ‘The Standard,’ along with ‘Trigger,’ and a few other things,” Self said of Vinson.

“He should be the standard of how we base our effort and how hard we compete with all the young guys. As much as you want to say, ‘This guy, this guy, that guy,’ there’s nobody close who competes like Steve every single day.”

Vinson’s biggest contribution Saturday was organizing the offense and making things run smoothly after the shaky start.

“He’s a ball mover,” Self said. “It’s not that our offense has been so slow … we ran the same stuff when he was in the game and looked pretty good. Moving, cutting, being sharp, understanding how hard you’ve got to play, tighten every possession up, pay attention to detail … he does that as well as anybody we have, if not better.”

Self referred to Vinson in an inspirational talk to his players at the team’s headquarters, the Hyatt Hotel, on Friday.

“We talked about this last night: How can you not respect somebody whose body feels worse than everybody else’s in the gym every single day, and he practices harder than everybody else every single day?” Self said.

The Jayhawks marveled at the spark Vinson has provided in practice and provided Saturday in helping KU improve to 4-4 on the season. Cal fell to 6-2.

“He’s been killin’ in practice. He’s the hardest worker in practice by far,” said Giles, whose defense (five blocks, three steals, several altered shots) helped hold Cal power forward Leon Powe to 16 points and 11 boards in 34 minutes.

“He does all the little things that we all mess up on, the difference in winning and losing the game. He is one smart guy. He does anything to win,” Giles added.

“He was a huge spark coming off the bench,” added Downs, who was a spark himself, hitting four of six shots for 10 points, including two of three three-pointers. “He’s got so much energy and pride in the way he plays on the floor.”

Self said Vinson’s pride was an intangible the Jayhawks needed to embrace. Self said he would have had Vinson guard hot-shooting St. Joe’s player Chet Stachitas in Tuesday’s loss in New York had Vinson not been sidelined with the pulled groin

“One reason Stephen plays so hard,” Self said, “is it means something to him to wear the Kansas uniform. He put a lot of sweat, tears into the program, growing up in Lawrence. It’s something special to him. He has some intangibles some other guys haven’t possessed yet because they don’t quite get it yet.”

Going against some ultra-talented former Jayhawks at practice the past four years also has prepared the player for crunch time his senior season.

“When you play behind (Kirk) Hinrich, (Aaron) Miles, (Keith) Langford, guys like that, you start to wonder (if you’ll ever play much). At the same time, just being part of the team was great for me,” Vinson said. “Playing against guys like that, I don’t want to sound arrogant, but I’m not intimidated by anyone when I go out on the court.”

He knows not what the future holds.

“Russell will have better games; Mario is going to come along,” Vinson said of guards Russell Robinson (four points, 1-of-5 shooting, 20 minutes) and Mario Chalmers (six turnovers, one assist, one point, 11 minutes). “I still see my role (is), whatever I can do to help, I’ll do. I’m just trying to help other guys succeed.”

That includes Chalmers, who was out of sync Saturday.

“We want to play Mario, but obviously Stephen was the guy tonight,” Self said. “I can see this being a constant for a large part of the season until everybody gets totally comfortable. I don’t think that’s happened yet.”

The Jayhawks won’t play again until a week from Monday against Pepperdine. Tipoff is 6:30 p.m. at Allen Fieldhouse.