Wanting to get his players’ attention last week in practice, Kansas University coach Bill Self copied a tactic of his mentor, Eddie Sutton. He had the Jayhawks put on the football pads at a workout Wednesday.

“I didn’t do it to hurt them, but it set the tone,” Self told Andy Katz of ESPN.com after Saturday’s 70-68 victory over Georgia Tech. “We may have won the game without that, but I’m not sure we would have. I wanted them to think tougher.”

The Jayhawks wore KU helmets and pads at practice, and “it was the craziest thing I’d ever seen,” Keith Langford said after scoring 18 points, including four in OT. “We first tried to go up and down, but it looked horrible. There were probably more bloopers than there are actual hits. But then it was rebounding and boxing out.”

“We were playing soft in practice, and I do think it paid off for this game,” said KU’s Aaron Miles.

Miles-stone

Miles, who received a thunderous standing ovation after he recorded his fifth assist on a pass to Langford for a three with 5:45 left, took news of his becoming Kansas’ all-time assist leader in stride.

“I told Mike Lee’s dad it hasn’t hit me yet, and it still hasn’t hit me,” said Miles, who has 808 assists to Jacque Vaughn’s 804.

“I’ve got to thank everybody: Nick (Collison), Kirk (Hinrich), (Jeff) Boschee and all those guys and my current teammates, all my teammates.”

Simien shoots

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Wayne Simien, who could miss two to four more weeks following left thumb surgery, shot around before the game, as he has been doing in practice. He didn’t dress for the game, however.

“I don’t know about four weeks. I’m hoping for better,” Simien said during a second-half timeout on ESPN. “I’m feeling pretty good right now in the cast. I’m waiting to see what the doctors say and waiting to get me out of the cast now.”

After the game, Simien told Katz he wanted to play Sunday at Kentucky, which would be 20 days after surgery. He said he was getting a soft cast put on Monday and already has one for games made for him that “doesn’t bother me at all.”

KU is 2-0 without Simien.

Galindo’s big three

Freshman Alex Galindo hit a huge three with 2:09 left in overtime, slicing a 65-61 deficit to a point.

Galindo missed four free throws in the final 1:24.

“Oh, man, I don’t know what happened. I’m down on myself. If I would’ve knocked those down … I’ve got to practice more. I’ll make them, though,” he said.

Gooden in house

Former Jayhawk Drew Gooden of the Cleveland Cavaliers attended and was introduced to the crowd.

“It’s a hard place to play, but a great place to play when you are on Kansas,” Gooden said of the fieldhouse. “You saw coach (Paul) Hewitt try to call a timeout the first half. It’s tough. Nobody could hear him. The refs couldn’t hear him. It gets really loud.”

Other faces in crowd

KU signee Julian Wright attended the game with his mother. Also on hand: former KU assistant R.C. Buford, now senior vice president of the San Antonio Spurs; former KU guard Kevin Pritchard, director of player personnel, Portland Trail Blazers; football Hall of Famer Gale Sayers; and ex-Jayhawk walk-on Terry Nooner.