Boulder, Colo. ? Reporters huddled two rows deep around Kansas University standout Wayne Simien late Wednesday night in a Hilton Coliseum hallway in Ames, Iowa.

Taking a peek at the proceedings, a stocking cap pulled just above his eyes, Jayhawk senior Michael Lee tried to march unnoticed to the team bus.

It didn’t work. One reporter beckoned, “Hey Mike, Mike Lee,” in the vicinity of Lee.

“Mike who? Mike what? Ah geez,” Lee said with a big smile, stopping in his tracks to conduct a quick interview.

Always cooperative, Lee would prefer the ink go to somebody else.

“Mike is not a limelight guy at all,” KU coach Bill Self said of Lee. “He’d rather have the other guys get the limelight, so to speak. He knows his role and is content with his role right now.”

Lee, who enters today’s KU-Colorado game (3 p.m., Coors Events Center) with averages of 4.2 points, 1.3 rebounds, and 16 minutes a game, only wants to get noticed by one person — Self, who has the power to put him in games.

Some fans wondered where Lee was during a seven-game stretch immediately following his 13-point outing against Saint Joseph’s. In that span, he scored just 13 total points, going scoreless against both Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Georgia Tech.

“I was always there. I was still there,” Lee said. “I did a lot of self talk over those six or seven games. I felt I was not playing well, not playing my game. I talked to coach, coach talked to me. Players talked to me. I knew my time would come if I stayed ready.”

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Yet, he admitted he was frustrated after playing just two minutes in an exciting home overtime victory over Georgia Tech on New Year’s Day.

“After that game, I sat down with coach and talked,” he said. “He explained to me what I needed to do and what he saw me doing to help this team. That’s what I did.”

What did Self say?

“Just be solid,” said Lee, who scored 10 points against Texas A&M, seven in 18 important minutes at Kentucky and four Wednesday at Iowa State. “He said a lot of times I overwork, put myself in bad situations. He said to be solid on defense, when I get open shots, knock ’em down. When I come in the game, just don’t let the score go down. He made it real simple.”

Self is pleased with Lee heading into today’s CU contest.

“He hung in there with a great attitude,” Self said. “Good things will happen if you have a great attitude and keep plugging, and he did.”

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KU’s bumps and bruises: Freshman C.J. Giles was under the weather Friday and didn’t practice Friday night at the Coors Events Center. Christian Moody, however, did practice.

“I don’t know how effective he’ll be,” Self said. “What will be difficult to decide is who is best to start and who is best finishing. I don’t see it as a big deal from a negative standpoint. We’ll have to adjust. We have guys willing to do that.”

Self said Simien’s left thumb was fine after he played 37 minutes against Iowa State.

“It might have been sore, but there were no problems,” he said.

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Fan talk: KU usually has up to 4,000 fans on hand for the KU-CU game at Coors, which seats 11,064.

Today’s game is a sellout.

“Based on that, I think we’d have a pretty good contingent,” Self said. “We had a good number there last year. I hope it’s percentage-wise as good as it was last year. You’d think Saturday afternoon would be a perfect time for KU fans to get there, drive there and go back. Hopefully, that’s the case.”

ESPN Radio in Denver reported that 75 KU alumni from the Denver area bought six rows of seats behind the south basket and planned to cheer for the Jayhawks and distract the Buffaloes during free-throw attempts.

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Undefeated?: At 12-0, people are talking about the Jayhawks going undefeated this season.

“That’s possible for a team of that caliber,” CU coach Ricardo Patton told the Boulder Daily Camera.

Well?

“I’m hoping we can,” Giles said. “It’s a team goal to run the table.”

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Buffs’ bumps: CU’s Julius Ashby, a 6-foot-9 junior, is out because of a tendon tear in his foot. Andy Osborn is day-to-day because of a foot injury.

“They are a lot like us, beat up inside,” Self said. “It’s like us losing Wayne. They are a lot more perimeter-oriented. They are fast and small.”

Patton said he might start true freshman forward Marcus King-Stockton.

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Road warriors: Today’s game marks KU’s third road game in six days. At least school was not in session for the road-weary Jayhawks.

“We are one of the schools that start later, which I think is good for us,” Self said. “It’s been good to focus on basketball these past few weeks.”

Self said all his players were academically eligible for second semester.

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Special Olympics clinic: After battling the Buffaloes, the Jayhawks will play host to the 2005 Wilt Chamberlain Special Olympics Clinic from 1-3 p.m. Sunday at Allen Fieldhouse.

More than 100 athletes from Special Olympics Kansas will join Self, his staff and the Jayhawks in the clinic. The athletes will go through a series of drills before scrimmaging with the Jayhawks.

Special Olympics is an international year-round program of sports training, education and athletic competition for more than one million children and adults with intellectual disabilities.