Aaron Miles took the high road, blaming himself, not coaches for meager playing time in Wednesday’s McDonald’s All-America basketball game in Durham, N.C.
He told the Journal-World his unproductive play in the first half two points on 1-of-7 shooting with four turnovers was the reason he logged just two minutes in the second half of the West’s 131-125 victory.
Some others have come to Miles’ defense, saying the future Kansas University point guard from Portland, Ore., should have been given more minutes to prove himself.
“I’m disappointed,” Mike Sullivan, one of the 25 voters on the McDonald’s selection committee, said Thursday. “Every kid in that game should get an even amount of playing time. A player flies all the way from Oregon and spends the week there going to hospitals and talking to sick kids, helping charity.
“It’s not a competitive event. It’s a fun game for the players and entertainment. The importance is not who wins. It’s a charity event.”
Miles’ West team coaches hailed from Dunbar High in Fort Worth, Texas. They went with an all-Houston backcourt of Daniel Ewing and T.J. Ford most of the second half as the West rallied from a 15-point deficit to win.
In all fairness, the West starters played great basketball the final 20 minutes in storming to a comeback win. Players like Miles and Stanford signee Josh Childress paid the price, however, with extended pine time.
“Last year there wasn’t any defense played. It was a dunk fest. This year I’m sure the coaches heard the cries about last year’s game,” Sullivan said. “The coaches were demanding all week. To their credit, there was defense played this year.”
Duke fans were vocal in their desire to see future Blue Devil Ewing play a lot. He scored 10 points, while University of Texas signee Ford had 11 points and seven assists.
“He was a fan favorite all week,” Sullivan said of Ewing. “Fans were coming up to him all week saying how they were looking forward to seeing him play at Duke.”
Sullivan says he will soon contact McDonald’s game organizers and indicate it’s wrong to not spread out playing time and request this not happen again. He and others don’t spend hours assessing players to see them handed reduced playing time.
“I didn’t realize until I read the story (in J-W) that he played so little,” Sullivan said of Miles. “I was busy keeping track of scoring. It was classy on Aaron Miles’ part (to not blast the coaches). Aaron Miles rose above a very tough situation.”
Miles, who finished with four points and two assists in 11 minutes, is the reigning player of the year in Oregon.
“He is not a shoot-first guard. He is a pass-first guard,” Sullivan said. “A game like that is more difficult for him than a guy who shoots it a lot.
“He’s going to be a great player for college. He is a great floor leader and will be a productive offensive player. His goal as a point guard is to set up his teammates, put them in position to score. He is a winner.”
Maui field announced
Maui Invitational organizers officially announced the field for the 2001 Invitational, Nov. 19-21 at the 2,400-seat Lahaina Civic Center.
Kansas will be joined by Duke, UCLA, Chaminade, Seton Hall, South Carolina, Ball State and Houston. Pairings will be announced later this summer. It’s a safe bet KU and Duke will be on opposite sides of the bracket, setting up a possible blockbuster final.
This could be one of the final Maui Invitationals. Proposed NCAA legislation would eliminate preseason tournaments that do not count toward the 28-game limit, NABC coaches indicated Thursday in Minneapolis, site of the Final Four.
Coaches said tourneys such as Maui, the Great Alaska Shootout, Preseason NIT and Rainbow Classic create opportunities for schools from mid-major conferences to play elite programs on a neutral court.
They dismissed the argument the tournaments create missed class time, since most are played at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
“We have never missed as much class going to Alaska or Maui as we do going to the NCAA Tournament,” said KU’s Roy Williams, soon to be crowned president of the NABC.
Schools from all 31 conferences were represented in last season’s tournaments.
“It’s all about the zeros” at the end of contracts, Williams said. “Wayne Duke doesn’t give enough zeros to get us to Maui.”
He’s referring to those school presidents who want to keep their teams on the mainland to make big bucks off TV games, not to spend money sending their teams thousands of miles away from campus.
“One or two home games will make $200,000. That means making money rather than spending money to go to these tournaments. It’s the bottom line again,” Purdue coach Gene Keady told the AP.
Former Big Ten Conference commissioner Duke said it would be a “travesty” if the games are discontinued. He has tournament fields lined up through 2005.
The NCAA Div. I management council will vote April 9 and 10 whether to continue exemptions for such tourneys.
“I don’t know what they can do other than drop their (conference) commissioners a note saying they enjoy these games,” Williams said. “I think exempt events are great. There is a lot of money raised for charity (in events such as Coaches V. Cancer).”
Job security
Former KU assistant Jerry Green’s firing at Tennessee has coaches concerned. Green was forced out after a first-round NCAA Tournament loss, despite the fact he’d led the Vols to four straight 20-win seasons and four NCAA Tourney bids. The Vols’ program was unsuccessful prior to Green’s arrival.
“The bar of success or failure has been raised all the way to the last weekend,” Williams said at the NABC’s annual press conference at the Final Four.
Williams said “stunned” wasn’t strong enough to describe his reaction to the departure of Green.
“I think you could use the word ‘appalled,”‘ he said.
