Lahaina, Hawaii ? A downtrodden, nearly inconsolable Aaron Miles gazed out the window of a make-shift locker room on the second floor of Lahaina Civic Center.
Three minutes, five minutes, six minutes passed Monday afternoon as Kansas University’s basketball freshman stared into the distance.
Was the 6-foot-1 point guard thinking about the turnover he committed as the ball slipped out of his hands as he attempted a shot with 15.8 seconds left in Kansas’ shocking 93-91 first round Maui Invitational loss to Ball State?
Or was he reflecting on the cramps that shot through his legs, thigh, hamstring and toes on Ball State’s ensuing possession, which ended with guard Patrick Jackson blazing by Miles for a game-winning layup with eight-tenths of a second remaining?
“Everything,” mumbled Miles, who took No. 4-ranked KU’s season-opening loss awfully hard. “To me, it’s like I turned it over and my man scored. I feel it’s all my fault.”
Miles was involved in a frantic ending which saw Ball State erase a six-point deficit with 2:12 left and three-point deficit in the last minute. The rally pushed the Cardinals into today’s semifinals against UCLA and dropped KU into a 3 p.m. Central time, nontelevised loser’s bracket contest against Houston.
“The ball was wet,” Miles said of his traveling call, which came after he accepted a pass, while he was wide open in the corner, from Kirk Hinrich with the game tied 91-all. Instead of firing the ball into first option Drew Gooden, who scored a career-high 31 points, Miles went up to shoot, the ball plopping into the air and back in his hands for the traveling call.
“I don’t want to make excuses. I turned it over,” Miles said.
On the next possession, BSU’s Jackson, who scored 23 points, took the ball hard to the hole just as Miles became the third Jayhawk to cramp up during the game in a steamy gym, which had a temperature reading of 90 degrees.
Jackson hit the bucket, KU tried a long inbounds pass from Gooden to Keith Langford that failed and the Cardinals piled on each on the court.
Miles was carried off the floor into KU’s locker room.
He, Nick Collison who missed most of the second half and Gooden were hindered by cramps.
As Jackson drove, “a cramp hit me hard,” Miles said. “My teammates told me to shake it off, that it’s not my fault, to keep my head up.”
He was most dismayed by KU’s second-to-last offensive play, which was designed for Gooden, not Miles.
“We were trying to go to Drew on the last play there. Kirk found Aaron in the corner, who was wide open,” KU coach Roy Williams said. “He started going up and the ball slipped out of his hands.
“They come down our defense broke down when Jackson crossed over Aaron. I would have liked one of our big kids to get over and stop him, but it didn’t happen.”
Nobody stepped in front of Jackson, who cashed the layup, finishing with nine baskets in 15 tries.
Ball State’s Chris Williams, who hit a long three to tie the score at 91 with :42 left, finished with 24 points on 5-of-10 three-point shooting. He hit four of five threes the first half en route to 21 points in helping BSU build a 55-48 halftime lead.
“It’s unfortunate. I think our kids fought awfully hard,” Roy Williams said after his team trailed by as many as 11 the first half (33-22). “Ball State made the plays at the end there. They made the plays down the stretch. It was difficult out there today. You’ve got to overcome a lot of things in the game of basketball. We didn’t overcome ’em today.”
Gooden was able to overcome severe cramping in the second half, playing 16 minutes despite having to leave the game twice for massages and medicine. He hit 12 of 21 shots and also had 10 rebounds.
“It was really painful,” Gooden said. “You can’t do anything. Your leg locks up. It’s like a knife driving right into your muscle. I wanted to win more than I felt the pain. I tried to focus it out.”
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Three-point goals: 13-30 (Williams 5-10, Robbins 3-7, Jackson 2-3, Smith 1-2, Owens 1-3, Matt McCollom 1-5). Assists: 16 (McCollom 6, Jackson 3, Bennett 3, Smith, Williams, Robbins, Owens). Turnovers: 15 (Williams 5, McCollom 5, Jackson 3, Smith, Bennett). Blocked shots: 8 (Owens 4, Jones 2, Smith, Williams). Steals: 5 (Jackson 2, Williams, McCollom, Robbins). |
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Three-point goals: 3-9 (Hinrich 2-5, Miles 1-1, Langford 0-1, Boschee 0-2). Assists: 19 (Hinrich 6, Miles 5, Boschee 4, Collison 2, Langford 2). Turnovers: 16 (Gooden 5, Miles 3, Langford 2, Nash 2, Carey 2, Collison, Boschee). Blocked shots: 4 (Gooden, Collison, Boschee, Langford). Steals: 8 (Gooden 2, Miles 2, Boschee 2, Langford 2). |
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| Ball State | 55 | 38 | 93 |
| Kansas | 48 | 43 | 91 |
So did Collison, who received intraveneous fluids after he left the court with 13:52 left, KU down 67-62. He returned with 9:10 left, promptly hit a wide open layup at 7:17, then stayed on the floor, getting carried off at 7:10 with KU up, 80-77.
Collison scored 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting, but played just five minutes the final half.
“I was cramping up like crazy everywhere,” Collison said. “My legs, my quad I tried to stretch and my hamstring cramped. I couldn’t even move, really.”
Collison several times tried to shake off the cramp with the help of doctor Larry Magee and trainer Mark Cairns, who massaged his legs after the IVs.
“I have cramped a lot before,” Collison said, “but it was never so bad where I couldn’t move my leg. Like the doctor said, once they come they are hard to stop.”
Cramps, of course, didn’t totally cause the Jayhawks’ downfall.
Ball State scored a whopping 55 points the first half, mostly thanks to Chris Williams’ four threes in five tries.
BSU also overcame the loss of forward Theron Smith, who scored 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds, but fouled out with 4:29 left with KU up 85-83.
“The Williams kid was 7-of-8 from the floor (first half) and 4-of-5 from the three-point line,” KU’s coach said. “We guarded him the second half the same way we tried to guard him the first half. We just did a better job of it.”
Jeff Boschee (nine rebounds, four points) and Keith Langford (10 points, including a driving bucket that gave KU 70-68 lead at 12:17) helped slow Williams the second half.
“I think foul trouble frustrated him a little bit,” Boschee said, “and we tried to deny him the ball as much as possible.”
In the final analysis, Kansas was denied a victory.
“It’s like we weren’t ready to play,” Hinrich said. “Williams hits a ton of crazy shots, we finally get back and tie it and at the end of the game they make the plays.”
Hinrich won’t second-guess his pass to Miles for the key traveling call.
“We ran a play and neither of our options were open,” Hinrich said. “I tried to penetrate and kicked out to Aaron. He was wide open. It just slipped out of his hands. It’s something where we’re going to have to learn from this and make plays at the end of the games.”
