New Orleans ? Aaron Miles had a double-double for Kansas University in last year’s Final Four game against Maryland, but the Jayhawks left Atlanta after a 97-88 national semifinal loss.
“We could have played a lot better,” Miles said Friday at the Superdome, where KU will meet Marquette at 5:07 tonight in a national semifinal. “We’re a lot more focused this year as a team. We’re not satisfied with just getting here; we’re trying to win it all.”
Miles’ defense helped KU rally from a 20-point deficit against Maryland, but the Jayhawks could not overcome the eventual national champion. The freshman point guard made just one of seven shots from the field but hit 10 of 12 free-throw attempts.
“You know, I really thought that would help him so much,” coach Roy Williams said of the Final Four experience. “He worked very hard over the summer. He did, yet he got off to a little bit of a slow start because he lost his focus on what he did well — you know, sort of trying to be somebody else. He was looking at some other things.”
After attending summer school in June, Miles went home to Oregon and spent much of his time working out with teammate and fellow Portland native Michael Lee. He tried to make 300 shots a day in an attempt to improve his 40.4 percent field-goal shooting.
Miles, however, enters tonight’s game shooting at an identical 40.4-percent clip, and his three-point shooting percentage has dropped from 28.9 percent as a freshman to 23.9 this season.
The Jayhawks aren’t worried about criticism of the sophomore’s shooting.
“Aaron has done a great job of running this team,” senior guard Kirk Hinrich said. “He does so many different things. He’s real active defensively. Everybody’s always on him not being able to make shots. Before he’s done, he’s going to be a really good shooter. He brought something to this team, you know like a little swagger, a little confidence. He’s always putting that out there for the last couple of years.”
Miles’ 2002 statistics were exceptional for a freshman. His 252 assists broke Jacque Vaughn’s KU freshman record and ranked second overall on the school’s single-season chart. His 6.8 assists per game ranked second in the Big 12 Conference and fourth in school history.
His 60 steals were the second-highest total ever by a KU freshman.
“What he did as a freshman set such a high standard, it’s been hard to even come close to that,” Williams said. “At times this year, he’s been absolutely sensational. There’s been other times where he hasn’t been as good.”
So what has Miles done for an encore?
His rebounding average is up (from 2.7 boards per game to 3.2), and so is his scoring average (from 7.1 points per game to 8.9). He leads the Big 12 Conference with 90 steals, 30 more than last year in one fewer game.
His free-throw shooting numbers have dipped slightly (from 79.3 percent to 75.2). He ranks second in the conference with 6.47 assists per game, but his assist-to-turnover ratio is down. He ranks fifth in that category this season at 1.99 after having a 2.25 mark last year.
In the end, though, a point guard is judged on the success of his team. In two years, Miles has played on two league championship and Final Four teams.
“I know what he means to our club on the basis of his will to win,” Williams said, “and that’s what Aaron Miles does better than everything, is just trying to get his team to win.”
Miles has been steady in the NCAA Tournament, averaging 8.2 points and 6.5 assists in four games. He has made 10 of 24 shots, including three of nine three-pointers. His 26 assists rank fourth among all players in the tournament, and his nine steals rank seventh.
