Woodling: Miles earning respect

By Chuck Woodling     Jan 20, 2004

Random observations about Kansas University’s men’s basketball team with the point of no return — the halfway point of the regular season — coming up Thursday against Richmond.

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Now that T.J. Ford has disappeared into the vortex of the NBA, Aaron Miles has emerged as the Big 12 Conference’s premier point guard. That was expected, but you still have to produce, and Miles has.

Granted, the 6-foot-3 junior doesn’t have much competition — point guards are at a premium in the league this season — but it’s clear Miles is the most indispensable player in first-year coach Bill Self’s lineup.

Miles is averaging a career-high 10.5 points a game, leads the league in assists (6.46 per game) and is third in steals. He’s also shooting a glossy 75.6 percent at the free-throw line.

As you know, Miles’ only downside is his inconsistent long-range shooting. At times, he’ll sink a picture-perfect three-point basket. At other times, though, he’ll miss the rim altogether. In the Texas A&M game, for example, he hit the side of the backboard on a shot from the corner.

Where would the Jayhawks be without Miles? Not 11-2, that’s for sure.

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That Kansas is 3-0 and leads the Big 12 is not so much a result of how the Jayhawks have played as it is who they have played. KU does lead the league in free-throw percentage, but the Jayhawks rank in the middle of the Big 12 pack in such tell-tale statistics as field goal percentage and rebounding.

Kansas is shooting only about 45 percent from the field, mostly because the Jayhawks are last in the league in three-point shooting at 29 percent.

Along those lines, you have to wonder when Self will red-light guard Jeff Hawkins, who has missed 21 of his last 23 three-point attempts and is shooting just 19 percent from beyond the arc.

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Freshman J. R. Giddens reminds me of Kenny Gregory. Giddens relies mostly on three-point shooting and dunks to score, as did Gregory. Also, Giddens very rarely shoots off the dribble whereas Gregory never did. Too, Gregory was only an average defender at best, and Giddens falls into the same category. But Giddens is the more emotional of the two. Bottom line: Giddens needs to improve his defense and diversify his offense.

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Keith Langford has emerged as the Jayhawks’ go-to guy. The slashing southpaw is averaging 17.1 points a game, third highest average in the league. When Langford is hot, he’s white-hot. When he is not, the Jayhawks can only hope Wayne Simien, their only other real offensive force, is clicking. If neither Langford nor Simien bring their A game, the Jayhawks will find themselves trying to go to their right on a merry-go-round.

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KU needs a healthy David Padgett. With the 6-10 Padgett out the last two games because of a foot stress fracture, Self has left Simien and Jeff Graves on the floor too long. In the A&M game, Simien played 32 minutes and Graves 30. Padgett needs to hone his offensive skills and learn how to stay out of foul trouble, but he’s still the Jayhawks’ best inside defender. Most important, he’s good enough to give Simien and Graves the bench time they need.

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On paper, with everyone healthy, Kansas may have the best seven-man rotation in the league with Michael Lee and either Graves or Padgett coming off the bench. After that, though, the drop-off is precipitous, particularly in scoring. After 13 games, we know the prime-timers and the pine-timers.

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The Texas writer who asked Self after the A&M game if the Jayhawks had adjusted to his style may have posed the question backwards. After all, it’s much easier for players to adapt to the singular style of a coach than it is for a coach to adapt to the diverse styles of players.

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All things considered, the Jayhawks are right where they want to be at this stage of the season. They’re quietly lurking in the second echelon of the polls, they’ve avoided overblown publicity and they’re poised to reach in a peak in mid- to late February that will hopefully carry over into March.

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