The Kansas Jayhawks’ front line features a third-team All-American, a 6-foot-9 senior forward who dropped a double-double on Syracuse in the NCAA Championship Game last season, and a 6-foot-11 freshman who many scouts believe is a future pro.
But ask the UAB Blazers who the MVP for Kansas is this year and player and coach alike will tell you it’s junior point guard Aaron Miles.
“He’s the key to their basketball team,” said UAB coach Mike Anderson. “We’ve got to make sure we neutralize him, whether it be Mo (Finley) or Squeaky (Johnson). With the way we play defense, a lot of guys are going to be guarding him.”
Miles averages just 8.9 points a game, but he’s the man who makes Kansas go, as evidenced by his 7.2 assists per game. And Miles has guided Kansas to the Final Four the past two years.
UAB (22-9), as a program, has never been to the Final Four in its 25-year history, but the Blazers can take one step closer to the pinnacle of college basketball by knocking off KU (23-8) tonight at 6:10 at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis. The winner of tonight’s game will play the Nevada/Georgia Tech winner on Sunday in the Elite Eight for the right to play in the Final Four.
UAB is that close.
“We’re two games away from the Final Four,” noted senior forward Sidney Ball.
“I really haven’t had time to reflect on everything, but it’s unbelievable.”
Give UAB credit. The Blazers aren’t taking the easy road to San Antonio. UAB defeated one of the hottest teams in the nation by beating a Washington squad that finished second in the Pac-10 in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament 102-100. The Blazers followed the Washington win by stunning SEC Tournament champion and Final Four favorite Kentucky 76-75 five days ago, earning themselves the title of Cinderella in this year’s tournament.
Now they get Kansas, another program steeped in college basketball tradition.
“We just finished playing a good Kentucky team, now we’re playing a good Kansas team that’s playing some of their basketball,” said Anderson.
Kansas has a decided height advantage. Junior forward Wayne Simien, the All-American, averages 17.6 points and 9.2 rebounds a game and usually demands a double-team. KU freshman center David Padgett and senior forward Jeff Graves can wreak havoc down low in Simien’s absence.
“They’ve got size and that’s been our weakness, attacking the glass,” said Anderson.
That’s why UAB will focus on Miles. As he goes, so goes Kansas. Even the Jayhawks admit solid play by Miles is vital.
“Aaron has to have a good game for us,” said coach Bill Self, who is in his first year at KU. “There have been times this year where Aaron was sped up and he didn’t play quite as well. I wish we had two or three guys with point guard skills so we don’t wear Aaron out.”
But that doesn’t mean Kansas is afraid of an up-tempo game. The Jayhawks are 22-0 when scoring 70 or more points.
“People think we play slow, but we average over 75 points a game,” Self said.
UAB has danced its way to the Sweet 16 for the first time in 23 years. Anderson said if the Blazers hope to dance farther, they’ll have to play one of their better games defensively.
“Kansas can run, but they go to their strength which is to pound it inside,” he said. “They’ll be prepared for our pressure. We’ve got to play one of our better basketball games.”
UAB’s pressure defense is so uncanny and so unorthodox that the Kansas Jayhawks have resorted to extreme measures in practice this week to simulate the “Fastest 40 Minutes of Basketball.”
The Jayhawks have practiced all week with five-on-eight drills in preparing for tonight’s game.
“We did not look very good going five-on-eight,” said Kansas coach Bill Self. “I saw the CBS clip where Mike (Anderson) said his goal was to have teams guard a player and a half, which is seven and a half, so basically they get after you. They get after you and make you feel like there is more than five on the court.”
KU point guard Aaron Miles said there was one main focus in the simulations.
“Our main focus is to be strong with ball,” he said. “They have great players that are big and strong and like to scrap, so we need to be strong with the ball.”
UAB’s Mo Finley said simulating the Blazers’ defensive pressure isn’t so easy.
“I don’t think it’s possible,” said Finley. “You can put seven guys on the floor and try to simulate it, but it’s not realistic. There are only five-on-five, and it’s hard to get ready for.”
Anderson probably had the line of the week in comparing the Kansas players who were highly recruited coming out of high school to his Blazers, many of whom were lightly recruited. Miles and Padgett in particular are former McDonald’s All-Americans for the Jayhawks.
“They have McDonald’s All-Americans,” Anderson said of Kansas. “I don’t even have a Burger King All-American.”
Anderson said UAB is again in the underdog role.
“As you look at it, everything shifts to Kansas’ favor,” he said. “I’m sure they’ll be favored. Not many people thought we’d be in the tournament, but somebody forgot to tell those 15 or so guys over there.”
The Birmingham Chamber of Commerce has a friendly wager going with the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce on the outcome of tonight’s game. If UAB loses, the Chamber will send donated Dreamland Bar-B-Que ribs to the Lawrence Chamber. If Kansas loses, the Lawrence Chamber will send steaks donated from the Hereford House in Lawrence compliments of the Kansas Beef Council.
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