Aaron Miles
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Under the radar, this new “recruit” will accelerate our guard play which we desperately need, especially on the O side of the ball. Wiki summary of his college career:
After being named the Oregon 4A High School basketball player of the year in the state of Oregon as well as McDonalds Morgan Wooten National Player of the Year, Miles attended the University of Kansas, where he starred at the point guard position for the Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball team. He helped lead the Jayhawks to two consecutive Final Four appearances in 2002 and 2003 and an appearance in the 2003 national championship game. He is the all-time assists leader (with 954 career assists) of both Kansas and the Big 12 Conference. He was named to the All-Big 12 Team in both 2004 and 2005.
He was also named to the All-Big 12 Defensive Team 3 times and he finished his college career in 8th place in NCAA history in assists and also in 2nd place all time in Kansas history in steals.
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@jayhawk-007 hoping he can stay. Think he will be a good recruiting tool too!
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@Crimsonorblue22 I think this is Coach Self testing the waters to see if Miles could be a suitable substitute for Snacks or any other assistant that jumps ship or gets caught with a little pot again?
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Self has prepped us all by stating he thought Aaron wasn’t done playing pro ball abroad. We just have to wait and see if he can stick around. If not, I believe this was done for a reason, and that reason has long-term vision to it.
I would love to see us eventually convert Aaron into an assistant coach. The benefits would be extreme… he could do for our guards what Manning did for our bigs. I think I would enjoy seeing us become “Little Man U” over what is left of our “Big Man U.”
I look at assistant coaches similar to players. The more gifted they are, the chances are high that you lose them to a better opportunity quickly… But, sometimes, you can keep a very good assistant around for a long time. I’m not sure if we will be able to keep Aaron with us long… hope so!
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@drgnslayr Self’s been able to keep Townsend around for over a decade despite Townsend consistently being rated among the best assistant coaches in the country.
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True. I wonder what they pay Townsend?
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I believe that if Miles has not made it to the NBA by now, the chance are slim to none that he will do it in the future. Europe has now plenty of local talent and the opportunities are considerable less than were 10 years ago, Unless you are a big name, the “working conditions” for journeymen basketball players in Europe are not very good (read former ISU player Paul Shirley’s writings on the subject) and the last place left is China, where the conditions are even worse.
Miles future is likely coaching basketball and KU is the ideal place to get started, Yes, it could take a few yeas to learn the ins and out of the trade but eventually he can end up with a decent career as a coach. I don’t think Miles will be leaving anytime soon.
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Aaron has been very successful the past few years playing in Russia. in 2012 and 2013 he won the Russian Cup with Krasnye, in 2013 he was named Finals MVP. He also won with them in the 2013 FIBA EuroChallenge. He then changed Russian clubs and finished out a one-year contract this past July.
He is now recouping from a torn labrum so he will not play this year. But there is an excellent chance he goes back next year if he finds the right contract offer. I’m certain he is very well paid and he has a wife and 4 kids to feed!
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Miles is 32 and coming off major surgery and way past the average age of retirement in basketball. I would say his chances of playing pro ball are very small.
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Aaron Miles-- One of my favorites who has a great legacy in Jayhawk history… Perhaps another chapter still to be written…
