On the court, point guards Aaron Miles and T.J. Ford are rivals.

Off the court, though, they are friends. Good friends.

“I call him every now and then to keep contact,” Miles, Kansas University’s 6-foot-1 sophomore point guard, said of Ford, Texas’ 5-10 floor general. “I call to see how he’s doing in general, not to talk about basketball.”

The two guards, who became close friends on the AAU circuit and at the McDonald’s All-America game their senior year of high school, will square off during tonight’s KU-Texas battle at Allen Fieldhouse.

Miles is averaging 8.2 points and 7.2 assists per game, while Ford comes in at 13.9 ppg and 7.1 apg. Miles has 130 assists to 61 turnovers; Ford has 106 assists to 56 turnovers.

“T.J. is a great player,” Miles said. “He is doing some great things. He deserves everything (recognition) he’s getting.”

• Missouri prep visits: Steven Hill, a 6-11, 220-pound center from Branson (Mo.) High, visited KU last weekend and attended the KU-Arizona game.

“He enjoyed it. Whenever you have a chance to watch a game in Allen Fieldhouse — the atmosphere with the students and everything — it’s very impressive,” said Hill’s dad, Troy, a former basketball player at Oral Roberts and Pittsburg State.

“They (KU coaches and players) did a great job. Like everybody, he just wishes they could have won on Saturday.”

Hill is averaging 23 points, 11 rebounds and six blocks this season for 10-7 Branson High. He has visited KU, Missouri and Arkansas and hopes to pick a school in the next month or so.

“We’ll sit down as a family and try to evaluate all this the next couple of weeks,” Troy Hill said. “Once the emotion has calmed down, we’ll evaluate all the programs.”

• Mr. Barnes’ neighborhood: When Rick Barnes was hired at Texas five years ago, he said he’d like the Longhorns to become a national power like Kansas.

“We’ve gotten ourselves to the point where we are in the neighborhood,” Barnes said. “It’s what we’re trying to build to now. We want to beat Kansas, there’s no question about it. You can’t take anything away from the tradition Kansas has. You go into Allen Fieldhouse and win, you’ve got to have a basketball team that is special.

“Will it make or break our season if we lose the game? I say no, but we desperately want to win this game.”

• No love from UT: Kansas sophomore Keith Langford, a native of Fort Worth, Texas, wasn’t recruited heavily by Texas.

“Not really, whatever, no love lost,” Langford said. “I never thought about going to school in Texas to begin with. It wasn’t a big deal they weren’t recruiting me. I didn’t want to be where I could come home easily every weekend. I wanted to go away and try to adjust somewhere new.”

• Ceremonies: Former Kansas great JoJo White will have his jersey retired tonight during a halftime ceremony. Former Missouri coach Norm Stewart will be honored before the game for all his accomplishments in coaching and work with Coaches Vs. Cancer.

Stewart and KU coach Roy Williams are friends. The Jayhawks never had the chance to properly say good-bye to Stewart when his career ended after the 1998-99 season.

“You compete with people, there is respect you gain,” Stewart said. “There is admiration. I admire everything about University of Kansas basketball. There is no one I admire or respect more (than Williams).”

“The Kansas-Missouri rivalry in basketball has been fantastic. He’s made it that way,” Williams said of Stewart. “Before I came here, Kansas had been successful. Missouri was not as successful before Norm. I didn’t like him during the game, (but) I had more respect on how he had his teams prepared to play and how competitive he was. I have as much respect for Norm as anyone who ever coached.

“Away from the court he is one of the funniest guys in life.”.