Graves shovels dirt on ISU – Kansas 89, Iowa State 74

Forward steps up for KU

? As reward for his best performance to date as a Kansas University basketball player, Jeff Graves was granted a live TV interview Friday afternoon at American Airlines Center.

Some reward.

“I was nervous. My palms were sweating. My knees were shaking. I never did one of those before,” said Graves, whose career-high 16 points and 12 rebounds made him stand out in KU’s 89-74 Big 12 Conference tournament quarterfinal victory over Iowa State. “Everything flowed pretty well.”

Graves was referring to the interview, but the 6-foot-9, 255-pounder could have meant his 7-of-9 shooting performance that helped propel No. 4 KU (25-6) into today’s 1 p.m. semifinal against (20-9) Missouri, a 60-58 winner Friday over Oklahoma State.

“It’s tournament time, time to come up big now,” said Graves, whose signature play was a monstrous one-handed dunk off a second-half rebound — followed by a steal on Iowa State’s ensuing possession.

Seniors Nick Collison and Kirk Hinrich each scored 14 points, helping the Iowa natives improve their all-time record against ISU to 5-4.

But Graves was the story Friday.

“Everybody has been talking about somebody needs to step up besides the seniors,” Graves said. “I’m hyped now. It’s like I’m ready to play another game right now.”

A rejuvenated Graves says he’s in the best shape of his college career — even better than last year at Iowa Western CC when he earned junior-college All-America honors.

“I’ve gotten toned up,” said Graves, who reported to campus at 293 pounds last August. “My teammates are telling me with my braids now my chin actually look skinny. This uniform isn’t fitting me anymore.

“It helps to never be tired. Today was the first time I played physical a full 40 minutes and stayed focused a full 40 minutes.”

Kansas University's Jeff Graves flushes a dunk for two of his career-high 16 points. Graves powered the Jayhawks to an 89-74 victory Friday over Iowa State in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Conference tournament in Dallas.

That also was the opinion of coach Roy Williams, who actually played Graves just 26 minutes.

“I think it was Jeff Graves’ best game since he’s been at Kansas,” Williams said. “If he does what he did today, it helps somebody like Nick Collison.

“A lot of times, if he (Graves) is not a threat, his guy will go help on Nick all the time. His scoring and shots he made early gave him confidence and made them guard him.”

Graves scored four of KU’s first nine points and had an assist when he fed Collison for an easy layup.

At halftime, Graves had nine points and five rebounds and was well on his way to surpassing his previous career-high in points — 14 set Jan. 15 versus Wyoming at Allen Fieldhouse. Graves had scored in double figures in just one Big 12 game — 11 points Jan. 11 versus Nebraska.

Graves, fired up after a newspaper article said a key to KU’s postseason was Graves’ not fouling out, picked up just three fouls.

“I’m not all about fouls,” he said. “It seems I can get three fouls just standing there.”

KU had some unexpected offense Friday from sophomore point guard Aaron Miles, who scored 16 points off 7-of-10 shooting.

It marked Miles’ top scoring game in a Big 12 game this season. He scored 15 Jan. 27 against Texas at Allen Fieldhouse.

“Aaron is trying to go through a little bit of a change in his shot,” Williams said of the 41.3-percent shooter. “He’s shooting the ball a lot and practicing a lot.”

Miles has been tinkering with the jumper.

“I have been, but no more,” he said. “A long time ago my shot felt good. When I started missing, it started messing with my head.

“I was going in the gym and shooting it after dribbling the ball so I’d have control of it. I’m confident again. Getting some easy baskets like today helps your confidence.”

Keith Langford led five Jayhawks in double figure with 19 points off 8-of-12 shooting.

KU, which rolled to a 45-30 halftime lead and never saw its second-half lead dip below 10 points, hit a Big 12 tourney-record 59.7 percent of its shots.

Hinrich was responsible for 10 of KU’s 25 misses. He canned six of 16 shots, including two of nine threes.

Nine Jayhawks logged six or more minutes as Williams tried to use his bench. If they advance to Sunday’s championship game, the Jayhawks would have to play three games in three days.

“I tried to keep everybody under 35 minutes,” Williams said, “and was able to do that except for Kirk (35). And Kirk would not have to play 35 had Michael (Lee) not gotten hurt.”

Lee played just 12 minutes after suffering a headache after colliding with Jake Sullivan in the second half.

Miles suffered a cut on his right hand, and Hinrich had a bruised right forearm and a left knee bruise after fending off Iowa State screens.

Everybody is OK, including Lee, who missed the last 9 1/2 minutes.

“His chin hit the top of Jake’s head and it gave him a headache,” Williams said. “(The doctors) told me to not put him back in. I hope he’ll be ready for tomorrow.”