Could this be the year?

Four seniors have eyes on national crown

Only one of the 326 NCAA Division One men’s basketball teams will be crowned 2005 national champion.

Aaron Miles’ dream is for that team to be senior-laden Kansas.

“Nothing is guaranteed, but we are going to work our butt off to try to achieve that,” Miles said of claiming the crown at the 2005 NCAA Final Four in nearby St. Louis.

Miles is part of a four-man senior class that has come close to achieving college basketball’s ultimate prize the past three seasons.

“We’ve accomplished a lot, but not our ultimate goal,” said Miles, who along with Wayne Simien, Keith Langford and Michael Lee, has reached two Final Fours and one Elite Eight. “We should be real deep this year and will set our goals high again.”

Second-year coach Bill Self has 91 percent of the scoring and 85 percent of the rebounding from a team that went 24-9 a year ago.

Langford, Miles and Simien combined for 42.4 points and 18.1 boards as junior starters.

“These guys have won 12 games in three years in the NCAA tournament and this year are going into it planning on winning six,” KU coach Bill Self said. “The only way we’ll have a shot is if those three plus Michael Lee want it as bad as I think they want it.

“These guys have put their time in. They are hungry, but have not digested it all yet. They’re hungry to win a national championship. With an attitude like theirs … you can’t help but have everybody be successful.”

National candidate

Simien will be a candidate for national player of the year honors after averaging 17.8 points and 9.3 boards and being named unanimous first-team All-Big 12. Simien scored in double figures in 19 of his last 20 games, playing less than 100 percent much of the season because of a nagging groin injury.

“He probably has the best low post moves in America,” Self said. “He’s probably the best low post player in America who can stretch it to three-point range. He’s tough. He plays hurt. You never hear him say a negative word about anybody.”

KU big man Wayne Simien should be on several short lists as the nation's player of the year.

Point guard Miles, who averaged a league-leading 7.3 assists per game last year, has 738 career assists. Jacque Vaughn is the all-time KU leader with 804.

“Aaron will blow away the all-time assist record at Kansas, blow it away,” Self marveled. “He has a chance to become all-time leader in NCAA history in assists.”

Bobby Hurley owns the NCAA record with 1,076 assists in four years at Duke.

“He gets everybody involved, is a totally unselfish player,” Self said.

Shooting guard Langford averaged 15.5 points last season on 47.9 percent shooting. He has 1,408 points for his career, ranking 18th in KU history.

“Keith came to Kansas as a seventh, eighth man. If he has a big senior year he can finish between second and sixth all-time career scoring,” Self said. “Second behind Danny Manning or third behind Nick Collison (2,097 points), that is impressive to say the least.”

The fourth senior is shooting guard Lee, who averaged 6.4 points a game off 37.5 percent three-point shooting (23 of 65) a year ago. He played in 24 games, missing several because of a collarbone injury.

“He came to KU not knowing how much he’d play. He knew he had to be a great teammate to play, bust his butt to play,” Self said. “Look at him now, sixth man on a national runner-up team and basically our sixth man last year. It hurt us a lot last year when he broke his collarbone.”

Keith Langford returns for his senior year after averaging 15.5 points a game last season.

Giddens back

KU also returns sophomore starter J.R. Giddens, who averaged 11.3 points and 3.6 boards as a rookie.

“He has a chance to be as good as most anybody who has played here,” Self said of the sweet-shooting Giddens, who hit 74 of 182 threes.

“I said has a ‘chance.’ It’s up to him, how hard he works. He had a knee injury, foot injury, played the last month of the season hurt. I think he had a great year. He improved more than any other young player I’ve coached. He’s a high-riser.”

Junior Jeff Hawkins averaged 8.9 minutes of duty in 31 games, hitting just 18 of 66 shots for 27.3 percent. He cashed only 10 of 51 threes overall — five of seven in one game, a win at TCU.

“He’s the quickest guy on the team. He should be the quickest. He’s the shortest,” Self quipped of the 5-11 Kansas Citian. “He had a huge game against TCU. He’s a great on-the-ball defender. We’re counting on him to do some great things.”

Junior power forward Christian Moody was a surprise last season, scoring 35 points and grabbing 26 boards in 25 games. He was a big factor in league play, averaging 4.9 points and 2.5 boards, playing significant minutes when Jeff Graves and David Padgett were in foul trouble.

“There are not many athletes better than him,” Self said of Moody. “He is quick. He can shoot. He can play. He’s Johnny on the spot, always in the right place at the right time.”

Junior center Moulaye Niang flirted with the possibility of transferring after a season in which he made just five of 22 shots and had 30 boards in 27 games. He played sparingly in conference action.

“Everybody loves him on campus, on the team,” Self said. “Mou’s time in coming. He’s working his tail off, getting bigger, stronger. He has a chance to make a huge impact.”

Case improving

Shooting guard Jeremy Case is hoping to emerge as a sophomore after struggling from the outside as a rookie. He hit six of 26 threes in 21 games.

“If you are playing ‘HORSE’ you don’t want to play this cat,” Self said. “Ask our guys how he shoots it at practice. He’s working, getting stronger. He didn’t play a lot last year. He’s just time away. He will have a big impact on our program.”

Walk-on shooting guard Nick Bahe made four of 15 threes while playing 16 games his frosh season. Like Case, the walk-on has had some uncanny shooting exhibitions practice.

“Nick Bahe is one guy on our team who never has a bad day. He has a smile on his face at all times. He can shoot the basketball. At Nebraska he’s the only guy on our team who could hit a three,” Self said of soph Bahe, who had two threes — his teammates just three — in a loss to Nebraska in Bahe’s hometown of Lincoln, Neb.

Sophomore walk-on guard Stephen Vinson is back after playing in 12 games, hitting one of seven shots.

“His nickname is ‘trigger,” for obvious reasons. He never met a shot he didn’t like,” Self quipped. “He dogs Aaron (defensively) every single day at practice. Ask Aaron who makes him better and he’ll tell you it’s Stephen Vinson.”

Self is bringing in six freshmen — guards Russell Robinson and Alex Galindo plus big men Darnell Jackson, C.J. Giles, Sasha Kaun and walk-on Matt Kleinmann.

Talented class

“They are good,” Miles said of the newcomers. “The thing I like most is they play hard. They don’t talk about wanting individual success, they talk about the team. We need players who want to win.”

And winning is the goal this year. Winning it all.

“I mean it’s the same every year. Our goal is to be as good as we can be, win as many games as possible and ultimately everybody wants to end up in the Final Four and win it all. We think it’s possible,” Langford said.