Overland Park ? The format, location and setup have changed a bit from past Kansas University senior and scholar-athlete awards banquets. But, just like in past years, the night ended with a couple of KU seniors in disbelief after being handed the big prize.

This year basketball guard Aaron Miles and swimmer Amy Gruber were chosen as male and female scholar-athletes of the year, given to seniors who excel both athletically and academically.

Predictably, neither expected the award, and neither knew what to say during the acceptance speeches.

But both appeared quite proud that, after seeing their work on the playing field recognized time and time again, the equally hard work off it finally got its due.

“I was really shocked,” Miles said. “There’s so many great athletes, great students that deserve the award. I just think that I was blessed. There were so many others out here that deserved it just as much, if not more, than I did.”

After the banquet Thursday at the Sheraton Overland Park Hotel, Miles was peppered with questions about his ongoing workouts with NBA teams, his chances in next month’s draft and other basketball-related queries. But the questions he seemed more interested in answering were academic-related.

For one night, that was what belonged in the spotlight.

“It’s very important,” said Miles, who will graduate later this month with a communications degree. “That’s some of the values that my family has stressed to me growing up — the importance of education.”

Gruber agreed. The All-Big 12 Conference swimmer and journalism major was blindsided by the honor, though her family — who flew in to Kansas City on Thursday — were well aware she was going to receive it.

Former Kansas University athletes Aaron Miles, left, and Amy Gruber receive the Dr. Robert E. Frederick Senior Scholar Athlete of the Year awards. At right is Frederick, a former KU athletic director. Miles (basketball) and Gruber (swimming) were honored Thursday in Overland Park.

“I was completely floored,” Gruber said. “It’s a good feeling, and it makes you feel proud of yourself in a way.”

The event brought in several hundred athletes, parents, friends, faculty and staff to the Cottonwood Ballroom, a more spacious setting than past banquets at the Lawrence Holidome. Athletic director Lew Perkins has said repeatedly that he wants the annual event to get bigger and better each year. That meant requiring a change in setting to a bigger ballroom — a must, even if it meant moving 35 miles away from Lawrence.

For a decade, the event was called the Jayhawk Scholar Recognition Banquet before expanding last year. And, with the new changes came a $50 admission fee for guests. But Perkins was adamant that fund-raising was the last thing on his mind when planning the event.

“That is not our goal,” Perkins said. “Our goal is absolutely, unequivocally to recognize our student-athletes.”

Plenty got their due Thursday. Besides the big award at the end, there were 16 senior athletes of the year, 104 academic All-Big 12 selections, seven academic All-Americans, seven athletic All-Americans and more than 260 named to the athletic director’s honor roll.

Also honored were KU business professor Parker Lessig, who was the recipient of the Del Shankel Teaching Excellence Award, and Gary Kempf and Mary Vandeventer, who won the Student Support Services Awards.

Bio: Aaron Miles Bio: Amy Gruber

All in all, Perkins was thrilled with how the next step of the event unfolded Thursday. But he wants it to be even better in 2006.

“We needed to take it to another level,” Perkins said. “It’s like everything else. Last year was kind of a crawl, this year was a walk. We’re going to be at a sprint next year.”