When point guard Aaron Miles arrived at Kansas University in the fall of 2001, he joined the basketball team’s other newcomers in a campaign of pulling harmless pranks on teammates.

Syrup on door handles, crank calls on road trips, that type of thing.

The stunt best remembered by Nick Collison, the Seattle SuperSonics power forward who spent two years with Miles in Lawrence and reached the 2003 NCAA title game with him, was one where Miles and others would sneak into another player’s empty room and lurk in his closet.

“They wouldn’t scare you right away,” Collison said. “They’d wait for 20 minutes. They’d have the patience to sit in there and just watch you and then jump out and scare the (heck) out of you.”

After a couple of seasons, Miles grew out of his mischievous phase, maturing into a team leader who finished his career as Kansas’ all-time assists leader and a three-time all-Big 12 defender.

But just as he did in those dorm rooms years ago, Miles is ready to jump out of the shadows and land on the Warriors’ opening-night roster.

“I believe I can,” Miles said. “As long as I continue to work hard and improve, I believe I can do it.”

Miles is among the four free agents still in camp with the Golden State Warriors, along with forward Justin Davis and guard Ray Young, and center Deji Akindele. The quartet will receive one last opportunity to wow the team’s brain trust in tonight’s exhibition finale in Phoenix.

Warriors coach Mike Montgomery has said that the team would like to go with 14 players, instead of the full 15 available to them, and with 13 players under contract, that leaves just one spot to fill before the Atlanta Hawks roll into the Arena one week from today.

All four of the unsigned rookies have been praised by Montgomery, but none as consistently as Miles, who successfully completed the two tasks a third-string point guard in the NBA absolutely must do above all: keep the ball moving and don’t screw things up. In 79 exhibition minutes, Miles has taken just 15 shots (making seven), and has recorded 10 assists against four turnovers, a 2.5 ratio that compares favorably to the 2.6 of starting point guard Baron Davis and handily beats the 1.6 of Derek Fisher, Davis’ primary backup.

The Warriors were able to latch onto Miles after he wasn’t picked in this year’s NBA Draft.

“All my life, I wanted to hear my name called (at the draft), but I didn’t,” Miles said. “It actually made me work harder a little bit. I went back into the lab. It motivated me.

“Everybody’s bigger, faster, stronger and longer,” the 6-1 Miles said of the pros. “Passes that I used to make in college aren’t as easy right now.”

They are hard to find. So is the sense of professionalism and basketball knowledge that Fisher sees in Miles. Those traits remind Fisher of veterans such as himself and teammate Calbert Cheaney.

“Just understanding how to play the game goes a long way,” said Fisher, entering his 10th NBA season. “And I see a lot of that in Aaron.”