Former Jayhawks return to Lawrence

By Jesse Temple

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Keith Langford parked his shiny black Escalade, rolled up the driver’s side window and quietly entered a corridor inside the Horejsi Family Athletics Center Monday afternoon.

Not far behind, his former teammate Aaron Miles followed. Three years ago — when the two were seniors and the center of the Kansas basketball universe — they would have been swarmed by the hundreds of KU basketball campers waiting inside the Horejsi Center gymnasium.

Instead, both returned to Lawrence with much less fanfare, in town for KU coach Bill Self’s first basketball camp of the summer.

“This is my alma mater,” Langford said. “I hadn’t been back in a few years, so it was about time.”

Langford hadn’t been back since the day he left Kansas in 2005. That year was soured for both he and Miles when the third-seeded Jayhawks were eliminated in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, 64-63, by No. 14 Bucknell, in one of the biggest upsets in tournament history. Langford went on to finish his Kansas career as the school’s sixth all-time leading scorer with 1,812 career points, while Miles left as the school’s top assist man with 954 assists. Langford was glad to finally return on Monday.

“It’s a good feeling,” Langford said. “I didn’t really leave on the best of terms, and to come back — the guys having won a championship — just the atmosphere, I really like what’s going on now.”

Langford and Miles each gave speeches to the campers, who filled one side of the Horejsi Center bleachers. Miles told campers that good decision-making skills — in life and in basketball — began for him at their age. Langford spoke about his arrival into the Kansas basketball program. He said he needed three higher-rated recruits to choose a different school in order for a scholarship to fall into his hands with the Jayhawks.

“It’s funny how things work out,” Langford told them. “You cannot get discouraged by things not going your way.”

Both Langford and Miles would know, too. In their three years since leaving Kansas, the two have been basketball journeymen.

Langford spent time with the Fort Worth Flyers and Austin Toros of the NBA Developmental League, the Kansas Cagerz of the USBL and two Italian teams. Most recently, Langford finished a stint in Italy with Angelico Biella, where he played the last two months.

He also appeared in two games for the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs this year, taking just four shots and making one.

Langford said he was hoping for another chance in the NBA. He’ll participate in the NBA’s summer league for two teams. In July, he plans on traveling to Orlando to play for the Chicago Bulls. One month later, a stop in Las Vegas awaits him, where he will play for the Denver Nuggets.

Miles, meanwhile, has had a similar career path. He was released by the NBA’s Golden State Warriors in 2006 and finished the year in Fort Worth. The next year, he was with a team in France before playing for Cajasol Sevilla in Spain this season.

Like Langford, Miles said he was looking to latch onto an NBA team again.

“I’m going to push to get to the NBA one more time this summer,” Miles said. “And I pray I get there.”

Self said both Langford and Miles showed up at the camp unannounced, like several other former KU players tend to do every year.

This year, former Jayhawk and men’s basketball graduate assistant Michael Lee returned, just weeks after accepting an assistant coaching position at Gardner-Webb University in North Carolina. Wayne Simien — who, along with Langford, Miles and Lee had his senior season end with that loss to Bucknell — is expected to make an appearance, as are former Jayhawks Nick Bradford and Billy Thomas.

“There’s a nasty rumor floating around that Ju Ju (Julian Wright) is in town, too,” Self said with a grin. “And these are guys that are just showing up.”

Langford was in town with his girlfriend and his brother, Justin Wesley, a 6-foot-8 forward from Klein Collins High School in Texas. Wesley participated in Kansas’ Elite Camp for top high school basketball prospects earlier in the week. Miles was there with his two nephews and two cousins, whom he checked into camp on Sunday.

Miles was asked what it felt like to be a visitor at the camp, someone no longer a member of the Jayhawk team. The response he garnered likely is shared by all those ex-Jayhawks and may be the reason they keep coming back unannounced every year.

“I’m not a visitor,” Miles said. “Once you’re a part of the Kansas program, it’s a family thing. It goes back to when (basketball) originated. When any former player comes back, it’s a family.”

-Edited by Rustin Dodd

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