Langford and Miles belong in the Fieldhouse rafters

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After the Natty—which I’m still buzzing about and will forever be buzzing about—some chatter emerged about which Jayhawk athletes from that team will be commemorated, long-term.

Ochai Agbaji is a lock for some kind of immortalization, as the unofficial gold standard for the Allen Fieldhouse rafters has always been the First-Team All-American honor. While Dave McCormack probably won’t end up there, many Jayhawk fans would completely understand, even encourage, the nod, given that he should have won MOP, and that was what elevated Mario Chalmers above the stands. Mario did not make an All-America team at all, but made the biggest shot in program history. The rubric for the rafters has always been a moving target.

However, for all the fanfare of the Bill Self era, two players have been forgotten about: Keith Langford and Aaron Miles.

Like most things, there’s a perfectly easy-to-understand, but also bad, reason for this. The fallout of Roy Williams departure hung in the air for, I don’t know, maybe two-to-three years. Even though Roy had settled in at Carolina, he made regular calls to Miles and Langford, two players that Self respected but didn’t recruit. These two were open floor players with enough talent and moxie to thrive in Self’s half-court system, but they weren’t part of Self’s long-term plan.

The shocking Bucknell loss poisoned our memory of their Kansas finale, which is unfair to both athletes. The abrupt playing-style change that had taken place over two years felt jarring in the context of what came before. But, let’s look at the actual numbers. In his final season, Aaron Miles was never better as a Jayhawk, improving across the board after a typical rock-solid junior campaign. Though Langford battled injuries as a senior—his best campaign as a Jayhawk was his sophomore season, as a more motion-based system better suited his slashing, inventive instincts—he hit one of the most famous shots of the Self era on New Year’s Day in 2005.

Both players deserve their own post, and grouping them together is admittedly out of convenience, because both of their rafter candidacies involve the same major hurdle. They were left in the lurch of the coaching change, and by the time the dust had settled, we were fully into the Self era.

Though we didn’t know it at the time, and some of our most paranoid fans (aka 80% of the fanbase) picked up on it, Roy hurriedly got his guys up there before his departure—in 2003, he even got three up in one swoop (Gooden, LaFrentz, Pierce). Self was a new coach, and did not leave them behind maliciously; this is just how it played out.

Self had a complicated relationship with Miles and Langford, though he respected both players. They just weren’t his players, and weren’t players he hand-picked to play Self’s grinding, defensive style. Complicating their buy-in was the fact that Williams, in Chapel Hill, was still in both players’ ears. One could argue that Self hasn’t revisited that era much, although he did retire Wayne Simien’s jersey in 2011.

Though Self would soon gain the leverage to get his fully-recruited players’ numbers retired, no problem—so far, he’s celebrated Mario Chalmers, Marcus Morris, Brandon Rush, Cole Aldrich and Sherron Collins—he hasn’t reached back for Langford and Miles. In terms of the shifting standard for jersey retirement, some of these players have better cases than others, but I can’t remember much consternation at any of these selections.

We’ve talked about the timing. Now, let’s talk about the facts. Both Miles and Langford deserve to be in the Fieldhouse stands based on their careers at Kansas.

Let’s take Miles first, the most gifted passer that has ever played for Kansas. When you take a look at the all-time leaderboards in mainstream-accepted statistics at KU, it’s not going to take you long to find Miles.

He has 150 more assists than Jacque. He registered the #3, #5 and #6 best assist seasons at Kansas. Remember how much was made of Doug Gottlieb’s assist numbers? Well, he has 160 fewer assists than Miles, who is also the all-time Big 12 leader. When it comes to assist percentage at KU, two Miles seasons qualify for #1 and #2.

Want some steals stuff too? Miles ‘02-’03 season featured 91 of those, including a nine-swipe game against ISU. He is third all-time on the career leaderboard, behind two players whose hands were their best thing: Mario Chalmers and Darnell Valentine.

These are bold-letter statistics, and Miles was the engine of two Final Four teams. His teams won A LOT. Compared to the standards held against other players, there is no reasonable excuse for Miles not to be in the stands.

Now, let’s move onto Langford, one of my favorite Jayhawks of all time. Langford doesn’t have the top-line stats of Miles, but his impact was just as great and he holds a similar place in our collective Jayhawk imagination. While Keith will forever be remembers as an absolute bucket, his success at KU is representative of everything that makes KU basketball great.

An under-recruited swingman out of Fort Worth, Texas, what Langford lacked in size and sizzle he made up for with craftiness and a canny timing. He was a natural third scorer alongside Kirk Hinrich and Nick Collison, a player that could give KU an extra gear.

In his sophomore season, his finest, he was 19/6/2 with a block per game. Under Self’s watch, Langford was constantly put in positions outside of the comfort zone he built with Williams, and he made himself into a formidable two-way player. Langford doesn’t have the top-10s that Miles has, but let’s be real, neither does Brandon Rush. (I love Rush, he’s the avatar of the site even though Substack tells me to use a simpler logo! You can’t say I'm a hater!). Sometimes, these things are a matter of the heart.

While I’d love to think that post-college playing careers shouldn’t have anything to do with a jersey retirement (let’s face it, they do!) Langford’s track record is a mile long, and he’s won virtually every scoring medal in Europe. Where Miles has the bonafides, Langford has the energy. He’s also paved the way for a generation of players at the fringes of the NBA. Let’s get him up there!

Right now, Bill Self has a power over the program that we have never seen. He is the only Jayhawk coach to win two national championships. If he wanted to get Tyler Self in the rafters, it could happen. But let’s not go too far off the deep end. As the NCAA cloud dissipates, Self has a chance to make this right. At his earliest convenience, he needs to give Keith and Aaron their rightful spot in Jayhawk history.

Also… Jeff Withey should be up there. Thanks for reading Streak Talk!