MORGANTOWN — If the West Virginia University women’s basketball team reaches the NCAA Final Four this year, it would be a “dream come true” for Sarah Miles.
San Antonio is the site for the semifinals and championship game, and that happens to be the hometown of the outstanding 5-foot-7 junior guard.
Miles, a leader of the nationally ranked Mountaineers, believes they definitely have Final Four potential. West Virginia took No. 8 and No. 9 rankings in the major polls and a sparkling 23-3 record into Saturday’s Big East game at South Florida.
Miles excelled as a player in AAU prep competition as a shooting guard. She was switched to a point guard at the start of this season.
WVU coach Mike Carey and his staff took notice. She visited other colleges, including the University of Texas, before selecting West Virginia.
“I’m very happy here,” she said.
“I’ve had no second thoughts. I love basketball and this is the best team I’ve ever played on. And I’m very excited that everyone will be coming back next year. So it’s a great feeling that this won’t end this year.”
Miles was chosen by Big East coaches as the conference’s most improved player in 2008-09. “I’m trying to get better and better and better,” she said.
As starting point guard this year, Miles has been a significant contributor to WVU’s soaring success.
This season she has been the Big East leader in both assists and steals per game, and is second in assist-to-turnover ratio.
Nationally, Miles is 10th in assists per game and 29th in steals per game. She is fourth on the team in scoring, averaging 10.1 points per contest.
“Sarah has done a great job for us this year,” Carey said. “She has accepted her role and hit some big shots going down the stretch in the 55-51 win over Rutgers. She got to the rim a couple of times and was fouled and made four free throws at the end.
“She is as quick in getting steals as I’ve seen in my coaching career. Sarah is very quick with the basketball. She can break the press and score a bit more when we need that. ”
Miles uses her talent, quickness and speed to excel in virtually every play area. But she said she must work more on her jump shot to become a “complete player.”
Besides averaging double digits in scoring this year, Miles is shooting 36.9 percent from the field, (92 of 231) making 75 percent of her free throws (63 of 84) and averaging 6.1 assists and 3.6 rebounds per game.
She is the team leader in both steals (74) and assists (152).
For her career’s 74 games, she had 684 points, 261 assists and 151 steals, and made 43.3 percent of her field goals (251 of 578), 171 of 238 free throws, and 277 rebounds.
She also had 26 career blocked shots.
Those numbers indicate that Miles continues to get better. She played the full 40 minutes against Rutgers and some other teams. All other players go to sit for short spells.
“I become more excited when I can get someone open and create something good,” she said. “Yes, I love assists, but I also like to score points myself.”
Miles would love to get a shot at playing in the WNBA eventually. But that’s far from her mind at this time.
Mickey Furfari
FURFARI COLUMN - Miles has dream of WVU Final Four
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