KU’s Arthur ready to take his best shot
December 04, 2007
LAWRENCE | Darrell Arthur is his team’s leading scorer, shooting better than 50 percent from the field, and here’s a good sign for Kansas coach Bill Self: Arthur is far from satisfied.
“It’s been average at best,” Arthur said. “I’m not really happy with my play right now.”
Arthur, a sophomore forward, knows how good he can be. And his performance against Southern California on Sunday wasn’t up to his standards. Arthur had 10 points on five-of-11 shooting, eight rebounds and five turnovers in Kansas’ first road game of the year.
Arthur swears it wasn’t the NBA scouts in the house at USC’s Galen Center on Sunday that got him off his game. But playing against old friends from the AAU circuit, Arthur admits he was too hyped up before the game. He came out firing early and missed on several long jumpers.
“My first shot is always a pretty tough shot to make,” Arthur said. “To get it going, I need to start taking shots inside and work my way out. I’m going to start working on getting to the basket more and getting to the foul line more.”
It must be tough for Arthur to pass on those 15-footers. After all, when your range is good enough to hit any shot, why not let it fly?
“I just think he takes the shot that he feels comfortable with,” KU guard Mario Chalmers said. “He can shoot from basically anywhere, so anytime he has an open look, he’s going to take it.”
Not anymore, according to Arthur. If he’s going to become the player he wants to be — a guy who can get a double-double every night — he’ll have to spend more time around the basket. Arthur is averaging 13.9 points and 6.1 rebounds per game.
“He hasn’t played poorly, but he doesn’t have it all together yet,” Self said. “I want him to attack the rim a lot more. He knows that. He’s settling for jumpers when he should be attacking the rim.”
Easy buckets inside will be more plentiful once the Jayhawks are healthy at guard. Self hopes that Sherron Collins, recovering from a stress fracture in his foot, will be returning to practice in a matter of days. And Brandon Rush, despite playing 21.8 minutes per game, still hasn’t fully recovered from surgery on his torn ACL.
“I think a lot of guys have (been hurt) by not having those two healthy out there,” Self said, “and I think that (Arthur) is one of them. More so than anybody else, I think Sherron should be able to help our big guys out because he’s so much better than anybody we have at breaking down defense and creating easy opportunities for those guys. Whereas the other day, we didn’t get many opportunities at all.”
Self has said that his guards aren’t running the offense through Arthur enough. But Arthur doesn’t see it that way.
“I haven’t been shooting really well,” Arthur said. “My teammates are doing a good job of getting me the ball. I just have to deliver.”
