6B
MEN'S BASKETBALL
THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS KANSAS
MONDAY. NOVEMBER 20, 2006
Arthur leads Jayhawks with 26 points in first start
BY C.J. MOORE
Darrell Arthur said he preferred coming off the bench, but he fooled everyone Sunday night when he made his first start against Towson.
Jared Gab/KANSAN
Darrell Arthur, freshman forward, hangs on the rim after slam dunking the ball. Arthur led Kansas against Towson with a season-high 26 points and eight rebounds.
The freshman forward scored an all-so-brief career-high 26 points and pulled down eight rebounds — also a career high — and might have earned himself a permanent spot in coach Bill Self's starting lineup.
"I don't know why'd I go back the other way right now." Self said.
"I thought he looked pretty good
Even Arthur was wide-eyed as he stared at the stat sheet after the game. He went 10-for-12 from the field, 6-for-7 from the
tonight. I would imagine that'll be the case until somebody beats him out."
free throw line, blocked three shots and had a steal, which he turned into a lavup on the other end.
Arthur also used his high-wire act to score off offensive rebounds. He
"I was nervous at first, but when I scored a couple of buckets, I got used to everything."
"All my shots were basically layups. I got two of them blocked," he said. "The team did a' good job finding each other in transition."
"Darrell is a high flyer" sophomore guard Mario Chalmers said.
had a one-handed dunk off a a miss by sophomore guard Brandon Rush in the first half and an acrobatic lay in following a Rush air ball in the second half.
Arthur seems to benefit the most from the Jayhawks up-tempo style this season. Kansas scored 31 fast-break points, two of which came off an alley-oop from junior guard Russell Robinson in the second half.
Arthur used easy opportunities like put backs to find his comfort zone early on in his first start.
DARRELL ARTHUR Freshman forward
Arthur got word of his first start
Sunday, partially because junior forward Darnell Jackson injured his shoulder during practice Friday morning. Other than a late second half scoring spurt by sophomore forward Julian Wright, Arthur was the lone point produc-
"I was nervous at first, but when I scored a couple of buckets, I got used to everything," he said. "I got relaxed, just ran up the court and we did a good job finding each other."
tion from the post for the Jayhawks. It has been that way most the season and three games in, the freshman forward is the leading scorer for the Jayhawks at 20 points per game.
Arthur's performance could make it tough for junior center Sasha Kaun to find his way back into the lineup when he returns — even if that's what Arthur would prefer.
Kansan staff writer C.J. Moore can be contacted at cjmoore@kansan.com.
Edited for Catherine Odson
First half
SHOT CHART
Second half
Kansas 87. Towson 61
Towson 25 36—61
Kansas 42 45—87
**TOWSON** — Breaux 3-7 2-2 8, Tubbs 1-5 3-4 5, Crossin 2-7 0-0 6,
Coleman 2-4 0-0 4, Neal 6-16 4-6 17, Pratt 1-1 0-0 2, Williams 3-7 0-0 7,
Jackson 0-0 0-0 4, Spruill 2-4 0-0 4, Pease 1-1 0-0 2, Raboin 2-3 2-2 4,
Plack 1-0 0-0 0, Totals 23-56 11-14 61.
KANSAS — Arthur 10-12 6-7 26, Wright 5-7 2-4 12, Robinson 1-4 5-6 7, Chalmers 6-10-1 15, Rush 5-10-2 13, Collins 2-8-0 0-6, Stewart 0-0-0 0-0, Case 0-2-0 0-0, Morningstar 0-1-0 0-0, Jackson 2-2-2 2-6, Kleinmann 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 32-57 17-22 87.
RECORDS — Kansas 2-1 Towson 2-1
quotes
Associated Press
"I was pretty nervous because it was my first collage start. Then I got into the rhythm of the game."
"We played better. Of course, you can't play worse. We can't get too excited about this because this is what you're supposed to do every night. We'd be undefeated if we gave effort like that every night."
Freshman forward Darrell Arthur
Brandon Rush, sophomore guard, shoots the ball over Towson's Gary Neal early in the second half of Sunday night's game in Allen Fieldhouse. Rush contributed 13 points in the 87-61 victory.
- Coach Bill Soft on the team rebounding after the Oral Roberts loss.
"We were on a little run there, but the zune was out playing blah, and my teammates found me for the open shots. I had the hot hand for a while, and my teammates kept finding me"
Sophomore guard Mario Chalmers
Jared Gab/KANSAN
"Coach is just trying to make us realize it's a process. He doesn't expect us to be perfect, but he expects us to be fired up for every game."
"There's nothing like hitting shots to start the game, especially for the guards."
- Sophomore forward Julian Wright
-Johan Wright, on practices after the On
Schutz law
BASKETBALL (CONTINUED FROM 1B)
Towson shot only 34.6 percent from the field in the opening half.
The Tigers improved their field goal percentage in the second half, but the Jayhawks refused to let them back in the game, holding them to 1-for-6 from three-point range in the second half.
Junior guard Russell Robinson led the Kansas defense with five steals, and freshman forward Darrell Arthur, sophomore forward Julian Wright and Junior forward Darnell Jackson dominated the inside, combining for seven blocks.
The turnovers sparked an offense that took its time before pulling away from the Tigers. Against Towson's zone defense, Kansas spent too much time working the ball around the perimeter early in the game and forced many of its shots.
"The zone was kind of tough because we wanted to get into a running game," sophomore guard Mario Chalmers said. "We just had to slow it down, work through our offense and try to find open looks in the zone."
Midway through the first half, the Kansas offense finally found a rhythm. Between the 9:00 and 2:55 marks, Kansas went on a 20-8 run, creating a 13-point deficit that Towson could never overcome.
Arthur and sophomore guard Brandon Rush carried the Kansas offense for the first 10 minutes of the
first half, combining to score all of the lawhaws' first 17 points.
But it was freshman guard Sherron Collins and Chalmers who were the catalysts of Kansas' run. Collins jump-started the run with two straight three-pointers and Chalmers scored 11 of Kansas' points during the run.
Kansas' lead stretched as far as 29 points in the second half as the game transformed into a highlight-reel for the jayhawks. The victory gave the
Game notes:
team a much-needed lift, coming off the home loss to Oral Roberts.
"We needed it big time. A couple of guys were getting down on themselves." Chalmers said. "This win's going to help us bring everybody back up."
The Kansas baseball team received its 2006 Big 12 Championship rings at halftime.
Showing signs of improvement
Junior guard Jeremy Case suit ed up for the first time this season and played eight minutes.
from the perimeter, Rush, Chalmers and Collins shot 6-for-13 from three-point range, collectively.
Kansan sportswriter Shawn Shroyer can be contacted at sshroyer@ kansan.com.
Edited by Kristen Jarboe
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