Keegan: Future bright for KU

By Tom Keegan     Mar 26, 2007

Hangovers distort vision, and the one from the unsightly loss to UCLA is a wicked one. Kansas University scored a season-low 55 points, committed 21 turnovers, and for the first time in a long time looked like a young team.

Rub the game from your eyes, best you can, pop a couple of aspirin, wolf down a greasy cheeseburger, crack open a cola and try to look to next season.

Looking at it rationally, without letting the emotions of an ugly loss dominate, brings just one conclusion: The program is in good shape and could be in position to make another run.

Any fears of a mass exodus to the NBA appear unfounded. Disregard various Web-site projections that have Julian Wright going anywhere from fifth to ninth in the upcoming draft. Those projections are based on SportsCenter highlights, not NBA readiness. Wright said he is “100 percent” sure he will return to Kansas. An honest poll of NBA executives would reveal 100 percent would think that a good idea.

Darrell Arthur has the highest ceiling on the team and the most improvement remaining. If he left now, he would regret the decision quickly. With luck, he would be playing in the NBA Developmental League. With less luck, he would be riding the pine in the NBA, becoming a worse basketball player by the day. Another year or two of growth as a college basketball player and Arthur could be a lottery pick ready to break into an NBA rotation. Easy decision.

Another two years at Kansas would make Mario Chalmers physically stronger. His point-guard skills, still evolving, would be so much more refined, his on-ball defense more consistent.

Sherron Collins, seemingly slowed by knee trouble late in the season, needs to prove he can take off weight and keep it off before he can make believers of pro scouts. He also is far too easy to post up, as Arron Afflalo showed when Brandon Rush was on the bench.

Rush, who in the UCLA loss looked more mature than most teammates, has the best shot at making the leap now and the toughest challenge ahead academically. He said over the weekend the classes he takes now are “easy,” but he has run out of easy ones.

Rush’s lone weakness is ballhandling. He would benefit long-term by returning, and it would be the safer play toward his goal of a long-term NBA career, but if he doesn’t, all anybody can do is thank him for two years of quality play and wish him well. He would be the hardest player on the roster to replace. He’s the only long wing in the rotation and is a better-than-solid scorer, rebounder and defender. Still, even without him, Kansas would have a flexible roster.

If replacing Rush is necessary, one option would be moving Wright to the perimeter. Another year of maturity, plenty of hard work on his erratic jumper and continued defensive improvement would make the move possible. In that scenario, Wright could be joined in the starting lineup by two of the three guards (Collins, Chalmers, Russell Robinson) and post players Arthur and Darnell Jackson, backed up by Sasha Kaun.

Such a team probably wouldn’t finish with a 33-5 record, but it would be older, more experienced and therefore better prepared for the sort of big game the Bruins knew precisely how to handle.

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