Once careless with the basketball, Russell Robinson has become one of the most efficient distributors on Kansas University’s team.

The 6-foot-1 sophomore combo guard from New York has 18 assists against four turnovers in the Jayhawks’ last five games.

That compares to Robinson’s 12 assists and 13 turnovers in KU’s first six games and 25 assists against 32 turnovers his entire freshman season.

“Russell went from being a very poor assist-to-turnover-guy here lately to our best, with Stephen (Vinson, 22 assists, five turnovers) second-best,” KU coach Bill Self said Monday on his Hawk Talk radio show.

“What I think needs to happen is, we need to get ‘Hawk’ (Jeff Hawkins) off the ball more, Mario (Chalmers) off the ball more and Russell on the ball more.

“Russell has been our best playmaker of late. ‘Hawk’ has been our best perimeter shooter of the guys who play the majority of minutes, and Mario, if we do some things to try to free his mind – not feel like he has the weight of everything on his shoulders – maybe he could relax and be a better player for us,” Self added.

Robinson has been so protective of the ball of late, he might play more point guard than shooting guard Wednesday against Yale (7 p.m., Allen Fieldhouse).

“You need to have two perimeter players in the game who can stretch the defense and be a threat every time they catch it in order to run pretty artistic offense,” said Self, who has a scoring threat at small forward in Brandon Rush (12.2 ppg, 50.5 percent shooting).

“Right now, our two guard (Robinson) is averaging six points and our point guard (Hawkins) four. We have to do something to create more offense and still yet be as good defensively.”

Robinson, Chalmers and Hawkins have averaged 6.5, 6.3 and 4.5 points a game respectively, Hawkins the best three-point threat with 12 makes in 34 tries. Chalmers has dished 33 assists against 27 turnovers; Hawkins 35 assists against 29 turnovers. Vinson has hit four of 10 threes, six of 13 shots overall.

“Our point guard and two-guard play has been average,” Self said. “That’s not throwing anybody under the bus. We’ve just got to play better. When we do start playing better (at guard) I think our big guys will play better because they’ll get more touches in tight at the basket.”

Self did give thumbs up to the defense. KU, which averages 74.4 points a game off 47 percent shooting, allows 60.2 points off 35.5 percent marksmanship.

“Our first-shot defense has been really good. We’ve only had three teams this year shoot 40 percent against us,” Self reported.

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Texas looks good: Self, whose Jayhawks practiced twice Monday, watched the second half of No. 15 Texas’ 69-58 win at No. 4 Memphis.

P.J. Tucker had 24 points and 13 boards, while Daniel Gibson contributed 18 points for the 11-2 Longhorns, who have been picked to win the Big 12 Conference.

“It was a great win,” Self said. “It was certainly not an artistic game. It reminded me a lot of the game last year we had against Kentucky (KU’s 65-59 victory). Both teams going for every loose ball, fighting, scratching, blocking a lot of shots, making plays. Texas (which has lost to Duke and Tennessee) will be one of the best teams in the country before all is said and done. They certainly have the talent to do so.”