Kansas' Darrell Arthur drives to the hoop for two and is fouled by Arizona's Jordan Hill on Nov. 25, 2007.

Kansas forward Darrell Arthur (00) goes to the hoop against Northern Arizona. Arthur says he has been working

Kansas University forward Darrell Arthur, who has some size, hopes to use it to his advantage tonight against Eastern Washington.

“I’m working on getting to the basket more and getting to the foul line more,” said the 6-foot-9, 225-pound sophomore, who takes a 13.9 scoring, 6.1 rebound average into a 7 p.m. home nonconference clash between the (7-0) Jayhawks and (3-6) Eagles.

“I’ve got to work better down low, get easy buckets and get myself going.”

That plan of attack would please KU coach Bill Self, who has seen Arthur hit 39 of 70 two-point field-goal attempts for 55.7 percent, but just one of five 3s for 20 percent.

“I want him to attack the rim a lot more. He knows that. We’ve talked about that,” Self said. “He’s settling for jumpers when he should be attacking the rim.”

Arthur opened Sundays’ 59-55 victory over USC with an ill-advised, off-target baseline jumper.

He went on to miss four of his first five tries before heating up and finishing with 10 points off 5-of-11 shooting with eight rebounds.

“My first shot is always a pretty tough shot to make. To get me going, I need to get closer, get to the paint more, then step out,” Arthur said.

He rated his early-season play “average at best. I’m not happy with my play now. It can get better. My teammates are getting me the ball. I’ve just got to deliver.”

Self is confident Arthur will do just that.

“He is a fabulous talent. I said all along we need to be patient with him, because we’ve seen flashes,” Self said. “He doesn’t have that mind-set yet of being a prolific scorer – a Wayne Simien-type scorer.

“Wayne could score before he caught it. Those are things you figure out. Danny (Manning) was that way – score where you don’t have to make a hard shot because you are able to catch and put the defender at a disadvantage. Those are things you learn, and Darrell is learning.

“He was just sped up (against USC). He missed a couple shots early, bunnies he’d normally make. He’s going to be really good. The whole deal is he’s our leading scorer (of all who have played seven games), second-leading rebounder. He’s not playing poorly, just not playing to what his expectations are and fans’ expectations are. I think by conference he’ll be much more comfortable.”

Arthur started the season slowly offensively. He hit nine of 24 shots in season-opening victories over Louisiana-Monroe and UMKC.

Since then, he’s 31 of 51 for 60.8 percent.

“He’s helping us out a lot now. He’s playing better than I expected him to play at the beginning of the season. He’s going to get better every game,” junior guard Mario Chalmers said.

“I mean with him, he takes the shot he feels comfortable with. He can shoot from basically anywhere. Any time he has an open look, he’ll take it.”

It helps when Arthur shoots in the flow of the offense. He admits he was out of sync at times in the USC game.

“I was hyped up. I played against most of those guys in AAU ball. I knew a lot of them,” Arthur said of the Trojans.

He said being “hyped up” had nothing to do with the 26 NBA scouts in attendance.

“I don’t think about that … (it was) knowing there’d be great competition,” he said.

Arthur – he’s had the interest of NBA scouts since his senior year at Dallas’ South Oak Cliff High – said he definitely is not thinking about the next level this early in the season.

“It’s all college (now). I’m just worried about the team winning. Hopefully we can be undefeated,” the soft-spoken player said with a smile.