Kansas guard Tyrel Reed pulls up for a three over Central Arkansas forward Tadre Sheppard during the second half, Thursday, Nov. 19, 2009 at Allen Fieldhouse.

Kansas University junior Tyrel Reed’s personal stat line wasn’t pretty heading into Game Three of the 2009-10 basketball season.

Reed, a 6-foot-3, 183-pound combo guard from Burlington, was 0-for-6 from the field — zip-for-5 from three — while playing 33 minutes total in victories over Hofstra and Memphis.

“I wasn’t really worried about it. It wasn’t going in the first couple games,” Reed said after scoring 12 points off 4-of-5 shooting — all his attempts were from beyond the arc — in Thursday’s 94-44 rout of Central Arkansas in Allen Fieldhouse.

“The lid is off now. I’ll go out there and keep playing,” added Reed, who had three assists against no turnovers.

Reed — his only miss Thursday resulted in a put-back dunk from Markieff Morris — said it was just a matter of time before his shots started dropping.

“I hadn’t lost any confidence. It just wasn’t falling at that time,” said Reed, who had a knack for knocking down big shots his sophomore season — one in which he averaged 6.5 points a game off 38.9 percent (49 of 126) three-point marksmanship.

“In practice I’ve been shooting the ball fine. I feel I shoot the ball the same about every day. I’m a good shooter. Sometimes the ball just doesn’t go in. The guys gave me the ball in good position to score and they did against Memphis (when he went 0-for-2). I just didn’t knock ’em down.”

Reed — who wasn’t down on himself — was equally confident about the entire team despite Tuesday’s narrow 57-55 victory over Memphis in St. Louis.

“Memphis was a tough game for us. Coming back and watching film taught us a lot,” Reed said. “We needed to get better offensively … and defensively,” he added.

The Jayhawks, who committed 21 turnovers versus Memphis, had just seven against outmanned Central Arkansas.

“I think it was really good for us to have an early game against such a tough opponent,” Reed said of unranked Memphis. “Going out and having to fight and grind one out was good for us.

“I’m proud of the way we bounced back after having a close game. We brought a lot of energy. We could have been deflated after playing Memphis, but we did a good job of coming out and executing and playing hard.”

The Jayhawks actually had more success passing the ball inside to junior center Cole Aldrich against Memphis than they did versus Central Arkansas.

Aldrich hit three of seven shots, good for seven points while playing 24 minutes against UCA. On Tuesday, he hit seven of 10 shots and scored 18 points versus the Tigers.

“As guards, we’ve got to be better,” said Reed, who has six assists, no turnovers through three games. “Anytime we get the ball to the post, it seems good things happen. Us turning it over before we can get a chance to get Cole a touch or Markieff a touch, the offense doesn’t run as smoothly.

“We have to give it to Cole in position (so) he doesn’t have to do a lot of work. Cole is down there battling every possession. We have to get it to him where he can make a move and not have to do all the work himself, throw it over the top or a lob, however he’s posting.”

KU coach Bill Self addressed a lot of offensive concerns after the Memphis game.

“Trusting each other and sharing the ball better, understanding where our shots are going to come from,” Self said. “Understanding that a marginal shot on the first or second side isn’t as good as an open shot on the third and fourth side and being patient.

“In the Memphis game, we had 17 wasted possessions the first half where we gave ourselves no chance to score. We either had bad shots or were playing too fast. You are going to turn the ball over when you are playing against athletes, but we tried to thread a needle. We just didn’t play.”

Things improved against UCA.

“We moved the ball and took care of the ball better,” Self said. “We got a chance to play everybody where they were out there for a considerable amount of time and could get some rhythm.”

Self was able to use a lot of combinations on a night 11 players scored.

“I’m glad we had a game like that where everybody can play,” Reed said. “It happens every day in practice, so it’s not a big surprise to any of us,” he added of so many Jayhawks faring well.

KU (3-0) will play host to Oakland at 7 p.m. Wednesday and Tennessee Tech at 7 p.m. Friday in Allen Fieldhouse with the Thanksgiving Day holiday sandwiching the pair of games.