What happened to Arthur?

First off, congratulations all around for the Jayhawks selected in the first two rounds of the NBA Draft last evening. As it turns out, the five that were selected set a new record for one school. Of course, this means that of all the key players in our championship run, only Sherron Collins will remain to help defend our national title, assuming he doesn't have some legal trouble. And yes, Collins has a Wikipedia entry.

One theme I kept reading regarding last night's draft was the league-readiness of these men. Kudos to Bill Self for giving them the best possible chance at success at their new jobs.

Here's their draft positions:
Number 13: Brandon Rush
Number 27: Darrell Arthur
Number 34: Mario Chalmers
Number 52: Darnell Jackson
Number 56: Sasha Kaun

You could also include JR Giddens at Number 30, a Roy Williams-recruited prospect who played at KU for two years under Bill Self before transferring to New Mexico after some legal troubles in Lawrence. For the record, since Giddens didn't finish his career at KU I won't include him either but I'm happy to see his life headed in the right direction.

The big surprise for me was the fall of Arthur to 27. ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas, one of the more objective voices of the sport, had Arthur in his Top 10 the day before the draft. Apparently, several NBA teams became aware of an Arthur kidney problem and backed off a bit. It seems that some miscommunication has occurred between the player and the NBA as test results show he's fine but those results were never communicated to the NBA teams. All in all, my feeling is that his agent dropped the ball on this one. To make matters worse for him, he was traded three times after he was drafted, finally landing with the Memphis Grizzlies.

As I write this post, Arthur is still a Grizzly although it's only 2 pm EST. There's plenty of time for another trade.