Kansas’ twenty-piecing of BC this past weekend in Chestnut Hill silenced any doubt about the Jayhawks’ ranking and questions of how they will perform on the road entering Big 12 play. However, after watching everyone in blue get bucket after bucket, it raised an interesting question about Bill Self’s squad: On this loaded, polished roster, who is the best player?

We’ll narrow the nominees down to five:
Brandon Rush – 10.9 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 43% FG, 37% 3FG
Russell Robinson – 7.0 ppg, 4.9 apg, 2.6 spg, 2.1 rpg, 39% FG
Mario Chalmers – 12.0 ppg, 4.8 apg, 3.1 spg, 2.9 rpg, 55% FG, 48% 3FG
Darrell Arthur – 13.7 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 1.6 bpg, 54% FG, 0.9 spg
Darnell Jackson – 12.5 ppg, 6.7 rpg, 67% FG, 0.9 spg, 0.6 bpg
(apologies to Sherron Collins)

Ultimately the decision comes down to Mario Chalmers and Darnell Jackson. Brandon Rush might have been the favorite to lead the Jayhawks at the end of last season once Julian Wright defected to the NBA, but his ACL tear during a summer workout has left Brandon as more of a side dish than the main course. His numbers are down across the board and it seems that his main contributions come on the finished end of alley-oops.

KU’s reigning “Mr. Jayhawk” is Russell Robinson, the senior leader and elite defender. Though he swiped the rock eight times in a game against Yale, his defense isn’t enough to outweigh his anemic offense.
The sophomore phenom Darrell Arthur had his best game of the season against BC (22 points, 7 boards, 2 blocks), but hasn’t consistently showed the drive to dominate. He left something to be desired in KU’s first two road tests at USC (10 points, 8 rebounds, 5 TO’s) and at Georgia Tech (6 points, 6 boards).

It’s no surprise that Chalmers is one of the two finalists. But Jackson? He was generally considered to be a bruiser during his junior year, posting 5.5 points per game mostly on putbacks from his 5.1 rebounds. But he’s demonstrated an array of post moves in his senior season in addition to his characteristic exuberant approach. When KU needs a bucket, it almost always seems that he is on the finishing end.

While Jackson might be stuffing the rock home on a fast break to ignite a Jayhawk run, the steal and the pass often come from Chalmers. He won Big 12 Co-Defensive Player of the Year last year with 97 steals, five more than Kansas’ previous record holder, Darnell Valentine. This time around, he’s on pace to shatter his own record – just 14 games into the season, he’s recorded 44 swipes. But Mario’s game isn’t limited to the fast break: he’s knocking down triples at a record pace. At this point last year he was shooting under 37% from deep; this year he’s just over 48%.

Chalmers has been Super Mario in ’07-08. Darnell Jackson will just have to live with being Luigi.

Related posts:

1. Pre-Game Shootaround: Michael Beasley and Mario Chalmers
2. The Garden Is Packed Again
3. Mario Chalmers needs this