Peterson getting his UA bearings

— Arkansas junior point guard Jeff Peterson was struggling with turnovers and poor shooting earlier this season, but those haven’t been problem areas for him lately.

Peterson has 23 assists and seven turnovers in the past seven games. In the previous 18 games, he had 41 assists and 43 turnovers.

Peterson also is shooting 45.2 percent from the field (14 for 31) over the past five games after shooting 21.6 percent (8 for 37) in the first seven SEC games.

“I didn’t really lose confidence,” Peterson said. “I knew I could do it. I had done it before.”

Peterson did it two years ago at Iowa, where as a sophomore he started and averaged 10.6 points, shot 45 percent from the field and had 27 more assists than turnovers (106-79) over 25 games.

“Maybe I was a little anxious - when is it going to come?” Peterson said. “The only way it’s going to come back is to keep working, so I knew I could either keep working or give up. And I knew I wasn’t going to give up.”

Going into the Razorbacks’ game at SEC West leader Alabama on Saturday night, Peterson is providing the type of solid floor play expected of him when he transferred from Iowa and redshirted last season.

“I think he’s probably able to concentrate a little bit better now,” Arkansas Coach John Pelphrey said. “That comes with just getting back out there and playing, getting comfortable playing with these guys in game situations.”

Peterson, who is averaging 6.6 points, 2.6 assists and 22.6 minutes per game, said it took some time to get back into game shape and build a rapport with his teammates. While he practiced with the Razorbacks last season, Peterson didn’t get many reps with the starters.

“At the beginning of the season it was a little frustrating just because I wasn’t playing as well as I wanted to, as I know I can,” he said. “But I think right now we’re in a pretty good spot.

“We’d like to be in first place in the West, but that’s not out of the picture yet.”

Arkansas junior forward Michael Sanchez, who redshirted as a true freshman and missed 28 games last season and the first 11 this season because of foot injuries, has a feel for the challenge Peterson faced after sitting out last year.

“It takes a while to get used to the speed of the game again,” Sanchez said. “So I think just being out there on the court has really helped him.”

Pelphrey said he never worried Peterson would get down on himself.

“I think Jeff ’s got some mental toughness,” Pelphrey said. “I think his teammates continued to encourage him. Certainly the coaching staff did.”

Peterson has started 20 of the past 21 games, and he said it helped that the coaches continued to keep him in the lineup.

“It showed they didn’t lose confidence in me,” he said. “They brought me here for a certain role, and they kept their faith in me. It means a lot knowing they had my back.

“They knew I could play better than that. Everybody knew I could play better.

“I’m not saying I’m playing my best now. I know I can play even better.”

Peterson said the Razorbacks (16-9, 5-6 SEC) can play better, too, and need to build off their past two games after beating LSU 80-61 and Florida A&M 94-55.

“Hopefully, we can continue to progress,” Peterson said. “This would be a very good time for us to get hot as a team.”

Sports, Pages 17 on 02/18/2011

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