A Different Aggression

By D. Scott Fritchen

The young man they call "Art" shuffled into a brightly lit room surrounded by dark curtains, sat upon a black metal stage, and quietly peered into the light of TV cameras, but only for a few seconds before the glare caused him to squint and look down at table before him. The young man, Arthur Kaluma, was brought into this room because he had scored more points than he ever had before in a college basketball game. And he had played in many of them — 94 to be exact. He was a junior from Glendale, Arizona, who came by way of two years at Creighton, and he joined Kansas State in May in search of this big stage upon which he sat.

An early entrant for the NBA Draft, it was while working out for the Boston Celtics that Kaluma was put on notice: Jerome Tang, the 2023 National Coach of the Year, was seeking to fill out his 2023-24 roster with experienced talent in Manhattan. Kaluma and his family got onto a Zoom call with Tang and his coaching staff, and Kaluma knew he needed to visit the Little Apple, and he knew after his visit that K-State was the place for him, and he took no more visits.

Kaluma thought to himself, "I'm home," as his 6-foot-7, 225-pound frame laid upon his bed that first night in Manhattan. And yes, Kaluma has found a home as one of the top threats in the Big 12 Conference. It was during Big 12 Media Day at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri, that Kaluma in October stood upon the shiny hardwood floor, that Kaluma looked around inquisitively, and that Kaluma said, "My potential? Man, I feel like I can be one of the greatest players. But I feel like everybody has to have that mindset to get to where they want to get to in life."

And now he was here, on the stage, under the lights, after scoring a career-high 28 points and grabbing 10 rebounds in 39 minutes in an 84-74 win over No. 25 BYU at Bramlage Coliseum. Kaluma shot 8-for-11 from the floor, 2-for-3 on 3-pointers, and made 10-of-12 free throws. He had four assists and one steal. He topped his previous career high of 27 points — also scored against BYU when he played for Creighton on December 10, 2022 — on a foul shot with 2 minutes, 21 seconds remaining in the game. It was his final point in a game that K-State, 16-11 overall and 6-8 in the Big 12, needed in hopes of bettering its league tournament seeding. No. 25 BYU, which had come off a 78-71 win over No. 11 Baylor, dropped to 19-8 and 7-7 with four regular-season games remaining.

"He's a three-level scorer," BYU head coach Mark Pope said before Kaluma took the stage. "Tremendous at earning himself positions at the free-throw line. He made shots tonight. He's a really challenging cover for everybody."

Kaluma entered the game as one of three Big 12 players — joining Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCullar Jr. — to rank top-10 in the league in both scoring and rebounding. Kaluma entered averaging career highs with 14.5 points and 7.1 rebounds this season.

"You can see 28 (points) and 10 (rebounds)," K-State point guard Tylor Perry said. "That's a every night thing, it could be for Arthur. When he's going, sometimes you have to get out of his way.

"Let him rock and let him cook."

On one end of the floor, he stole the ball from 6-foot-11 center Aly Khalifa and fired a pass to teammate Cam Carter. On the other end of the floor, he floated baseline and hit a difficult right-handed layup over 6-foot-5 guard Trevin Knell. Moments later, he received an inside lob pass midair from teammate Will McNair and laid it softly into the basket. Two possessions later, he pulled down a defensive rebound for his 10^th board of the game. Then he made his free throw. Then he found teammate David N'Guessan for an alley-oop dunk. Then in the final seconds, he threw a baseball pass to Carter for a layup.

"I came out to play today," Kaluma said. "I felt I had a different aggression."

Kaluma has dreams. Big dreams. He came to K-State after two noteworthy seasons at Creighton. He was selected to the Big East All-Freshman Team at Creighton, and he scored 24 points and grabbed 12 rebounds against Kansas in the 2022 NCAA Tournament, and he was on the watch list for the Karl Malone Power Forward of the Year Award as a sophomore, and he dropped 27 on BYU, and he had back-to-back double-doubles against Seton Hall and UConn last season.

He averaged 11.1 points (43.3% shooting, including 29.1% on 3-pointers and 71.4% on free throws), 5.7 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 0.6 steals, 0.6 blocks in 28.2 minutes per appearance while playing in 68 games with 67 starts at Creighton. He scored in double figures in 40 games, including all six games in the 2022 NCAA Tournament.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Kaluma lived in Los Angeles, then Dallas, Texas, and then he moved to Glendale, Arizona, where he starred at Dream City Christian. He averaged 24.7 points and 9.7 rebounds during the 2020-21 season, blowing up as a Consensus Top 50 prospect.

Without the option of taking official visits due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Kaluma selected Creighton over offers from Kansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Syracuse, UNLV and USC among others, ultimately choosing the Bluejays and head coach Greg McDermott, who suggested that Kaluma would gain serious playing time. Kaluma sought those instant minutes to show his talent to NBA scouts.

Kaluma also played for his home country of Uganda in the 2021 AfroBasket and 2023 FIBA World Cup African Qualifiers, averaging 22.5 points 5.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists in a pair of first-round games with Cape Verde and Nigeria in July 2022.

It was a lasting experience, for sure, along a path that eventually took him overseas again — this time as a member of the K-State basketball team, which departed August 9 and spent three nights in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and four nights in Abu Dhabi. Kaluma started things off with 23 points in a 94-87 win over the Israeli Select Team in Tel Aviv — a stirring performance in a faraway land, a distant memory that seems so incredibly long ago.

Time on this season dwindles. Performances like Kaluma delivered would make most guys smile. Kaluma sat stoic, as if deep in thought, a water bottle untouched to his left, his thirst quenched for now, until the Wildcats do it all over again against West Virginia on Monday at Bramlage.

"I was just letting the game come to me," Kaluma said, reflecting on his performance against BYU. "My teammates were doing an amazing job. When Tylor Perry started out hot it definitely opened up the floor and allowed me to go downhill. This is all thanks to my teammates for finding me in the right positions and putting me into positions to score."

He took advantage of his opportunities. It was a process that began long ago, back when he scored six points in the season-opener at USC on November 6, before the rollercoaster of the season really took form.

"Everybody envisions themselves playing well," Kaluma said. "I just had to buy into what I had to do in order to help this team grow."

There was something interesting that Kaluma said during a nighttime phone interview prior to the start of the season. Kaluma detailed his ride to K-State, he detailed his first experience with "Shark Week," he detailed playing overseas for Uganda and again for K-State, and how as a child that "I wanted to get to big stages and hopefully get to the NBA." But then, Kaluma discussed what he called the "basketball state of mind," and that's when it all truly clicked and Kaluma's voice came to life.

"Trials come," he said that summer night. "It's not always going to be sunshine and rainbows. Confidence can ebb and flow, but the one thing that can maintain your wellbeing is having that basketball state of mind, and that's trying to be consistent every single day doing what you have to in order to get better.

"There can be no wasted day."

The post-game interview session finished. Kaluma, a young man who scored many points, was a young man of few words when it came to describing his own performance. He was focused on his team, which plays West Virginia on Monday, then at Cincinnati on Saturday, then at Kansas on March 5, and then against Iowa State on March 9. Then comes the Big 12 Tournament back in the T-Mobile Center, where Kaluma stood upon a shiny hardwood floor in October and declared that he wanted to be one of the league's best players — a declaration that he has spoken into existence.

"We're playing our best basketball toward the end of the year," Kaluma said. "We're pretty dangerous. Everybody has the same advantage, though. Everybody goes through the season and by the end of the season is coming to a close and it's when teams are most connected and playing their best basketball.

"We've been through a lot of ups and downs and that's going to bring us together and make us a stronger team."

Then Kaluma, Tang and Perry rose and left the black-metal stage and began their way to the rear of the room past the curtains and out of the door.

"Good job out there," someone said to Kaluma, extending a hand.

Kaluma grabbed the man's hand, shook it, and said, "Thank you."

And then, for the first time, he smiled.

Kansas State University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Cam Carter

Arthur Kaluma

David N'Guessan

Tylor Perry

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