By Joanna Chadwick

Maryn Archer, a rising sophomore at Derby, made an oral commitment to play basketball at Arkansas on Tuesday.

As a freshman guard, Archer helped lead Derby to the Class 6A semifinals in March. The rest of the state basketball tournament was canceled due to COVID-19.

“I decided to choose Arkansas because I truly believe in coach (Mike) Neighbors — he’s amazing at developing his players and helping them achieve their goals at playing at the next level,” Archer said. “He has an amazing program, he’s an amazing guy, an unbelievable coach. It’s something I really, really want to be a part of. It feels right.”

As far as committing before her sophomore year, Archer saw no reason to wait.

“I do know that it’s early,” she said. “I just know that it’s where I want to be…. Another big thing for me as well is, it’s fairly close to home. Family is a really big deal for me — for them to be able to come to the home games and I can come home when I want to.”

Archer was also offered scholarships by Kansas, Kansas State, Wichita State, Iowa State, Washington State, Missouri State and Nebraska.

Archer is a heady basketball player, who runs the team well. She has strong ballhandling skills and can score.

“What Coach Neighbors likes about my game is I like to play fast and I like to attack a lot — that’s how his offense works,” Archer said. “They push the ball. They run the floor, and that’s a lot of what my game is.”

She’s still working on improving her skills, though.

“Right now I’m focused on shot consistency and making different reads out of the different offenses that I’ll be running, whether it’s with the high school team or with my summer team,” she said.