A Doke of Excellent News for Kansas

For fans of rank and file college basketball programs, the following statement will no doubt elicit chuckles, or perhaps something less giddy. Kansas Jayhawk fans were in need of a little good news. After a star-crossed season where injuries, suspensions, and uneven play created the end of the school’s conference title streak, and where a ten-loss season after a second-round loss in the NCAA tournament were actually considered overachieving, little was happening to boost the fan base’s spirits.

     Buffeted by the FBI investigation and by uncharacteristic nights of non-competitiveness, the off-season had produced only negatives. Expected players like Quentin Grimes, Dedrick Lawson, and Udoke Azebuike declaring for the draft were joined by Devon Dotson, who was considered a cinch to return. Bench players K.J. Lawson and Charlie Moore transferred, and the incoming freshman class was substandard by Kansas standards. The returnees look promising, but not stunning.

     Add in that seemingly daily Duke was hauling in each high-level prospect that Kansas had their eye on, and it seemed as if a flat cycle might be starting to be created. The paradigm shift of the very top recruits going to the Blue Devils rather than Kentucky the last couple of years makes for another discussion, but the bottom line was that the pall of the FBI inquiry seems to be undercutting the stream of top ten recruits Kansas had been bagging for about a decade until the last two years. Only Bill Self’s strong assertions that he was not headed anywhere were a salve to the wounds.

     Then came yesterday’s seemingly unlikely announcement that Azibuike would return for his senior year. It came on a day when yet another top ten recruit committed to Duke, and was a shaft of sunlight through the clouds. His decision is interesting on multiple levels. The general consensus was that he was almost certainly gone. Consecutive seasons were impacted by injury, and it just seemed that spending one more year not making money playing ball was not the proper route.

     It is easy to make a case either way. I would probably lean on the side of him leaving, but it’s only a slight lean. The prime reason stated for his return is that because of his hand injury, he is not going to be able to work out for the NBA ahead of the draft. That sounds like good sense, except in my mind Azibuike is what he is. An extremely impactful college player, and someone who is going to make a living playing basketball, but seems quite likely to do it outside of the NBA.

     He is a victim of the times. His style of player, a hulking big man, with an offensive game effective almost exclusively within five feet of the basket, is seldom seen as a value in the NBA, even as a bench piece. His conditioning and fouls have made him a twenty-minute player at the college level. He is massively strong but not particularly athletic and he has been a good, but not great, rebounder and shot blocker. And the real killer is he is an absolutely atrocious free throw shooter, and has gotten worse, not better, as time has gone on.

     All that might be said to be an argument for coming back. He could indeed prove he could stay healthy, but I’m not sure what he has to prove there. It’s not as if he has back or foot trouble. He hurt each hand in successive seasons in seemingly freak occurrences.

     All that being said, there is the possibility that Doke is a rare athlete that has self-awareness. He may well realize his limitations going forward and wants to have the chance to have a full and satisfying college season, and then see what comes about. There is absolutely something to be said for playing in front of adoring fans, enjoying your campus experience, and having a recently rare Kansas Senior Night.

     Whatever his limitations as a pro, for Kansas this is an absolute godsend. Azibuke gets what he wants inside in the college game, and has made about seventy percent of his shots in his career, including a staggering 77.8 in 2017-18, when he played the most. He is a delightful rarity in the modern college game, and you can strategize around his dreadful free throw shooting.

     So, all of that is something to smile about in Jayhawk country. However, it would seem to me that this is an indication that KU is not all that optimistic about their appeal of Silvio De Sousa’s suspension. I would listen to an argument on the other side, but selling Azibuike on returning seems more likely if he was relatively sure he was going to be the go-to guy inside.

     There have been more than a couple of years in the last decade where the structure of the Kansas roster has changed dramatically for the better from this date forward. Bill Self has been a master of procuring late recruits and clever transfers. This well could be the start of another example of that. Dotson still seems a likely returnee, though the other players seem almost certain to go.

     Nobody is going to shed any tears if Self has to go to war with pretty much what he has got. He proved again this past season he is in the short-list discussion of best in the business.

     But his business just got a whole lot easier as of yesterday.