Kansas Jayhawks: Projecting The Starting Big Men

Kansas Jayhawks forward Landen Lucas (33) Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

THE DARK HORSE – LANDEN LUCAS

Landen Lucas is a 6’10”, 240 pound, red shirt, sophomore center for the Jayhawks.  He played in 22 games this past season, averaging 5 minutes an outing.

Lucas saw his playing time increase slightly toward the end of the season with the injury to Joel Embiid, and sporadic foul trouble for Tarik Black. He only scored 34 points during his freshman season, and he pulled down 30 rebounds.

The big fella is an intriguing player because in his brief minutes, he displayed some raw talent, some flashes of things to come. He hasn’t even come close to realizing his potential as a Jayhawk yet.

One that is unsure is how good he can be defensively. He blocked 7 shots on the year, but we didn’t get enough steady looks at him to evaluate how well he moves his feet, and how he can plug the lane with his size.

He is a player who it is easy to imagine really improving and working himself into some serious minutes. He shows some nice moves on offense, and he has the size to be a dominating player if he learns proper footwork, and can polish his offensive skills going forward.

For this season, Lucas seems destined to be a key reserve on the inside. Still, it would not be shocking if he worked his way up the depth chart to maybe start some games.