Kansas Basketball: Jayhawks must adjust to loss of Udoka Azubuike

The Kansas basketball team will be without the services of their junior center, Udoka Azubuike, for the rest of the season.

The Kansas basketball team received the distressing news that seven-foot center Udoka Azubuike will miss the rest of the season with a wrist injury, the perennial Big 12 power has gone from near Final Four lock to an underdog in its conference.

The Kansas Jayhawks are a much different team without Azubuike’s 13.4 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.6 blocks per game. Jesse Newell, a former colleague of mine at the University Daily Kansan when head coach Bill Self had yet to reach GOAT status, currently covers the team for the Kansas City Star.

Newell, and God bless him for this, is a numbers — particularly analytics — guy. He could break down why it makes sense to drive in reverse on K-10, and we’d see Jayhawk fans driving backward from Kansas City to Allen Fieldhouse.

However, it doesn’t take an expert like Newell to tell you the No. 7 Kansas Jayhawks will miss Azubuike a lot. Like, a lot, a lot.

If Saturday’s loss in Ames to Iowa State was any indication of the offense moving forward, the record for consecutive conference regular season championships will hold steady at 14. The No. 20 Cyclones, no slouch themselves, made the Jayhawks look like the Topeka YMCA Self talked so fondly of when his team fell to an over-matched TCU squad six years ago.

Forget analytics for this one; the raw numbers were ugly. In its 77-60 loss, Kansas shot 42.9 percent from the floor, but only 30 percent from 3-point range and a disgusting 54.5 percent from the charity stripe in 11 attempts.

Perhaps most glaring was the fact Kansas out-rebounded Iowa State 41-26, but when you rack up 24 turnovers to just 12 assists, you could rebound like Wilt Chamberlain, and you’d lose to Emporia State.

The “Eye Test,” perhaps Analytics’ most well-known nemesis, was on full display Saturday and it was ugly for KU fans. With Doke sidelined, Self was forced to play small often, which at times left four guards on the floor for the Jayhawks. The four who played the most during the game, Marcus Garrett, Lagerald Vick, Devon Dotson and Quentin Grimes, combined to shoot 16-of-35 with 15 turnovers and six assists.

Those shooting numbers included a solid 7-of-14 from Grimes, while Vick turned it over seven times himself. Even his mother LaLa decided she’d seen enough:

https://twitter.com/LaLaVick1/status/1081703354278051840

Even though Azubuike had been playing only about 20 minutes per contest, they were an efficient 20 minutes where he managed to make more than seven of his ten shot attempts. It also allowed Self to play his patented hi-low offense, which was beneficial because according to CJ Moore of The Athletic, this team won’t win with perimeter shooting:

Just scraping the surface of game stats shows you how important Azubuike has been. The Jayhawks are 9-0 and averaging 83.1 points per game with him and 3-2 with an average of 72.4 points without.

As sophomore big man, Silvio De Sousa remains indefinitely benched while the NCAA (apparently) reviews an eligibility case again him, losing Azubuike hurts even more. KU no longer has a dominating force inside that scares anyone.

Power forward Dedric Lawson could very well end up the Big 12 Player of the Year, but the 6-foot-9 power forward doesn’t play above the rim. He’s averaging just one block in 31 minutes per game, and his finesse-style doesn’t call for bullying other big men at the rim like Udoka.

The biggest X-Factor the rest of the way, assuming De Sousa doesn’t return, is freshman David McCormack. The former Oak Hill Academy star stands at 6-foot-10 and 265 pounds but is averaging just 7.2 minutes per game.

That will change.

He’s played at least 10 in five of his past six games, and recorded career-highs of 12 points and six rebounds in 17 minutes in a win over South Dakota on Dec. 18.

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If the former McDonald’s All-American can improve his game as quickly as De Sousa did a year ago, he could take pressure off Lawson and keep Kansas fans from freaking out on Twitter for too long.

No one should count out Self and his Kansas Jayhawks just yet. That’s proven to be a Fool’s Game. However, it will be a steep task to keep Texas Tech, Iowa State and others away from a trophy that has resided in Lawrence since 2005.

For now, Self will have to game plan a tad differently than he was in November. He’ll have to work magic with McCormack or hope his small lineup can outpace others in the Big 12.

Either way, it won’t be easy to win without Azubuike rocking the rim and denying the chance for opponents to do the same.

But of course, you don’t need someone as smart as Newell to tell you that.

The Kansas basketball is going to have to adjust to playing without Udoka Azubuike, and very quickly, or their stunning streak of 14 straight Big 12 championships could come to a screeching halt.