Kansas Basketball: Returning home should help Jayhawks rebound

The Kansas basketball team has now suffered two frustrating losses away from Lawrence. As the Jayhawks return home, they should be able to rebound from their recent loss.

The trip to Ames, Iowa was a dud for the Kansas basketball team. This is the second time this season that an opponent has been able to take down the Jayhawks while they’ve been on the road.

Now, Kansas has returned home, and the Jayhawks should be able to rebound from their 17-point loss to Iowa State.

Kansas was caught off guard by Marial Shayok and the Cyclones. For KU’s sake, hopefully that won’t happen again, as Desmond Bane and Alex Robinson lead TCU into Allen Fieldhouse.

There is a chance that it could.

Statistically, Iowa State and TCU are fairly similar. On the year, the Cyclones are scoring 82.1 points per game and are making 48.3 percent of their shots. TCU scores 80.5 points per game and makes 49.9 percent of its shots.

And now Kansas will have to find a way to prove that it can play without star center Udoka Azubuike, who is out for the remainder of the season.

Losing Azubike will be tough and will almost certainly complicate how the Jayhawks proceed down the stretch of this season, including this game against TCU. Being back at home should help the Jayhawks come out on top over the Horned Frogs and then possibly help Kansas figure something out for the rest of the season.

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Playing in front of a friendly crowd as the Jayhawks get things settled will make this situation more manageable. It’s better to deal with something like this now than say in a few weeks when Kansas heads over to Lexington to face the Kentucky Wildcats.

If Kansas is really going to make things work without Azubuike, it’ll need Dedric Lawson to step up in every aspect of his game. Lawson is a phenomenal talent and at 6’8″ and 195 pounds, he’s versatile enough to move around and guard several different positions. Lawson has been pretty good all year, but the Jayhawks will need him to be better in big games, particularly so on defense.

Kansas is having to replace 13.4 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks per game. Lawson is having a great year on the boards with 11.1 rebounds per game, but now he’ll need to pick back up on shot blocking and return to how he performed at Memphis. While he was with the Tigers, Lawson blocked 1.7 shots per game as a freshman and then 2.1 shots per game as a sophomore.

As a junior with the Jayhawks, Lawson is only averaging a block per game. Kansas will need that to increase while Azubuike is out.

The entire burden of replacing Azubuike won’t fall on Lawson and not everything will be figured out against TCU. However, this is a great chance to get back in a rhythm at home for Kansas. This is also a great chance for Lawson to prove himself and lead this Kansas basketball team.