Path to a Big 12 title still exists for Kansas basketball

When the team announced February 7th that senior guard Lagerald Vick was taking an indefinite leave of absence, it seemed sure that would be the final straw in a season of many setbacks.

The Jayhawks have gone 2-0 since while playing with four freshmen in the starting lineup. Devon Dotson doesn’t look like a freshman anymore.

Not only does he lead the team in assists at 3.6 per game, but he’s also averaging 12 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.6 steals per contest while shooting 49 percent from the floor.

After scoring a career-high 25 in the win over TCU, Dotson is averaging 19 points over his past four games, and connecting on 47 percent of his 3-point attempts.

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His take-charge leadership style of play has been evident lately, and he just doesn’t look like a freshman anymore. His numbers are reflecting that he’s improving, but so is his demeanor on the court.

Dotson, along with Quentin Grimes, Ochai Agbaji and David McCormack, have started together the past two games and  accounted for 61 percent of the points scored. Junior forward, and KU’s leading scorer, Dedric Lawson, has put up 23.4 percent of the points himself during those games. That means the starters are scoring nearly 85 percent of the points.

Lawson will get his, but whether or not the freshmen continue to score remains to be seen.

McCormack and Grimes have struggled all season, but Agbaji looks to be the team’s second-best player right now. The 6-5, 210-pound guard from Kansas City, Missouri has electrified fans with athletic dunks, eye-popping steals and averages of 16.6 points and 7.6 rebounds the past five games. This from a player who was relegated to the bench until the team removed his redshirt on January 9th in a home win over TCU.

Agbaji and Dotson have turned a corner that Grimes and McCormack still might. Since opening the season with 21 points in a win over Michigan State, Grimes has looked lost on the court. He’s averaging just 7.8 points on 38.5 percent shooting, and has ten turnovers and just 17 points over the past three games. The problem is, Self doesn’t have a better option at guard right now.

The 6’10”, 265-pound McCormack has looked lost and over matched on the court more often than not, but the game does seem to be slowing down for him some recently. His overall numbers are not fun to look at it (1.9 ppg and 2.3 rpg), but the past few games he has shown heart grabbing offensive rebounds, hustling after loose balls and looking more like he belongs on the court — something that should be a sure thing for a former McDonald’s All-American.

No matter what the numbers say or how long analysts or writers think it might take the freshmen to grow up, the fact remains that if the Jayhawks win the Big 12 it will be because a group of youngsters came together to take the pressure of Lawson and carried them to a title.

That’s not really something fans want to hear, but desperate times call for desperate measures. And trailing Kansas State by two games in the loss column with just six to play is about as desperate as the Jayhawks have been in years.

The next three weeks should be fun.