Azubuike Out For the Season

kuathletics.com/news/2019/1/6/mens-baske...l&utm_source=twitter

Time for Cartwright to step up and/or Silvio to qualify.

Cartwright? assume you mean McCormack. If Silvo somehow can play, things can still end well. Otherwise...a supposedly deep and talented team will have no depth and not enough talent.

Ha! I have no idea where Cartwright came from. Maybe I was thinking of old Bonanza episodes. We need Hoss to fill up the lane.

Good assessment of our plight.

You beat me to it. What a horrible situation. I feel so sorry for Dok. Sitting through another year. How hard will this be for him. I imagine their practices will be a lot different this week. Can David step up? The team will really need him to replace Dok. Will the TO situation be addressed and hopefully solved? A new team to follow.

I wonder if he can red shirt? I read that it's 30% or less appearance in games. Right now he's been in 9 of their 31 games which is 29% so maybe he could. Hope it works out for him. Pretty tough I'm sure.

Holy cow, how demoralizing for Udoka. But in reality, it is not as bad as it may seem. While it is tough for any athlete to have a season ending injury and it is certainly far from a good thing, there are reasons why this may not be so bad in the long run. If it were a realistic shot that he would be on an NBA roster next season than this is a pretty bad thing. It think it is a long shot he would have been on an NBA roster next year, at least not on a guaranteed contract. As it is, he will likely be back next season and hopefully even stronger and better than he was this season. Worst case, he may attain a redshirt and be back for two more seasons. Let's face it, in the big scheme of things, this is not that bad of a deal. A year or two more on a top team as a top athlete followed by hopefully a decent NBA career or at the least a career overseas somewhere. I do feel for him because at this point as a young man it may seem like the end of the world but it is far from the end of the world. As for KU, it spells likely the end of our Big 12 run unless De Sousa gets cleared to play, which given what the NCAA has said is pretty unlikely. On a bright side, it will accelerate MCCormack's development and give KJ and Lightfoot more minutes. Pretty much this sucks but it is part of the game. Lets hope the guys come together and man up.

KU center Udoka Azubuike out for the season
www2.kusports.com/news/2019/jan/06/ku-ce...azubuike-out-season/

KU will have to adapt quickly to playing without Udoka Azubuike
www2.kusports.com/weblogs/smithology/201...-quickly-to-playing/

Udoka Azubuike injury shifts focus even more to the status of KU sophomore Silvio De Sousa
www2.kusports.com/news/2019/jan/06/udoka...cus-even-more-statu/

I took a 24 hour hiatus from all media surrounding KU after the back-to-back blows of a total letdown at ISU and news about Dok.

Moving forward, I don't think our predicament will inspire the NCAA to move any quickly, even if KU starts hounding them. The only logical solution is to get McCormack going. Keep in mind that so far, Dok and Lawson have been getting most of the reps in practice, McCormack has been playing more of a scout team role. That'll change. Also plan to see more Lightfoot. While he'll never be a big presence in the paint, he doesn't cause harm when he's in. He may even be able to set screens and draw defenders off of Lawson to help him out. At the very least, he's not a liability when it comes to defense, rebounding and general effort.

As for Dok himself, the best news is that it's an arm and not a leg. He can still run and work out with a busted wing. It's much worse to be off your feet for 6 weeks.

We're far from out of it at this point despite these setbacks. I personally think HCBS sent a message to the team by putting Teahan in at the end of the game. Having Moore, McCormack, KJ, and Teahan all on the floor together certainly implied that the game was over and that our starters were no longer to be trusted to salvage things.

Should be a fun series of practices this week. Keep your fingers and toes away from Self, or you might lose something.

....and one other thing: all that worry about how we could get Lawson and Dok to play more cohesively together is no longer a priority.

Seventh-ranked Jayhawks, injured Azubuike preparing to move forward into uncertain times
www2.kusports.com/news/2019/jan/07/jayha...e-forward-uncertain/

Bill Self and Jayhawks about to reinvent their 4-guard lineup
www2.kusports.com/news/2019/jan/07/bento...ent/?mens_basketball

Just pondering Dok's future and I came up with a scenario I haven't heard yet:

Dok could likely apply for and get a medical redshirt and "get back" one of his years of eligibility. Of course the thinking is that at worst, he'll play 1 more year in college and then turn pro, making the necessity of the redshirt irrelevant.

There is another scenario, however. I imagine that being out of action might give Dok some extra time to work on his academics. Now imagine that he gets the redshirt year. If he graduates in 4 years, he'd then have an extra year of eligibility, and he COULD if he wanted to, transfer someplace else without penalty.

Not saying this is going to happen, but if I'm Dok, I'd try to get the redshirt year put in simply to have options. He's only 19 now, so if he's not ready to jump at the end of next year, he'd have one more year to prepare for the pros at KU, or anyplace he wants. I don't relish the idea of him playing someplace else, especially if we had to play against him, but nevertheless it's another option and it's always good to have as many options as possible.