Doke Update
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Returns to full contact drills next week. Positive signs, lots of conditioning, film study staying apart of the team despite the limits to his injury. Italy will be the biggest benefit to him out of any player on the roster
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KU coach Bill Self told the Journal-World on Thursday that Azubuike was “right on schedule” with what team doctors had hoped during the rehab process.*
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“We anticipate him being full contact next week,” Self said. “And that’s right where the doctors said he’d be.”*
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Despite the injury, Azubuike continued to work closely with the team throughout the season, even going through workouts that did not put the wrist in any jeopardy. Self said earlier this spring that the KU big man did more running and conditioning after the injury than he did before it.*
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Although the season did not allow for much on-the-court learning, Azubuike learned a lot from film and from observing the Jayhawks in action and will enter the summer leading up to the 2017-18 season expected to be a major part of next season’s team.**
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Everyone kept bringing up his conditioning. I kept thinking, it’s just a wrist injury. And our strength coach is Hudy. What do these people think he is doing? Literally nothing?
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Kcmatt7 said:
Everyone kept bringing up his conditioning. I kept thinking, it’s just a wrist injury. And our strength coach is Hudy. What do these people think he is doing? Literally nothing?
It’s always a concern with a player of his size. And if you saw his HS tape the concerns were not without validity. But since he’s been on Campus he’s done nothing but change his body in a positive way.
More concerning is that he couldn’t shoot with the injury
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@Kcmatt7 I agree; an injured wrist doesn’t keep a motivated player from improving his conditioning and working on lower body strength and conditioning. From the chest down, Doke should be Hudy-strong.
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@Kcmatt7 yeah it’s pretty silly. Not sure the reasoning on that.
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@BeddieKU23 That’s excellent news. My barometer on this guy reads in between Joel Embiid and Cole Aldrich. I am wondering when did they clear him to be able to work on his free throws? We need him to be a solid 65% or greater on FTs this season.
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I believe he dunked during warmups not too long ago. As long as he can dunk I am not worried; he will not be doing much shooting anyway. Big guys seem to have endurance issues but it applies more to players that are more fat than muscle. I would think that after one year under Hudy, he has converted a lot, if not most of that baby fat, into muscle and his endurance is greatly enhanced. At this time, I would be more concerned about his ability to stay out of foul trouble rather than his endurance.
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When you lift weights with only one hand wouldn’t only one arm get stronger? How will he be gripping the ball on a quick hard pass? I can understand barbells on his shoulders and doing exercises, but won’t he end up with one Popeye arm and one Olive Oyl arm? I know he’s been going on long bike rides with Hudy. He might get taken out early because of fouls, but probably not as much because of stamina.
http://www.liftingrevolution.com/upper-body-moves-for-people-with-weak-or-injured-wrists/
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@wrwlumpy I’m sure this isn’t the first time Hudy has had to work around an injury.
Not like his #1 worry is upper body strength. Its being able to play 30 minutes. Whether it is fouls or stamina… But either way, him playing 30 minutes a game is only important come tourney time. And I have full confidence that Bill can get him to that point over the next 10 months.
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Yeah the big thing is he has been able to run this whole time. Better cardio/stamina so he can actually stay on the floor and give great effort.
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Who knows Doke’s personality? On the badass to mama’s boy scale where’s our Doke? Yes, I just made up the scale. Use any scale you prefer, like T-Rob to BJ Williams. This is just for fun.
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@JayHawkFanToo Azubuike was dunking with his non-injured hand and was doing that pretty soon after his surgery. People tried making an issue of it when it was happening, but apparently forgot how big UA’s hands are and like most big men, can palm a basketball and only needs one hand to dunk.
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@stoptheflop I think mama’s boy and badass are two different spectrums. I always assumed he rates high on both.
That’s his best Clark Kent…
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@approxinfinity Oh my goodness, this is the first time I’ve seen that image. I’ll be laughing about his choice of accessories for awhile. The bow tie is the best. Thanks for sharing the image.
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I took a look at his highlight videos and Doke almost always dunks with both hands and with authority which makes his dunks unblockable and the very few times I saw him dunk with one hand he used the right hand every time; he also shoot right handed and his baby hook is also right handed. Since he injured his left wrist, the effect will be much less than if had injured the right one. In short, he should be able to shoot and dunk without too much problems until his left wrist is fully healed and back to full strength.
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“Despite the injury, Azubuike continued to work closely with the team throughout the season, even going through workouts that did not put the wrist in any jeopardy. Self said earlier this spring that the KU big man did more running and conditioning after the injury than he did before it.*”
That is encouraging.
I don’t think people realize what a monumental task Doke had (and has) in front of him. His body, when he arrived in Lawrence, might have been better suited for football or shotput.
It is very difficult to get in the kind of shape he needs to be at for D1 and beyond. And also developing a bit more “fast twitch” muscle is a must.
He’s fighting genetics more than anything. To get an idea of the battle, think back about Ridley at Texas. He worked his tail off to drop weight and become an athletic basketball player with just medium success.
This task is as monumental as Withey’s tranformation… which I feel that few people really understood how much work Jeff put in.
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@drgnslayr fast twitch is not as important when you can dunk anyone clinging to the ball through the hoop along with the ball.
