OFFICIAL: UDUNKA BACK FOR YEAR 3 (ish)
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Crossing my fingers he comes back.
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This is interesting. If he returns we are a top 3 team no doubt. If he leaves what’s our ceiling?
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Impressed some people does not impress me, pardon the pun. To me it means some people think he is is a big athletic player that might be eventually ready to play at the next level but not necessarily ready to be drafted quite yet. Best scenario for Doke is a two way contract for the G League in which case he might be better off returning to KU which I believe is what will happen; I would be surprised if he stays in the draft.
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SkinnyKansasDude said:
This is interesting. If he returns we are a top 3 team no doubt. If he leaves what’s our ceiling?
Lower but by home much? We have no idea what this next batch of Hawks is going to mold into. We have historical evidence to suggest we’ll be fine, better then most, most likely still the best in the Big-12. I think we reason to be optimistic Self and Co can make this next batch as good as we’ve become so accustomed to.
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Not surprised this has gone down to the last day. Hoping he returns, I’ll certainly be wrong if he does
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Trying to read between the lines of Self’s comments…I’m guessing he comes back.
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Udoka Azubuike, Kansas: 31” standing vert, 31.5” max vert, 12.97 lane agility, 3.49 ¾ court sprint, 3.65 reaction shuttle
There is absolutely no doubt that Azubuike is a massive human being and his explosiveness from a stand still has helped him as a terror around the hoop on offense. He actually had the highest measured standing vert reach at 11’11.5”, 4 inches higher than 2nd place finisher Kostas Antentokounmpo. While his leaping ability at his size and strength is impressive, there are a number of red flags in terms of just how he fits in the modern NBA defensively. We saw against Michigan that he struggled in space, and Azubuike managed to finish last in every running, agility drill at the combine. It seems to take his mind time to process just how to move his body and with the speed the game is played at now, one has to wonder if Azubuike fits into the equation. He could possibly be someone who gets some situational spot minutes, but it looks like it might be difficult to justify him being more than an occasional back-up.
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BeddieKU23 said:
Not surprised this has gone down to the last day. Hoping he returns, I’ll certainly be wrong if he does
Yeah, Svi went down to the last day too I believe.
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@BigBad “We saw against Michigan that he struggled in space …”
I can promise you, none of us saw that. Doke will always struggle in space, won’t he? That makes this even more of a question. if something won’t change, why not start making money if you don’t want to be in college.
**Yes, I know your quoted source meant Nova. It is really a good summary on Doke, that points out his difficulties moving forward in the new, boring NBA.
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“It seems to take his mind time to process just how to move his body”
Wouldn’t that point to a player still in the beginning stages of learning how to play the game? He was also still recovering from a knee injury when he faced Nova. A fully healthy Doke was still a liability defending in space so maybe its a mute point however one game seems to stick out above else, one he wasn’t even healthy for and played through for his team
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Per 810 Radio, Doke is staying at Kansas
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kcmohawk said:
Per 810 Radio, Doke is staying at Kansas
Yep, leaking all over the place now.
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I edited the thread title assuming the info is good. Lol.
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Not surprised if he stays. I would have been surprised if he stayed in the draft where he most likely would not have been selected and had to settle for the G League or overseas.
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Dedric, Doke and Dotson … the dunking Ds.
Sorry, best I have today.
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From one standpoint, Doke is what he is. His mobility won’t change much, and I think his body has changed as much as it can until he turns pro. There’s no doubt that Hudy works players hard, but is limited on how much she can work with them.
Azubuike makes KU better next year, but I am still on the fence about how much more he can improve at KU.
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@justanotherfan i agree 100 percent with u
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Coming back
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Great news! I was wrong. Glad to have Udoka back another season. At least 1 full time starter for Self to work with.
The bash brothers are in business- Dedric, Doke
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BeddieKU23 said:
Great news! I was wrong. Glad to have Udoka back another season. At least 1 full time starter for Self to work with.
The bash brothers are in business- Dedric, Doke
I’m thinking about editing the title to official. Guys like Goodman, Shay and Rothstein are reporting it now.
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Actually, yeah gonna do it.
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Comments from Self, article by Tait: http://www2.kusports.com/news/2018/may/30/ku-center-udoka-azubuike-return-junior-season/
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From Bedore
Harry Coxsome, Azubuike’s mentor and family in the US said Doke decided to return to KU: “Between last night and this morning.”
He said “he went back and forth with the decision. When it came down to making the decision, it weighed on him.” He said he is returning to “raise his draft stock.” But Harry said he is confident he’d have been taken in draft.
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This is exactly how I thought this would play out. Sounds like Doke learned a few things and has improved over the Summer. Looking forward to seeing that in the upcoming season.
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So, his mentor is really named, “Harry Coxsome”?
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@HighEliteMajor relation?
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This is really good news. - Now if there turns out that some way DeSousa is eligible - - OMG look out it will be ugly for others. I think my focus now turns to who is our starting 3?
I’m kind of think this may shake out - -doesn’t matter a lot were loaded in the front but - - -We have Doke as the starting 5 with McCormack backing him up. - - We have Dedric as our starting 4 - with their is some talk about Mitch being able to move out to his more comfortable spot as the back up at the 4. Now if DeSousa is some how cleared eligible then MAYBE? DeSousa backs Dedric at the 4? - -or could Silvio possibly - and I’m saying just possibly play the 3? - - if he is eligible going to be hard to keep him out of the starting lineup somewhere - maybe not from game 1 but I would think pretty soon. - -Thing is Silvio not going push Dedric out at the 4.
Then if Silvio is eligible then the perfect situation for Mitch would be to red shirt - but if they don’t red shirt him and Silvio is eligible does Silvio become the back up at the 4 and then Mitch become the 3rd backup at the 5?
Then at the 3 which I think will happen is quite possibly KJ starts at the 3 and then possibly our boy from KC might back him ? - It is going to pose for some interesting decisions for Coach Self but nice decisions to have.
Then in the back Court we are going to have Grimes step right in at the 2 - and either Moore or Devon as our starting 1 I think MAYBE but I wouldn’t wanna bet the farm on it but MAYBE Moore starts the 1st of the Season but I fully think it won’t be long before Devon takes over - - and then we still have Garrett - - -and if it gets bad - -but yet I’ve heard he might get more minutes and that would be Cunliffe for some back up time. However it plays out - - WE ARE DEEP - - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY
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I don’t think Silvio will be playing the 3. I can see playing 2 4 guys together, I like that idea if they can hit some outside shots and guard on the perimeter! I’m gonna miss the 4 guard lineup.
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If this turns out to be true, having Silvio back will assure us of having a team that will be as dominate on the boards as LaFrenz, Pollard and Collison were. Lets just hope our 5
star Freshman can get them the ball.
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The tattoo on carters arm seems to be true!
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That is 1,000 pounds of pure muscle between the four…
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@jayballer73 The starting 3 will either be Garrett or Grimes. Depends on if Self starts Moore and Dotson or just Dotson.
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Texas Hawk 10 said:
@jayballer73 The starting 3 will either be Garrett or Grimes. Depends on if Self starts Moore and Dotson or just Dotson.
I could see KJ getting the nod.
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Nice to have many options, everywhere
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Heck… let’s throw in the old traditional 2-3 offense with 3 bigs. The key is that your forwards can play the base line, including the trey from the corner. Not something really fit for today’s game, but it could be one of those junk offenses. Amazing how much the game has changed (to becoming a perimeter game).
I’m hopeful to see a very different Doke next year… shooting mid-60s from the FT line… developed midrange game… even better handles and passing… and, of course, a much better defender who fouls less and blocks more. There is no reason to not expect big improvements. Doke works hard and is one of the more focused players we’ve had in years. He’s new to the game and has already made extreme improvements since picking up the basketball for the first time.
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Free throw summer camp!!
He’s a natural foul magnet… who will in the coming months dedicate many many hours on the stripe with a free throw coach… 200 shots a day minimum…
“Malcolm Gladwell, in his 2008 best selling book Outliers: The Story of Success, makes the point crystal clear. Yes, there are free throw shooters who have more natural talent to begin with, however, the fact is that the really great elite free throw shooters work much, much harder than all the others. The idea, that excellence at performing a complex task requires a minimum level of practice, surfaces again and again in studies of expertise. In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: 10,000 hours.”
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If they believe he would get drafted I’m very surprised he came back. I guess he could get in better shape but he’s also a year older. Interesting.
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Doke will be broke for another year. Our team will be no joke and we will not choke as he hones his stroke. The nation is woke to the threat of Doke and his fellow bloaks. Poke me, I’m dreaming.
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Dok needs to shoot free throws with a pole beside him so when that chicken wing comes out it hurts. It needs to be instinctual not something he has to think about.
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Good news is if things go to hell at the end of games, we have Silvio. He’s well equipped to play the 5 and is a good FT shooter.
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Bosthawk said:
Free throw summer camp!!
He’s a natural foul magnet… who will in the coming months dedicate many many hours on the stripe with a free throw coach… 200 shots a day minimum…
“Malcolm Gladwell, in his 2008 best selling book Outliers: The Story of Success, makes the point crystal clear. Yes, there are free throw shooters who have more natural talent to begin with, however, the fact is that the really great elite free throw shooters work much, much harder than all the others. The idea, that excellence at performing a complex task requires a minimum level of practice, surfaces again and again in studies of expertise. In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: 10,000 hours.”
I’ve probably golfed 10,000 hours maybe, and expertise and golf do not go together for me!
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wissox said:
Bosthawk said:
Free throw summer camp!!
He’s a natural foul magnet… who will in the coming months dedicate many many hours on the stripe with a free throw coach… 200 shots a day minimum…
“Malcolm Gladwell, in his 2008 best selling book Outliers: The Story of Success, makes the point crystal clear. Yes, there are free throw shooters who have more natural talent to begin with, however, the fact is that the really great elite free throw shooters work much, much harder than all the others. The idea, that excellence at performing a complex task requires a minimum level of practice, surfaces again and again in studies of expertise. In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: 10,000 hours.”
I’ve probably golfed 10,000 hours maybe, and expertise and golf do not go together for me!
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@Crimsonorblue22 Hmmm … well, I’d heard his mentor was Clint Torres, but that made me pause, as well.
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It’s more likely that Self would slide Dedric to the 3 in a big lineup than De Sousa. De Sousa doesn’t have a lot of ball handling skill at this point. Dedric does. Dedric has a solid face up game as well that would allow him to play effectively on the perimeter. I don’t see that from De Sousa yet.
Outliers is an excellent book. I have read it a few times. The thing with the 10,000 hours that always stuck out to me is that it isn’t just putting in the time - it’s that you have to put in the time focused specifically on improvement. Let’s use free throws as an example. The point is not simply that you walk to the line and just start putting up shots. That doesn’t really count towards your 10,000 hours. The point is that you walk to the line with a plan. Maybe today you are focusing specifically on form, so you stand three feet from the basket and shoot 250 shots from there, focused specifically on keeping your elbow in, with your follow through finishing through the fingertips. With that focus, it probably takes you half an hour to complete the 250 shots. Do that every day all summer, twice a day, backing up a foot every week until you get to 15 feet by the end of the summer. Congratulations, you have completed about 100 hours of shooting practice.
Separately, you put in 30 minutes focused on your lower body shooting position. Of course, you have to carry over the form from the other practice. So if you put in 2 hours a day (30 minutes twice a day on the 250 shots, 30 minutes twice a day on the lower body part), you can see how someone would improve, and that’s just in 200 hours of practice. But the practice has to be extremely focused.
When you hear about how guys like Kobe Bryant would arrive at the arena 2 hours before anyone else to work on footwork before a game, you start to understand the 10,000 hour thing. It’s not just the time. It’s the level of focus that goes with it.
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@justanotherfan So in other words, I’ll always suck at golf.
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Maybe not. How much free time you got?
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while listening to the pod cast this morning with - - Benton Smith - - -Mat Tait - -And Tom Keegan they were talking about what Doke meant to KU by coming back.
They all said made KU for sure a legit title contender , talked about how every big man in the Big 12 dreamt the night before thinking I’m going to have to guard this guy lol.
Anyways during the podcast they all took a shot on who they thought possibly would be the starting 5. - -This was going on the assumption the Sivvio would be back and eligible.
Went like this not sure which ones but anyhow here is the starting line ups with 3 predictions : - - -Dotson , pg - - – -Grimes ( 2 ) - - -Dedric Lawson ( 3 ) - - -Silvio ( 4 ) - - -& Doke ( 5 )
Next :- - - Dotson , pg- - - - Grimes ( 3 } - - -Dedric Lawson ( 4 )- - -Doke ( 5 ) - - & Moore ( 2 )
Next was :- - - - Dotson pg , - - Grimes ( 2 )- - - -Dedric Lawson ( 3 )- - -Doke ( 5 )- - -& Garrett ( 3 )
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@jayballer73 do they all think Silvio will be playing? I’d guess the last 2 options on who is starting. Not seeing D Lawson as a 3, but haven’t seen him play there either. Moore and garrett, nice choices.
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I’m somewhat surprised no one mentioned KJ Lawson as a potential starter. He’s a guy that everyone is kind of taking for granted right now.
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@justanotherfan Not much, I make 54 tomorrow!
By the way people are talking here like it’s a foregone conclusion that Silvio is returning. No one knows anything about this, right? Or did I miss something? I just read that @Crimsonorblue22 had asked the same question.
