Kansas basketball: Jayhawks deserve credit despite letdown season

The Jayhawks were bounced early, and Kansas basketball’s season felt like a letdown, but in reality, given what the team went through this season, it overachieved.

The 2018-19 season ended poorly with a blowout in the NCAA Tournament to the hands of the Auburn Tigers. Not only did the Jayhawks pack their bags early, but they struggled to win road games all season and consistently struggled to close out games.

Players such as freshman guard Quentin Grimes, redshirt sophomore guard Charlie Moore and redshirt junior forward KJ Lawson did not live up to the hype. Other players such as junior center Udoka Azubuike and sophomore guard Marcus Garrett faced injuries, with Azubuike missing the entire second half of the season.

Former senior guard LaGerald Vick left the program, sophomore center Silvio De Sousa did not play a single minute due to suspension and the team faced a spotlight all year thanks, in part, to the notorious FBI investigation.

Take a minute and think about what this team looked like at the beginning of the season. The roster boasted two starting lineups and there was genuine concern about certain players getting minutes.

In fact, one of the best players on the team, freshman guard Ochai Agbaji, had to redshirt part of the year because the team was too good.

Now think about what the roster looked like at the end of the year. Four freshmen were in the starting lineup, other players received hardly any minutes and when freshman point guard Devon Dotson and junior transfer forward Dedric Lawson left the floor, the team completely fell apart.

If the team that ended the year had been the same team that started the year, it most certainly would not have been the favorite to win the national title and would not even be amongst the top tier teams in the country.

Consider this, even with Vick in the starting lineup, there was genuine concern about who could shoot the ball. Take Vick out of the lineup, there would have been absolutely no shooters.

At the beginning of the year, Grimes was not expected to be a three-point machine because he was never that in high school. Fellow freshman  Dotson was more of a question mark, but he too was never much of a shooter in high school.

Both guards were notorious for taking the ball inside and being flashy finishers around the rim.

Agbaji was never expected to do anything, he was supposed to redshirt. Given this scenario where Vick, Azubuike and De Sousa are not a part of the team at the start of the season, Agbaji would have likely not redshirted, but his expectations would have been low.

Agbaji was an above the rim player in high school and carried those presumptions into the collegiate game, nobody expected him to become a three-point assassin.

The team’s preseason previews would have consisted of comments such as, “who is going to shoot from behind the arc?” and “will this team make a single three?”

To go along with that, the team would have lacked a true big man in the low-post all season long.

Freshman big David McCormack finished the season as a starter, but his expectations coming into the year was to be a guy who would need time to develop into the college game. Few people thought McCormack would make an immediate impact at Kansas.

The Jayhawks would have struggled to shoot the ball, struggled in the low-post and would have not been a rebounding threat either. McCormack needed time to develop, had he been thrown in off the gun, he likely would have been a complete letdown this year.

Given the predictions of each individual player, coach Bill Self would have likely started Dotson, Grimes, Garrett, KJ Lawson and then Dedric Lawson at the five. I don’t know what you think but that team cannot shoot, cannot play in the low-post and would struggle defensively.

Put that starting lineup against any team that can body people up, it would get demolished. Put that starting lineup against any team that can run in transition, it would get demolished.

So now think to yourself, what would you have expected that team to do?

McCormack would be playing significant minutes off the bat, hurting his ability to learn and transition to the game. Agbaji would be in the same situation and would not have had time to study the collegiate game like he did.

Given how bad the team would have likely been, it is almost impossible to say that the team that finished the season was a “letdown.”

The Lawson boys had high expectations when they transferred to Kansas, but nothing miraculous. Dedric Lawson was expected to potentially compete for Big 12 player of the year, but he heavily exceeded anything anybody thought he was capable of.

Dotson also far exceeded everything anybody thought he was capable of. Some people, including me, thought sophomore transfer guard Charlie Moore would actually be the guard to start at the beginning of the season.

To be frank, four out of the five starters exceeded their expectations considerably, so to think this team was a letdown is absurd.

Sure, Kansas did not live up to the potential it had at the start of the year, but there was a completely different team on the floor in the NCAA Tournament than there was back in November when the Jayhawks took on Tennessee.

Numerous players got starting minutes, found a role within the system and most importantly, learned a considerable amount about the weaknesses of the team.

To cap it off, the team was distracted by the aforementioned FBI scandal, had to change its style of play when Azubuike went down and had to do so again when Garrett got hurt and came back. On top of that, it had to deal with Vick leaving at a very rough point in the season.

Did I also mention the team had to deal with rumors about Bill Self leaving for Chicago towards the end of the year?

All in all, the team went through more adversity than any Bill Self squad has had to face.

Somehow, Kansas competed for a Big 12 regular season title, competed in the Big 12 championship game and managed to be a four-seed in the NCAA Tournament, despite the numerous struggles it faced all season.

If this scenario were real and the team that finished the season had begun the season, things would have not been pretty for the Jayhawks. This squad far exceeded anything I would have ever thought it would be capable of.

Give credit where credit is due, one could argue that this is Self’s best coaching season at Kansas.

The team struggled to play on the road and play together because every three games there was another issue it had to face. Fans may be disappointed with the performance by the Jayhawks throughout the year, but that performance is because there was no consistency and there was constant change on the squad.

Stop attacking Kansas and instead applaud it because this season was far more remarkable than what fans are giving it credit for.