Kansas basketball: Ranking each of the Jayhawks one and done players

No. 4: Joel Embiid (2013-2014)

Kansas basketball career stats: 28 games, 11.2 PPG, 8.1 RPG, 2.6 BPG, 62.6% FG

There are very few things that Joel Embiid doesn’t qualify as No. 1 for. An argument can be made that he is the best center and overall player in the NBA. He was, after all, awarded this year’s MVP award. And if he didn’t struggle with injuries while playing for Kansas basketball, he’d be in consideration to jump a few players on these rankings as well.

I want to clarify one thing: When Embiid was on the floor, he might have been the most dominant freshman ever to play for Bill Self. He blocked five or more shots five times, including an eight-block performance against Oklahoma State in 32 minutes played. He became the first Kansas freshman to win Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. Keep in mind that his statistics above came with an average of just 23.1 minutes per game, including eight off of the bench.

So if I’m glorifying his Jayhawk tenure, why couldn’t he even crack the top three of this list? The explanation would be that he simply didn’t achieve enough at KU. He was part of the first double-digit loss team in the Bill Self era and missed the entire Big 12 and NCAA Tournament due to a back injury.

If we’re talking about who had the most raw talent and posed the biggest threat to opposing teams, Embiid is No. 1 or 2 on this list. But unfortunately, for the qualifications of our rankings, he sits close behind three other Kansas basketball freshmen.