Kansas coach Bill Self says freshman Udoka Azubuike could be foul prone this season

Seven-foot Kansas freshman Udoka Azubuike swatted a shot on the defensive end and rammed a crowd-pleasing dunk off a lob from Frank Mason on offense in the first three minutes of his first college basketball game — Tuesday’s 92-74 exhibition victory over Washburn.

The 280-pound center from Delta, Nigeria, however, also picked up three fouls in the first 4 minutes, 45 seconds and played just 8 minutes overall, fouling out with 5:24 to play.

“I don’t think he’ll foul out in 8 minutes every game, but I do think there’s a chance,” Kansas coach Bill Self said Thursday at his weekly media luncheon. “He got a bum whistle (on) a couple of those. The thing with ‘Doke,’ if he bumps you, it automatically displaces you and gives the appearance of a foul, where a lot of that is just incidental contact.

“But I do think that was a good teaching tool for him to understand how important it is to play your man before he catches it, and certainly be able to move your feet and not put yourself in bad positions or in as many bad positions.”

Self stated that it will be important for Azubuike to play meaningful minutes as part of an early-season eight-man rotation.

“We’re going to play three bigs for the most part (Landen Lucas, Carlton Bragg, Azubuike) and then we’ll go small (Devonté Graham, Frank Mason, Josh Jackson, Svi Mykhailiuk, Lagerald Vick),” Self said.

“Dwight (Coleby) and Mitch (Lightfoot) may play some, and they will play some. But the core of the team will be those eight guys probably playing the majority of the minutes, at least starting out,” added Self, whose Jayhawks follow Sunday’s 7 p.m. exhibition against Emporia State with the season-opener against Indiana on Friday, Nov. 11 in the Armed Forces Classic and Champions Classic contest against Duke on Tuesday, Nov. 15 in New York.

“Udoka will probably be the guy obviously with the least experience out of those eight because he’s very green. I actually thought he did some good things the other night,” Self stated.

“He’s just got to get where he just understands how to put himself in a better position on the court to maybe eliminate some of the things that he may do fouling. If he steps up the floor, maybe he doesn’t (allow) a guard to get a head of steam and drive it at him because if a guard drives it at him and he slides, he can’t stay in front of him, as well, so it’s going to be a foul if there’s contact.”

Azubuike had just one rebound against Washburn. Kansas was outrebounded by Washburn, 45-44, which led to a rigorous practice on Wednesday — the day after the game.

“I think the guys know we didn’t play particularly well in a couple of areas and it was pretty spirited,” Self said of practice.

“I think we’re a pretty poor rebounding team right now, and I don’t think we’re very explosive going after the ball,” Self added. “Two guys actually got a rebound the other night that was within 1 foot of the rim, and that was Frank (10 rebounds) and Devonté (four boards). So that tells you right there that guys aren’t really exploding and going after the ball. They are kind of waiting for the ball to come to them. That’s something we can definitely improve on and get better at, but certainly our big guys and Josh and Lagerald more so than anybody. They have got to rebound the ball better.”

Lightfoot, a freshman who had seven boards in 9 minutes, said the team concentrated on rebounding Wednesday in practice.

“I felt everyone responded well,” Lightfoot said. “We realized we didn’t play our best basketball. We wanted to get back in the gym and figure out what we can do to make ourselves better.”

Lightfoot said the coaches stressed, “wedging, getting better positioning for rebounding. Rebounding is a mentality. You’ve got to have a nose for the ball. Every time there is a shot, you’ve got to find yourself in the correct position to get a rebound.”

Graham said the Jayhawks “worked on box-out drills (at practice), being in the right place, helping the helper. We came out trying to bring that energy to get better.”

Carolina fan Graham is not a fan of Duke

Devonté Graham, who is from Raleigh, N.C., was asked Thursday if he followed Duke or North Carolina during his younger years.

“UNC,” Graham said noting he was a “big fan. (I) don’t like Duke. I’ve been to UNC games, football and basketball. I’ve been to the UNC-Duke game — (the) rivalry game — not just a Duke game.”

Self in favor of Indiana series

Self, who likes the idea of playing a tradition-rich team in Indiana next week, said he is in favor of setting up a series with the Hoosiers.

“I think Indiana should be a game or is a type of game that we should try to schedule each year. I think to get a couple of bluebloods to play, I think will be a great game. And it’s one that I know that Larry (Keating, KU schedule maker) and I have talked about. It’s a game that I think would be good for both universities moving forward, if they are open to it. And I don’t know what their interest level is on that, but I do think it would be a good game,” Self said.

Jackson had strong second half

Self on Josh Jackson, who had zero points the first half, 14 the second versus Washburn:

“I think that there’s got to be more explosive, more straight-line drives, more athletic-type plays, although he did fine the other night in the second half,” Self said “I still think there’s an aggressive mind-set that he can definitely play with more of than what he did the other night. He can get hesitant sometimes when he’s used to just catching and doing whatever. He can hold it if he wants to. He can shoot it if he wants to, and the way that we play, he’s got to become probably more of a ball mover and then play off of bad closeouts and things like that than maybe what he’s had to in the past.”

Noted Graham: “I think Coach has been on him about being more aggressive, being more assertive on the offensive end. Just the way he plays … he was real aggressive in high school. That’s why they (coaches) recruited him. He’s an alpha male like Coach says. He just has to figure out when he needs to be aggressive, which is all the time basically.”

This story was originally published November 3, 2016 at 6:13 PM with the headline "Kansas coach Bill Self says freshman Udoka Azubuike could be foul prone this season."