Azubuike keeps chin up after free-throw fiasco at OU: ‘He actually sounded good’

Kansas basketball coach Bill Self phoned Udoka Azubuike bright and early Wednesday, several hours after the 7-footer missed six straight free throws during crunch time of the Jayhawks’ 85-80 loss to Oklahoma in Norman.

“He actually sounded good. He was fine. I said, ‘Doke (did the) sun come up today? You OK?’ ” Self said in explaining the exchange Wednesday night on his weekly Hawk Talk radio show.

‘“Yeah I’m fine,’ ” was the response.

“I said, ‘I kind of put you out there, didn’t I?’ ” Self added.

Self left Azubuike in the game during a stretch in which Oklahoma coach Lon Kruger employed a “Hack-A-Doke” tactic in which the Sooners fouled 37.5 percent free-throw shooter Azubuike on purpose, assuming he’d miss at the line.

“He said, ‘No, no you didn’t at all.’ I said, ‘I put you out there. I apologize for that, but I think you and I should get together and we’ve got to correct this don’t we?’ ”

“He said, ‘Yes we will.’ He said all the right things,” Self continued.

Self reiterated on Hawk Talk that he wants all the blame for Azubuike’s 1-of-8 free-throw performance against the Sooners.

“By no means anybody should be down on him,” Self said. “That should be all on me. I told the guys afterward (in the locker room), ‘Don’t even think twice about this one. This one’s on me because we did play enough to win.’ I certainly feel like my decision (to leave him in game late during Hack-A-Doke) obviously kept us from having the best chance to win with hindsight.

“I do know this in moving forward, and fans know this too, for us to really have a chance to have a really good team, Doke’s got to make free throws. It’s not a situation where you can sub him every time the other team is going to foul.

“They are all going to try to foul him. You think one scouting report says when he’s got a layup make sure you foul him and don’t give him an and-one? That’s every scouting report. He’s got to be able to do it. So he’s going to feel pressure the next time he goes to the line and the next time he goes to the line and the next time he goes to the line. He has to work through that.”

Self had reasons for leaving Azubuike, who has made 5 of 19 free throws in the last two games, in the Oklahoma contest late.

“Certainly we came up empty on that,” Self said. “What’s funny is they started the Hack-A-Shaq when the score was (KU) 78-76. When they finished it was 80-79, our favor. They gained one point on it because we got a stop every time they did it.

“I know most fans probably think I’m an idiot for not subbing him. If you did (think that) you would probably be in the majority with many of my family members,” he joked. “I don’t fault you for that at all. But it was kind of set up the way we wanted to.

“When they put Freeman (Matt, who had five fouls in 2 minutes) in to foul him, they took out their only rim protection (6-10 Jamuni McNeace). We can’t take out Doke because all they were running were ball screens and he’s our best ball screen defender. Mitch (Lightfoot) had a really good game but Mitch struggled with McNeace. As soon as Doke comes out, McNeace comes in. I made a bad play. I went on a hunch instead of percentages and that turned out not to be the smart decision.”

Self said he would continue to work with Azubuike on free throws — “We’ve had some bad free-throw shooters here. Who is our free-throw coach anyway? I guess it’s me,” he joked — but would not revamp Azubuike’s form at this point of the season.

As far as Azubuike maybe switching to an underhand style … Self said that’s been discussed but probably will not happen.

“You’ve got to understand, I don’t consider it. That would be something Doke would have to consider. If you want to lose a player fast, make him do something he doesn’t want to do,” Self said. “We have thought about that and talked about it. I’ve had people text me or call and said they shot it back in the ’50s that way and would be more than happy to come to work with us and even teach our staff how to shoot it, which probably would be pretty good because none of us ever shot that,” Self explained.

Self has discussed the underhand technique with coaching buddies.

“I called Jank (former assistant Tim Jankovich, head coach at SMU). He said, ‘That (underhand free throws) sounds good in theory.’ He said, ‘If I shot 1 percent from the free-throw line there’s no way they could get me to shoot it underhanded.’ I think in players’ minds they feel that would be something they shouldn’t do. I don’t want to say never. Maybe when you talk to Doke about some things he may say, ‘Yeah I’ll be more than happy to try that.’ ”

Self thinks Azubuike can make free throws without resorting to changes that might need “six to eight months” to become an effective new style.

“He can make some free throws. It’s between his ears as much as anything,” Self said. “The best free-throw shooters are the best shooters. Doke is never going to be one of those. Doke this year has made a handful of shots from 3 feet, probably not made any outside 3 feet this year. That’s not what he does. We’ve known that all along.

“He could be a guy … I felt this year he could shoot 55 to 60 percent (from the line). Of course that hasn’t happened. The last two games he’s 5 of 18 (actually 19). He’ll do better than that. Certainly we need him to. I still think if he’s fouled again I think he’ll get up and make them. All he has to do is make one or two and that changes everything. It took their guy out of the game and put another guy in. Their offense wasn’t near as good with him (Azubuike) in the game.”

Self knows his sophomore center will put in overtime to try to improve.

“I think now, even though he works at it, I think there will be more of a conscious effort to work at it harder because he knows the magnitude of what could potentially become a situation,” Self said of the Hack-A-Doke continuing.

“He’s a good person. He cares a lot. I think he’ll respond to this. I just hope our team does. We put ourselves in a situation we could have had a two-game lead eight games in. Who’d have thought that could happen?”

KU, 6-2 in the Big 12, is a game ahead of four 5-3 teams — Oklahoma, Kansas State, West Virginia and Texas Tech.

“To play that well (at Oklahoma) for 37 minutes and not have offensive possessions late. … Even with that said, Devonté (Graham) missed a three at the top and Svi missed an open three in the corner that would have given us the lead. We didn’t play good defense the last two possessions (either),” Self maintained.

KU will next meet Texas A&M in the Big 12/SEC Challenge at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse. After that, it’s an ESPN/Big Monday contest at Kansas State, set for 8 p.m. Monday at Bramlage Coliseum.

This story was originally published January 24, 2018 at 8:48 PM with the headline "Azubuike keeps chin up after free-throw fiasco at OU: ‘He actually sounded good’."