Slumping Lagerald Vick needs to start putting ‘handprint’ on KU team, Bill Self says

A productive player from the start of the 2017-18 season through the Big 12 opener against Texas, Lagerald Vick has struggled mightily in the last seven league games.

“He hasn’t really done much quite candidly on either end in the last three weeks or so, since the Texas game,” Kansas coach Bill Self said Thursday, speaking of the 6-foot-5 junior combo guard from Memphis.

“We need him being active,” Self added. “And we’ve visited quite a bit about it. It’s not anything that he’s playing poorly. He’s just not putting his handprint on what’s going on. And we need him to put his handprint on it. He’s certainly our best athlete that plays a lot. And he’s not playing to his athletic ability or confidence level that he will play at if he can just see some good things happening.”

Since the Texas game on Dec. 29, Vick has scored in double figures in just one of seven contests. He has made 6 of his last 27 three-point shotss in that span. He was 1 of 9 shooting overall against Texas Tech, 4 of 12 against West Virginia, 2 of 6 versus Baylor and 2 of 6 for four points in Tuesday’s 85-80 loss at Oklahoma.

This is the same Vick who scored 20 points or more in two of KU’s first three games (23 against Tennessee State, 22 versus South Dakota State and nine versus Kentucky). He also scored in double figures in six of seven games from Dec. 2 through the Texas game. Included were 20 points versus Syracuse, 28 against Washington, 25 against Arizona State and 21 points in 38 minutes at Texas. He hit 5 of 8 threes against the Longhorns.

“I think everybody has ebbs and flows and everybody has ups and downs. I think he’s going through a situation where, in the past, he’s probably never had to be counted on consistently,” Self said. “He was so good early in the season and so good against Texas that maybe we started thinking that he could do that consistently, which I personally think he can and has the capability to do that.

“I think he defers too much. We need him to do certain things to give us the best chance. And I think sometimes … it’s not effort. It’s not, It’s a mindset of playing safe or whatever, and we’ve got to get him out of that.”

Self has chatted with Vick in trying to address this slump.

“Well, I’m not going to tell you what we visited about specifically,” Self said. “But I can tell you just trying to address, to let him know that we need him to do more.”

Vick is not listed on ESPN’s two-round 2018 NBA mock draft, although he is listed as the second pick of the second round in the 2018 NBA draft by NBAdraft.net.

“He wants to do more,” Self said of Vick’s time at KU. “It’s not like he’s fighting that at all. But needing him to do more and certainly becoming more aggressive and maybe why haven’t you been as aggressive and those sorts of things.”

KU sophomore Malik Newman, who has had his own struggles at times this season, is confident in Vick. “Lagerald is a great player,” Newman said. “I think he’ll be able to change it. Maybe it’s that one day in practice, one half maybe with Lagerald. He’s struggling right now. I’m pretty sure he’ll be able to turn it around.”

Cunliffe playing less

Sophomore transfer Sam Cunliffe has played six minutes total over the last five games. He played less than a minute in Tuesday’s loss at Oklahoma after not playing at all against West Virginia and Baylor. Since becoming eligible on Dec. 16, Cunliffe, who first played in college for Arizona State, has scored 22 points in seven games, while not playing at all in three of those games.

“The way that you can get trust is through practice,” Self said on Wednesday’s Hawk Talk radio show. “I’m not speaking out of turn, but Sam hasn’t been very good in practice here of late. Sam struggles picking up some stuff, at least he has so far, because he hasn’t had a chance to practice with the first group as much. I think he will be a good player in time. He’s not quite ready yet.”

Self was asked again about the 6-6 wing at Thursday’s media session.

“He’s a terrific athlete,” Self said. “Sam, he’s got a lot to learn from a basketball standpoint and when he’s in the game what his role is. I like Sam a lot. I like his athletic ability, and I like his talent. But he hasn’t performed very well in the limited opportunities he’s had that have been big-time opportunities.

“He’ll play better, and a lot of people may think we’ll give him an opportunity and play better. Well, that is true. You could also say, well, why was Silvio (De Sousa) in when he turned the ball over three times in a minute (at Oklahoma)? Well, he needs an opportunity too. So there’s the devil’s advocate to everything that you possibly could say. But I would say that Sam has had minimal opportunities but probably hasn’t made the most of those or his practice opportunities as much as what we’d like to see.”

More on Azubuike

Self was asked if Udoka Azubuike, a 37.5 percent free-throw shooter, might be wise to try to bank in his shots from the line. Two of his recent makes were from straight-on, banked-in shots.

“I don’t know that I would say banking in would be the answer, because he could start banking it long then, too,” Self said. “The problem is every one of his free throws hits the back of the rim.

“And he’s not that far. It’s not missing left-to-right as much as it is short or long. And when you evaluate shooting, that’s the first thing you look at.

“If he’s missing right and left then he’s probably not a real good shooter. If he’s missing short and long then maybe that can be worked with. And I believe we can work with it. And I think he’ll attack it in the right frame of mind.”

Self remains convinced that part of Azubuike’s free-throw problems are mental.

“It becomes a mental thing whenever you feel the pressure,” Self said. “You can shoot a thousand free throws a day in practice. It’s not the same as being fouled intentionally with under three (minutes) left on the road in a pretty big game. So pressures are always different.

“Whatever you do, you need to be able to withstand pressures. So I think the mental aspect of it is far more important than the actual physical. You’ve seen a lot of great baseball hitters that have an ugly swing. You’ve seen a lot of professional quarterbacks that don’t throw it the way you’re supposed to. There are still guys that can get by with it. Billy Kilmer threw one of the ugliest balls for (Washington of the NFL). Every one of them wobbled, but he still got it done. It doesn’t always have to look right. But the follow through is very important.”

KU senior Svi Mykhailiuk said Azubuike has not been down in the dumps after missing six free throws during crunch time at Oklahoma.

“I think he’ll be good. We have a break (day off Thursday). He’s going to shoot a lot of free throws I guess,” Mykhailiuk said, smiling.

“I think he’s doing great,” Mykhailiuk added. “It’s just one game. Nothing really bad happened. We’ve just got to learn from it. We know we’ve got to make free throws to win games. We’re all saying (to him) he’s good. It’s all right. Everybody’s going to have bad games, miss shots, rebounds, miss free throws. He’ll bounce back.”

KU plays Texas A&M at 3:30 p.m. Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse.

This story was originally published January 25, 2018 at 5:36 PM with the headline "Slumping Lagerald Vick needs to start putting ‘handprint’ on KU team, Bill Self says."