The Kansas Jayhawks made just 6-of-14 free throws in their 85-80 loss at Oklahoma on Tuesday, and one Kansas fan is clearly quite angry about it.
The Lawrence Journal-World reports that University of Kansas police were called to the men’s basketball dorm on Wednesday, after a man showed up several times “to give a resident there some free-throw advice.”
University of Kansas police were called to the men’s basketball dorm Wednesday afternoon, where a man reportedly kept showing up to give a resident there some “free-throw advice.”
The call about the man “wanting to give free-throw advice” came in about 3:30 p.m., but when police got to McCarthy Hall, the man — who’s not a KU student — had already left, KU police Deputy Chief James Anguiano said. For that reason, at least as of about an hour after the call, police didn’t plan to file a trespassing or other criminal report, Anguiano said. (Radio traffic indicated the man had been there multiple times that day before the police were called, and may have come back again just before 5 p.m. Note: Subject’s clothing description included a blue and red windbreaker.)
While the name of the KU player that this man was trying to give advice to was never released, we can assume it’s sophomore center Udoka Azubuike. The seven-footer is shooting 38.1% from the line this season, and went 1-for-8 on free throws in the loss at Oklahoma. Azubuike missed six free throws in the game’s final three minutes and 37 seconds, and that obviously ended up being a pretty huge deal in a five-point loss.
KU head coach Bill Self took the blame for leaving in Azubuike down the stretch vs Oklahoma, but admitted that the sophomore will need to start shooting better from the line going forward (via The Kansas City Star).
“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.
So, there’s no doubt that Azubuike needs to improve his free throw shooting, but that should come from hours of practice and working with the KU coaching staff, rather than dealing with strangers arriving at his dorm. That’s just weird.
[Lawrence World-Journal; The Kansas City Star]
