Kansas Basketball: 3 Keys to victory against Northeastern in Round of 64
By Chris Kern
Establish Dedric Lawson
It’s pretty simple for the Kansas offense, they need to establish Dedric Lawson early and often. There are many different ways they can do this but, if they want to be successful offensively then they likely need him to score at least 20 points.
He can impact the game in so many ways. His ability to score from anywhere on the floor is tough but, his passing ability might be an even greater strength of his. If he is able to find success early on the low block then that will open things up for the rest of his teammates.
It will be interesting to see how the defend Lawson in the post if he ever gets a one on one opportunity in the low post they have to get him the ball. So often in recent games, they haven’t been able to get him the ball when he has a mismatch and that can’t happen going forward. When you have a star player on a struggling offense, they have to be the first option every time down the floor.
Obviously for Kansas to go on a deep NCAA Tournament run the other players will be needed. They will need a full team effort to even get out of the first weekend, but on a team that struggles they need to be able to rely on their star to get them going early in their first game of the tournament.
On the season Lawson is averaging 19.1 points, 10.3 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game. You can count on him to get that seemingly every game for you. He hasn’t scored less than 13 points in a game since the new calendar year.
His ability to impact the game in so many ways will be tough for Northeastern to defend. If Kansas struggles to knock down shots that makes Lawson that much more important. In some games, he has struggled to get going until the second half and that absolutely cannot happen in this game.