Kansas Basketball: Auburn loss showed Jayhawks struggles throughout season
By Chris Kern
Establishing Dedric Lawson early on
Dedric Lawson should not be blamed for the loss as he still made a big impact, but they needed him to make some shots early on and he was unable to do so. He had a fantastic season averaging 19.4 points and 10.3 rebounds per game, but at times he seemed to struggle to make shots.
He certainly did a lot for this team, but this team really struggled to score throughout much of the season and they relied on him more than they were expected to. In this game, he still finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds, but a lot of those points were after Kansas was down big, which did happen very quickly.
Whenever a player puts up numbers as he did they certainly did their part, but for this team, he just needed to do more. He didn’t make his first shot until there was just 2:31 left to go in the first half. He doesn’t deserve all the blame for that as at times his teammates struggle to get the ball, but no matter the reason, he has to do more.
His first made shot cut the Auburn lead to 21, 46-25. He did have four made free-throws prior to his layup there, but he didn’t do enough early on and Kansas fell behind by a large margin because of it. They had many other issues as well, but if they could’ve gotten Lawson a few baskets early on they may have had a much better chance.
In the majority of the games this season he has been dominant, but in many games, he has put up big numbers in losses when they didn’t really have a great chance to win. I wouldn’t necessarily call it stat padding, but it is easier at times to score when you’re trailing by a large margin late in games.
The way he plays also makes it look easier than it is. When Kansas got blown out at Texas Tech he went just 3-8 from the field for 14 points which were his least amount of shots made since the nonconference. Lawson is a dominant player on both ends of the floor and is one of the best at his position, but he sometimes gets his numbers when the game doesn’t really matter. Despite his 25 and 10 performance, Auburn did a very good job defending him throughout the game.