This was an up and down season for the Kansas Basketball team. Despite the Jayhawks struggles Dedric Lawson was still able to have a dominant season.
The Kansas Basketball team had high hopes coming into the season. They were the preseason ranked #1 team and they were loaded with talent. It was an up and down season with so many things going wrong for this team. The stellar play of Dedric Lawson was the only thing they could rely on consistently.
He transferred over from Memphis and after sitting out the 2017-18 season he was still adjusting to his new teammates for much of this season. This is a Kansas team that was so reliant on newcomers to lead the way. They’ve had great freshman before, but they haven’t been forced into such large roles without having veteran guys to lead the way.
The Jayhawks ended the season with five newcomers in the starting lineup and they had a lot of issues because of it. They started the season with LaGerald Vick and Udoka Azubuike which was why they had such high expectations, but neither of them was able to finish the season for a variety of reasons.
This really affected the team as they didn’t really have a leader. Dedric Lawson is a great player, but it was tough for him to lead this team. He was still very good though and led this team to a lot of success despite the preseason expectations. His numbers were very good as he averaged 19.4 points, 10.3 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 1.3 steals, and 1.1 blocks per game.
Those numbers show he had an impact on both ends of the floor despite sometimes being overpowered on the defensive end. His impact was so big that he was able to earn multiple awards such as Big 12 Newcomer of the Year as well as being named to All-Big 12 First Team and the NABA All-America Third Team. To get these awards he needed some big performances and here are some games that shaped his season both good and bad.