{"id":66242,"date":"2018-03-18T00:09:20","date_gmt":"2018-03-18T05:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/?p=66242"},"modified":"2018-03-18T11:47:50","modified_gmt":"2018-03-18T16:47:50","slug":"recap-how-a-mindset-and-a-brace-was-the-saving-grace-for-kansas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/2018\/03\/18\/recap-how-a-mindset-and-a-brace-was-the-saving-grace-for-kansas\/","title":{"rendered":"RECAP: How a mindset and a brace was the saving grace for Kansas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday night marked a historic night for Kansas, but not necessarily in the most positive of ways.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite pulling off an 83-79 victory over No. 8-seeded Seton Hall, the Jayhawks allowed senior center Angel Delgado to set a rebounding record against the program, as his 23 rebounds marked the most by a player against a Kansas team in the NCAA tournament.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he was obviously the best player in the game,\u201d said Kansas Head Coach Bill Self. \u201cCarrington was good, too, but [Delgado] was a man.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The first four minutes of the game seemed to be Delgado\u2019s show, as within the first few possessions he collected two offensive boards over Mitch Lightfoot and four of the Pirates\u2019 early points. Kansas was struggling early to account for the 6\u201910\u201d presence, so only four minutes into the contest, Self turned to his wild card: an 80% healthy, bionic-aided big man in Udoka Azubuike.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sporting the knee brace that has stabilized Azubuike since his MCL sprain, the Nigerian nightmare was quick to impact the game, but more importantly, seemed to find a rhythm right away and play like his usual self.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI knew coming into the game [that] my team needed me,\u201d said Azubuike. \u201cAs soon as I stepped on the court, I knew I was just good to go.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The reliable big man wasn\u2019t just good, but was the driving force behind the Jayhawks\u2019 ability to repeatedly snuff out any comeback attempts from Seton Hall.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn my opinion he was the most valuable player,\u201d said Self. \u201cIf his mind wasn\u2019t so right to get healthy that fast, there\u2019s no way we would have won that game.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite playing only 22 minutes, Azubuike played a much larger role than perhaps was initially anticipated and didn\u2019t seem to miss a beat en route to a 10-point, seven rebound performance. Several times while in, Azubuike landed awkwardly on his injured left leg but it did not seem to bother him at all, a positive sign for his health and KU\u2019s aspirations to continue their run in the NCAA tournament.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was so positive in my rehab, it didn\u2019t take me much to just get back out there and get in playing form,\u201d said Azubuike. \u201cI had the mindset from the beginning, I\u2019m going to get in and do anything that I can to help us win.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Azubuike was a force up front, but he and the rest of the Jayhawks also got a lot of clutch plays from guard Malik Newman, who seemed to be back in form to the effort fans saw from him in the Big 12 Tournament, an effort that won him Most Outstanding Player. Newman finished with 28 points, including a perfect 8-for-8 in free throws in the last few minutes of the game, and ultimately fed senior Svi Mykhailiuk for an open three-pointer on one of KU\u2019s final possessions to bury the Pirates for good. The dagger advanced Kansas to its 31<\/span>st<\/span> Sweet Sixteen in program history. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re young and sitting in front of the TV and watch all the games in March\u2026this is your dream, going to the Sweet Sixteen,\u201d said Newman. \u201cI\u2019m proud of this team, I\u2019m proud of myself, I\u2019m proud of this coaching staff, everyone that had a hand in it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Newman and the Jayhawks continue their March run next weekend in Omaha in the Sweet Sixteen.<\/span><\/p>\n

Follow us on Twitter:<\/strong><\/p>\n

KJHK \u2013\u00a0@KJHK<\/a><\/p>\n

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Jack Nadeau \u2013\u00a0@_jacknadeau<\/a><\/p>\n

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sports@kjhk.org<\/p>\n

featured image courtesy of the University Daily Kansan<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday night marked a historic night for Kansas, but not necessarily in the most positive of ways. Despite pulling off an 83-79 victory over No. 8-seeded Seton Hall, the Jayhawks allowed senior center Angel Delgado to set a rebounding record against the program, as his 23 rebounds marked the most by a player against a Kansas team in the NCAA tournament. \u201cI thought he was obviously the best player in the game,\u201d said Kansas Head Coach Bill Self. \u201cCarrington was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20145,"featured_media":66243,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,3262,610],"tags":[8078,107,117,316,109,87,267,123,325,2852,657,264,706,8057,8072,8077,7892,8073,8076,726,2892,7828],"class_list":["post-66242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-on-kjhk","category-sports","category-sports-articles","tag-angel-delgado","tag-big-12","tag-big-east","tag-bill-self","tag-jayhawks","tag-kansas","tag-kansas-jayhawks","tag-ku","tag-ku-basketball","tag-march","tag-march-madness","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-tournament","tag-ncaat","tag-pirates","tag-second-round","tag-seton-hall","tag-shu","tag-shu-pirates","tag-sweet-16","tag-tournament","tag-udoka-azubuike"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/5aadcd29734ee.image_.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}