🏀 KuBuckets Archive

Very curious if any bucketeers have heard anything about Udoka's recovery. Broken bones healing time is 4-6weeks, provided someone shuts down any attempts to continue to use the affected limb. From what we know, Udoka has been shut down, correctly. But ya know...we are creeping up to the 5-6 week mark here...

My question is simply wondering aloud here if there is a chance in another few weeks, that he shows up in late Feb in the lineup? I dont expect him to be any better, as he hasnt been able to put in the work to get better...but, his hand should be healed here shortly, then the requisite rehab process...? ? ?

...what prompted this thought, is I was texting my bro-in-law, and we both agreed Doke will be an absolute beast next season, will be the darling of ESPN, and will be a lotto pick. 7ftrs like him dont grow on trees. Size, athleticism, and nastiness by nature, now pent-up due to injury. He's got a ton to be motivated about for next year.

And this is a good opp for Bragg, get yourself developed to the next level, and have a breakout Jr season next year. Its time for that also.

@ralster

He tore ligaments to the extent of needing surgical repair.

I don't have the details on Doke's severity but from my experience the best case on a surgical repair is 8 weeks until the beginning of rehab.

The prognosis states a mid-summer full recovery. Sounds about right. 3 or 4 month rehab.

I don't expect to see him back this year.

@ralster

It's mind-boggling to think of next year's post.... Doke, Carlton and Billy.... backed up by Mitch and Dwight.

If we stay healthy, we will not have a depth problem in the post!

Seriously seriously deep in the post! Heck, Bill could play 5 Bigs with Billy at the point.

Our post will be near unstoppable next season.

It leads me to wonder if Coach will stick with what he has learned this season. Running 4 guards.

If SVI comes back and DG comes back, with Vick and the other guards... and we get Trae Young.

Holy cow that's a deep team. We are talking Duke and Kentucky deep here

Why wouldn't he mess with opposing coaches and run every thing he can? 2 guards 3 bigs, 3 guards two bigs, 4 guards one big.

Shiite, Ralster, I just edited your post by mistake. sorry bout that!

JUST to mess with the opposing team. Add in his junk zone defenses for a bit. I mean, for real! Nothing beats that.

@drgnslayr Ah, yes, thanks for the correction, it was indeed ligaments, which always is a several month recovery. I stand corrected.

He hopefully comes back 110% next season!

@drgnslayr said:

@ralster

He tore ligaments to the extent of needing surgical repair.

I don't have the details on Doke's severity but from my experience the best case on a surgical repair is 8 weeks until the beginning of rehab.

The prognosis states a mid-summer full recovery. Sounds about right. 3 or 4 month rehab.

I don't expect to see him back this year.

Yeah they announced he was done for the year when it happened and I doubt anything has changed.

@drgnslayr said:

@ralster

It's mind-boggling to think of next year's post.... Doke, Carlton and Billy.... backed up by Mitch and Dwight.

If we stay healthy, we will not have a depth problem in the post!

I am hoping for another post addition but I might be greedy.

I don't see how Doke will be a lottery pick with his current skill set. Name a lottery pick recently that was as unpolished and as unrefined of a shooter as Doke? You won't find one I looked.

Playing only 11 games and being out until mid-summer does not help him become a "beast". Just voicing my own opinion here as it seems like conventional wisdom that he's going to be so much better after missing all that game action and off-season work.

I'm a huge Doke fan but he's got a long ways to go and for a player that thinks he's a 2 and done he's going to have to prove a lot to get there. This would be the perfect kid to stay all 4 years and maximize playing and mastering his skill in the post.

@BeddieKU23 The other young one, Svi, thought he would be a 2ad also. Time will tell. If Dok beasts out he's gone, if not hopefully he makes the (correct) decision to come back.

All these kids think they will be in the NBA. And sooner than later. We live in an instant gratification era.

@ralster

Was Doke able to get a medical red shirt of some sort or did he lose one entire season?

@dylans

Was it Svi that thought he would be here 2 years or the media over-hyping him? I always thought that the hype surrounding him didn't match what was real.

Doke is on record saying he wants to stay 2 years. The injury does open the possibility up that he won't be ready to leave. I really hope he's around more then just next year.

@JayHawkFanToo no doesn't matter, not a 4 year player

@Crimsonorblue22

You are probably correct but you never know...Tarczewski was supposed to be a OAD at Arizona and ended up staying 4 years and he is not alone...just sayin'...

@JayHawkFanToo

Good point and Tarc was a player that wasn't particularly skilled coming into College and really never got to the point where he could be drafted early. I do think Doke has a significantly different ceiling to Tarc, given his young age, athleticism and general lack of time playing the game to date.

@drgnslayr I was curious, I didn't realize he had broke any thing - -did he? -- I too thought or was under the assumption it was torn ligaments, which actually is worse yet isn't it? - - - - -ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY

@BeddieKU23

Tarc was top 5 player coming out of HS so there was a reason to think he was a OAD. Sometimes the HS game does not translate well to college and college game to the NBA or it takes longer to develop. We have seen very little of Doke so there is not much to go by. It is reasonable to think that after the next season he is gone but it is not unreasonable to think that he might sat longer. At this time he is a big question mark...

@BeddieKU23 I'm thinking that with him being out for the majority of this year, I fully myself believe that we will STILL have him for a full two yrs more, I mean he wasn't developed, not even close. Now with the set back he has had I feel this has still set his timetable if that's what it was, it has set it back to still two years, cause I'm sure he hasn't been able to do ANYTHING. - -I feel we will have him for his Soph & JR yrs. -- ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY

@JayHawkFanToo I think he probably played to much for a medical , but wouldn't swear to that Isn't a certain percentage of the games before they can't qualify ? - - - - ROCK CHALK ALL DAY LONG BABY

Coach answered that awhile back, no and it didn't matter.

@JayHawkFanToo

Tarc lived about an hr from my hometown, he was from a very small town where D-1 big-time offers are not common. I made the trip to see some of his games as a KU fan wanting to know what KU was potentially getting (and ended up not getting). All the buzz from the area was that Tarc was going to make it big. He was a Top HS player who dominated with size and enough offensive skill to think he would be a very good College player. For whatever reasons he just didn't develop into a dominant player and the evaluations on him ended up not being accurate. Its tough to say whether KU would have been able to maximize his hype coming in, sometimes the kids themselves just don't have what it takes to keep progressing.

And I agree about Doke, he's played so little basketball and he was literally only scratching the surface this year in the games he was able to play. There is significant promise but not enough to say Lotto pick after next year, I think that's an unfair expectation to put on him. How quickly we forget how bad his FT shooting was or how almost all his offense came off lobs. His rebounding/rim protection were solid and things we miss currently. I think that aspect of his game will be easy to rely on next season. What strides he makes offensively is really key for him.

@BeddieKU23 said:

The injury does open the possibility up that he won’t be ready to leave. I really hope he’s around more then just next year.

I hope he is ready to leave skill-wise because that would mean next year is huge for him!

@mayjay

Good way of looking at it. How likely is that given the injury and his timeline for getting back on the court?

@BeddieKU23 Remember, I am on record as believing he can be learning a lot during this time. I would expect he is at least going through the steps of certain plays, watching tape, learning grit and competitiveness from the vets, and (hopefully) building up lower and core body (and opposing hand) strength while his wrist heals. He can also be focused on school, which can't hurt for any freshman. I would love to hear if he was in dance classes to develop more agility in his legs and hips.

@JayHawkFanToo Good question?

@Crimsonorblue22 Additional injuries would matter a lot...

@BeddieKU23 Agreed with your level-headed take as well. My pure speculation in my texts with my brother, was that he learns the system, plays a little more polished, adds moves, and is motivated as hell to get to the League, and thus "show" what is required to earn lotto status, etc.--> but will this all happen next year?

Look at it another way: if he'd stayed healthy, he would have helped Frank's mission. Next season, if he plays with a skillset, then he at least is able to help Devonte's mission.

He could well stay for a junior season. He personally said in the summer, pre-season, that it was "2 years only"...but we all take that with a big grain of salt from a 16-17yr old kid.

The main thing in his favor, are the huge potential upside, as he was ranked as a 5star McDAA. Gotta have more than just size to get ranked like that. But he indeed is pretty raw. But even as a 17yr old, he was starting to play as a man amongst boys with his size and wt, at least in a garbage rebound/putback sense. He was a better option than Lucas, which is why he was starting, which also put LL in a funk over it.

Regarding Tarczewski, clearly he picked AZ over KU not for the coaching (maybe for the co-eds?), and his own choices hampered his development. I truly believe had he played for Self, he'd have developed farther.

@ralster Ive heard nothing since the time of injury. I believe Coach Self said something about returning to full speed some time this summer.

He didn't just break a bone, I think he tore something. That takes longer to rehab than a break.

@ralster

I really have the utmost hope for Doke so I share some of the optimism that others may about him. When I take my KU blinders off and focus on the player and not where he plays I see a lot of growth to come in order to convince any NBA GM he's worth taking after next year.

Given his size/athleticism and age he's a very attractive option for the grab and stash method teams often do with Euro's. Lottery does not seem like an option unless he comes out in a weak draft and he significantly improves his shooting touch. With the way he shot FT's I'm not sure a radical change will ever occur, but countless hours of working on it will be needed.

The good thing with Doke is we know he's not going to be a guy that's shooting jump shots so most of what the KU staff can do with him while he's still on campus is strictly in the paint B2B moves, awareness etc. I'm excited what he will be able to improve on once he does get fully healthy because he did seem to be picking things up quicker then say Diallo did. I think we also saw a swagger and toughness to Doke that I think will help facilitate his improvement and we certainly saw flashes of that this year.

We know he can rebound and protect the rim at well above average levels. We saw him dedicate his mentality to getting into shape by losing 30+ pounds in just one off-season. There is further growth to be made with his body this summer. I'm sure Hudy will be excited to work with him yet again. I expect there is further improvement that will come with Doke becoming all man muscle.

Some of the things that don't get put on paper that Doke will have to prove in College is guarding Pick N Roll's, general post defense without fouling every possession and awareness on switches. I bet a lot of the stuff he learned in his first season were new to him due to his situation. In High School he just dunked everything and roamed the paint on defense.

I expect this discussion of Doke will be something we will have to re-hash at a later date because he certainly has a bright future if he puts the work in.

@jayballer54

Yes... it is often the case that torn ligaments are worse than a bone break but there are exceptions in both cases. Bad tears require surgery and have a long healing process.

@BeddieKU23

I hope he sticks around in school long enough to make an impact.

I think he is two years away from being the beast everyone imagines.

Next year the goals for him are:

1. Learn enough "Self ball" to understand what he is supposed to do and how he can help create offense and help on defense.

2. Get in better condition. Even though he made an incredible effort this year and lost a lot of weight, he is still a long ways from being in top D1 basketball condition. As far as he has come, he still needs another year to be in good enough condition to play most of a half without being totally winded and exhausted. Make sure hand is well-healed by doing rehab.

3. Learn personal technique. Start the long process of learning how to really shoot FTs. Learn some back to the basket moves. Learn how to seal off the post. Learn how to guard without fouling. Learn how to offer weak side defensive help.

If you look at how much work he has in front of him... he will still be a "work in progress" next year. He will be more dominant and will contribute, but getting him to the level of "college franchise" is a long ways off.

@drgnslayr especially to a dunker