Kelly Oubre and Cliff Alexander weren't expected to be replacements for Kansas, they were supposed to be reinforcements. With Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid off to the NBA after one year in college to become the No. 1 and No. 3 overall picks in the 2014 draft, Oubre and Alexander were seen as natural successors on the wing and in the frontcourt for the Jayhawks.
Kansas finally learns to trust its freshmen
The Jayhawks were headed for an embarrassing home collapse on Monday before their two maligned newcomers came to the rescue.
Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
Like Wiggins and Embiid, Oubre and Alexander arrived at Kansas with the pedigree of top-10 recruits. Like Wiggins and Embiid, Oubre and Alexander were also expected to make Lawrence a one-year pitstop on the way to becoming lottery picks. Like Wiggins and Embiid, Oubre and Alexander were brought in to win Bill Self another Big 12 title, this one his 11th in a row.
Through the first half of the season, it wasn’t going as planned. Oubre was buried on the bench until opportunity finally arrived against Lafayette on Dec. 20. Alexander was constantly yanked in and out of the lineup, often for something as singular as a poor defensive closeout. That’s why Kansas’ win over Oklahoma on Monday felt so meaningful -- not only did the pair of freshmen rescue the Jayhawks from an embarrassing home collapse in the immediate, they also might have saved Kansas’ season in the long term.
Kansas entered halftime with a 19-point lead on Monday, but promptly missed its first eight shots of the second half. Oklahoma erased the deficit in 10 minutes thanks mostly to some hot shooting from Buddy Hield. With Kansas on the ropes and its conference title streak potentially hanging in the balance, Self finally learned to trust his freshmen. It paid off in a big way.
Oubre scored nine in the second half to end the night with 19 points and nine rebounds. Alexander was crucial defensively and on the glass to finish with 13 points, 13 rebounds and three assists. His offensive rebound off a missed free throw that led to a three-pointer by Brannen Greene with 3:30 left gave Kansas a two-point lead and changed the complexion of the game.
Just two days earlier, it seemed like Alexander might never get his chance. He was pulled from a loss at Iowa State after he failed to close out on a Dustin Hogue three-pointer, and played only two minutes in the second half. After the game, Self questioned his motor.
For Self, the idea might have been to sacrifice something now for better production down the line. Alexander -- the No. 3 recruit in the country according to ESPN -- had been as productive as any Jayhawk big man in limited time.
This minutes distribution makes sense. #motor #kubball pic.twitter.com/mpDQKdln8P
— Tom (@TJFsports) January 19, 2015 Self knows the mental lapses like the one against Iowa State can't happen in March, and he's willing to pay a price now to get rid of those later. He once gave similar treatment to another highly touted recruit named Mario Chalmers during his freshman year in 2006, and everyone knows how that story worked out.
Oubre’s rise is already apparent. After struggling to see the floor at all in Kansas’ first nine games, he’s been terrific in the last nine games. He’s looking like the athletic, three-point shooting wing he was purported to be all along. Over the last nine games, he is averaging 13.8 points, 7.2 rebounds and is hitting over 43 percent of his three-pointers.
Alexander and Oubre were heralded recruits for a reason. If Kansas is going to take home another conference crown in an absolutely loaded Big 12 this season, the Jayhawks are going to need positive contributions from the freshmen. In that sense, perhaps both Self and his pair of young players have learned something over the last few days. Seasons aren’t made in December or January. For Kansas, some early-season growing pains for Oubre and Alexander might ultimately be remembered as just a bump in the road.
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