Three-Point Play: Kansas, Nebraska, Alabama ruling

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STARTING FIVE: Big visits over the weekend, Jayhawks, Illini and more

Can Kansas win its 15th Big 12 title in a row without Udoka Azubuike? In today’s Three-Point Play, national analyst Eric Bossi looks at the Jayhawks. Also, why Nebraska better get things going and looking at an incredibly unreasonable ruling in Alabama.

On Sunday, Kansas announced junior Udoka Azubuike, their hulking interior presence, is out for the season because of a torn ligament in his right hand. Azubuike suffered the same season-ending injury, except in his left hand, as a freshman and you have to feel for the seven-footer’s bad luck. But, life goes on and Bill Self and the Jayhawks still have their eyes on winning an incredible 15th Big 12 title in a row.

Conference foes won’t be crying for the Jayhawks over the loss of Azubuike and in the short term, the Jayhawks will have to adjust. More than likely, potential All-American Dedric Lawson moves to the five and the Jayhawks employ a four-guard approach. It should also mean more increased roles for McDonald’s All-American freshman David McCormack and junior Mitch Lightfoot.

If you ask me, though, the Jayhawks single most important player at this point is a guy currently residing in NCAA purgatory, sophomore big man Silvio De Sousa. De Sousa’s name came up in the Adidas/FBI trial and former Adidas consultant admitted on the stand that he gave $2,500 to De Sousa’s guardian to help pay for online courses for De Sousa. Because of that, De Sousa is currently ineligible and the Jayhawks are waiting to hear a decision from the NCAA. Sources close to the program remain hopeful that De Sousa will be cleared in the near future and he has continued to practice with the team while awaiting a decision. But, there’s nothing concrete that says he’ll be back.

Like pretty much anybody else who covers or follows college basketball closely, I’m not betting against Self and the Jayhawks until they are actually beaten in a Big 12 race. But, I’d like their chances a lot more with a quick, athletic and tough big like De Sousa available to them.

Last year, I thought that Tim Miles and Nebraska had an NCAA Tournament caliber team. The selection committee disagreed with me even though the Huskers won over 20 games and went 13-5 in the Big Ten.

This year, Nebraska is an NCAA Tournament team and given that many people feel this could be a do-or-die year for Miles, the Huskers probably need to be. They upgraded their out of conference slate to quiet strength of schedule concerns and were looking good headed into Big Ten play. So far, the Big Ten hasn’t been kind to them as they’ve gotten off to just a 1-3 start, losing all three of their road games at Minnesota, Maryland and Iowa and at a minimum it has really shrunk their margin for error.

Look, the Huskers should be OK and given that the top six in their rotation includes one former five-star, four former four-stars and a three-star Rivals150 member, there’s no doubt that the talent is there. I’m also not going to freak out about the 1-3 conference start. But, given what happened to the Huskers last year and what is proving to be a shaky history on the road, they had better be sure that they are protecting home court and getting to at least .500 overall by the end of conference play. Assuming that they handle Penn State at home on Thursday, I feel that next Monday’s game at Indiana is as close to a must-win as a game in the first half of January can be.

Girls basketball isn’t my beat and I don’t know much about who the top prospects are. However, the story of Troy (Ala.) Charles Henderson senior Maori Davenport has certainly caught my attention.

For those who don’t know the story, Davenport is committed to Rutgers and considered one of the top prospects in the class of 2019. She won a gold medal playing for USA Basketball’s U18 team over the summer and is now ineligible because USAB errantly issued her a stipend payment of around $857. When they discovered the mistake, they contacted Davenport, her family, her school and the Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA) to make them aware of the error. Davenport’s family paid back the money and the AHSAA decided to suspend her for a year effectively ending her high school career.

Not surprisingly, this has become a huge social media debate with support overwhelmingly favoring Davenport’s reinstatement. Emails have been sent, petitions are being signed and many big-name voices are asking the AHSAA to be reasonable. Instead, the group has doubled down with a statement that essentially says “Too bad, you or somebody around you should have known better.”

OK, I can buy that when the check was received some questions should have been asked. But, the situation did get cleared up eventually and anybody with a shred of reason can see that there was nothing being cooked up to skirt the rules of amateurism here. Davenport’s high school hasn’t gotten an advantage, she didn’t get rich. This is just some people with power being totally and completely unreasonable because they are getting dragged in the media and their feelings are hurt.

Hopefully, the media and member institutions of the AHSAA will continue to apply pressure and reason will win out. If not, I hope that the McDonald’s All-American Game voters and committee take into account her special situation. I’m a voter for the boys game and one of the rules is that you have to play in half of your games and be in good standing. These are marks that Davenport won’t be able to clear because of completely unreasonable management by the AHSAA. If she’s really a McD’s AA caliber player (and I’m told she is) I hope an exception can be made to put her on the team. What I hope more is that cooler heads prevail and Davenport can still enjoy what’s left of her senior year.