Dok - The Man

What a transformation we've watched over the past month.

Dok has gone from a good dunker, below average shot blocker and rebounder, worst free throw shooter in the country, and overweight, fairly out of shape, to a monster dunker, excellent shot blocker, great defender who doesn't foul much, best rebounder in the country (and a beast at that - ripping rebounds away from everyone), slim, athletic, mobile game dominating monster.

What fun to watch him come alive. Dotson is fantastic, and should be on the short list of national awards. But, no one dominates a game and is more valuable to their team right now than Dok.

Just look at the faces of the opponents when he dunks. They look overwhelmed and helpless. He sucks their sole and changes the game.

Love the guy. Player of the Year!

I think Dok is a force that few can contain. He affects the game in so many ways. On offense it is true that a post player relies on others to get him the ball in the proper position to make the most of his skills. Dok make that easier with his size, mobility, and good hands.On defense his footwork, strength, and size make him a great defender. Someone that just controls his space, which is large, extremely well.

Devil's advocate time: Dok looked a little flummoxed early when OSU was swarming him and triple/quadruple teaming him. Not really his fault, as there's not much anybody can do when you've got 3-4 guys on you. Nevertheless, if we can't score from outside it's just too easy to collapse on him to shut him down.

So I guess this isn't criticism of Dok as much as it's the rest of the guys allowing their defenders to play off them without consequences.

You nailed my concern...KU's outside shooting. It's VERY inconsistent. Dok, Dotson, and Garrett have all been great, and this team seems to have really figured out how to play together and efficiently (especially since Self finally junked playing two bigs at the same time). But there will be a tournament game (or two) where the other team will surround Dok and force our other guys to hit some jump shots. Not real confident about that. Several tournament disasters have come about in large part due to clanking too many 3-pointers (VCU, 2 of 21!) Don't want to see that this year.

Agree with the overall point but disagree on VCU as an example. That team used the 3point shot quite a bit and was more reliant on it than this team is. That is what I like about this team, they can shoot the 3 poorly in a game and still win.

It was simply one of several possible examples. Also, that team was led by the Morris twins...so the inside game was the emphasis for that team as well.

NotO, I think your devil's advocate scenario solidifies the point that Dok is the MVP.

If our opponent triple and quadruple teams him, then by default they have identified his as the man to stop at all costs. If the other guys don't do their job and hit wide open shots when he is quadruple teamed, it's on them.

If Dotson was the dominant MVP, they would double and triple him, but we know Dok would have 50 points in that scenario and we'd win anyway.

He's the man.

Can't disagree, AZ. The only time Dok looked bad during the last game was when they collapsed on him and he had 4 guys in him. Guess what, NOBODY is going to look good with 4 guys on them.

Despite not being able to dominate 4 guys at once he also protected the ball and got it back out to the perimeter most of the time.

KUSports.com published 3 cases for MVP today: Dotson, Dok, and Garrett. While a case can be made for each of them, if you had to pick one guy to bench, I think losing Dok would have the greatest impact. He has impact on defense as a shot blocker and rebounder, and on offense he's either scoring, OR drawing multiple defenders to him.

Dotson was hurt earlier in the year, and Garrett proved to be a good backup. Losing Garrett would also hurt us (particularly on defense) but still leaves the Dot/Dok combo.

In that scenario, I think Dok is the MVP.

Also the fact that there's even a debate speaks volumes about how fortunate we are this year.

Thanks for mentioning them, NotO!

Dok
www2.kusports.com/news/2020/feb/26/bento...fluence-both-ends-m/

Dotson
www2.kusports.com/news/2020/feb/26/consi...son-why-he-should-b/

Garret
www2.kusports.com/news/2020/feb/26/matt-...tility-poise-under-/

And this one is about how HCBS doesn't use statistics to gauge a player of the year candidate's value
www2.kusports.com/weblogs/smithology/202...statistics-to-gauge/