RCW: Sport Spotlight 4.15 (Men's Basketball)

ON THE RISE: Devonte’ Graham passed Jacque Vaughn (1,207 from 1994-97) to move into 37th on #KUbball‘s career scoring list pic.twitter.com/ptNrDeWP1c

— Kansas Basketball (@KUHoops) December 10, 2017

?? #KUbball

A post shared by Kansas Basketball (@kuhoops) on Dec 6, 2017 at 5:28pm PST

Sophomore center Udoka Azubuike ranks first in NCAA Division I in field goal percentage at 78.4 percent going 58-of-74 in his first nine games of the 2017-18 season. The 7-foot-0, 280 pound Delta, Nigeria, native has had six games where he has shot 83 percent or better. Azubuike leads Kansas with 35 dunks for an average of 3.9 flushes per game. A rim protector, Azubuike leads the Big 12 in field goal percentage and also ranks tied for 16th in the league in scoring at 13.9 points per game. In addition, he leads KU and is sixth in the conference in rebounds per contest with a 7.4 average.
 
Historically, there are 351 teams in NCAA Division I and to lead the nation in a statistic is hard to come by. In fact, checking the NCAA Records Book of annual leaders, only twice has a Jayhawk led the country in a season stat and both were KU All-Americans. KU legend Clyde Lovellette led the NCAA in scoring average in 1951-52 at 28.6 points per game. More recently, Thomas Robinson led the country in double-doubles with 27 during the 2011-12 season. Under Lovellette’s leadership KU won the 1952 NCAA National Championship and Robinson led the Jayhawks to a runner-up finish in 2012.
 
With a minimum of 175 attempts, the Kansas single-season field goal percentage record is 64.6 percent by Mark Randall in 1988-89. Last year, Landen Lucas shot 63.1 percent from the field, which ranks fourth on the KU single-season list. On the NCAA level, with a minimum of five makes per game, there have been only 12 players who have shot 70 percent or better for a season with the most recent being Devontae Cacok of UNC-Wilmington, who set the record last season (2016-17) at 80.0 percent. Cacok is the only player in NCAA Division I history to shoot 80 percent for a season.
 
Kansas’ career record of field goal percentage has a minimum of 500 attempts. With only playing in 11 games last season due to injury, Azubuike is 80-for-109 for 73.4 percent in 20 games as a Jayhawk. Randall, who played at KU in 1986-87, redshirted in 1987-88, and finished up from 1988-91, holds the KU career record at 62.0 percent.