"He should play on Tuesday," Bill Self told ESPN on Monday, "he" being freshman center Joseph Embiid.
Neither of the two injuries, knee and back, plaguing Embiid appears to be major. MRIs on both yielded negative results, according to ESPN.
Though the eighth ranked Jayhawks were upset by Kansas State (17-7, 7-4) on Feb. 10 when Embiid left early with said issues, he picked a good time to miss the next game, home against TCU (9-15, 0-12) where Kansas dominated. That he's playing tomorrow is a further sign of his health, for Kansas likely won't have much trouble tomorrow at Texas Tech (13-12, 5-7).
Of course, coaches are paid to worry, especially the best ones. Adding to his unease is the fact that the they haven't played Texas Tech yet. Perhaps if they had and won handily, Self would have kept Embiid out another game. Or, more likely, Embiid is simply 100 percent healthy and ready to go regardless of opponent. No word, however, if the freshman center will be limited in terms of minutes.
Though dubiously left off the Wooden Watch top 25 list, Embiid is one of college basketball's most valuable players with averages of 10.7 ppg, 7.8 rpg, and 2.5 bpg on 62 percent shooting. The 7-footer is one of the rare true centers at the college level, one of the reasons why he's projected to go number one in next year's draft.
Not comparing Embiid to Hakeem Olajuwon is impossible, given their relatively similiar beginnings (though I won't yet credit Ebiid for Hakeem's offensive game). Like "The Dream," he grew up in Africa (Cameroon; Olajuwon was born in Nigeria) and soccer (as well as volleyball) were his primary sports.
He was discovered by Cameroonian and current Minnesota Timberwolve Luc Mbah a Moute, who convinced him to concentrate on basketball full time (he only started playing that year) and move to the United States for his junior year of high school, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Embiid didn't play much that first year, and decided to transfer to another school in Florida in search of more court time.
During an impressive but not off-the-charts senior season, Self began recruiting him on the advice of assistant coach Norm Roberts, who'd noticed Embiid during his junior year while he was Billy Donovan's assistant at Florida. It was in practice, watching Embiid go through his individual moves, where Self truly began to understand the young man's potential. Before he even made it to Kansas, Self believed he could one day be the top pick in the draft, according to the WSJ.
"We never thought Joel was a project," Roberts told the WSJ. "From a skills standpoint, he was farther along than most big guys."
