As Brian Goodman noted in today’s Big 12 Morning 5, Kansas forward Jamari Traylor was arrested early Sunday morning for interfering with the duties of a police officer at a Lawrence nightclub. On Monday afternoon, head coach Bill Self doled out the punishment for his transgression by announcing that Traylor would be allowed to travel with the Jayhawks to Washington D.C. for Wednesday’s game against Georgetown, but he will not play. That appears to be the extent of Traylor’s sentence on the basketball court. Self closed the matter by saying, “Hopefully it’ll be a situation where we can put it behind us.”

Jamari Traylor will be on the bench when Kansas takes on Georgetown (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Traylor’s suspension means Kansas will be without the junior forward for its first true road game of the season. The Hoyas’ frontcourt is anchored by 6’10”, 350-pound senior Josh Smith, who averages 12.7 points per game as Georgetown’s most used player (28.4 percent of their possessions while on the floor). Traylor’s loss will be felt most acutely as Kansas tries to defend the burly but talented Smith in the paint, as his presence off the bench provides Self with another experienced body to utilize should Landen Lucas or Cliff Alexander end up in foul trouble. In the absence of Traylor, the Jayhawks may now need to rely on little-used big man Hunter Mickelson instead. The 6’10” junior transfer has played only 4.6 percent of his team’s minutes this season, but he could be called on for more significant duty on Wednesday. If Mickelson can contribute like he did during a freshman year at Arkansas when he blocked 13.5 percent of opponents’ shots, then Kansas shouldn’t miss Traylor much defensively.

If Traylor’s arrest has any long-term implications for Bill Self’s lineup, this suspension could even become a blessing in disguise. According to KenPom, Traylor has played in 47.9 percent of the available minutes this season. Over the last five games, he has spent the majority of his time playing next to junior Perry Ellis. Traylor and Ellis have similar offensive games, preferring to face up and drive against defenders rather than playing with their backs to the basket. The result is often a clunky offense that doesn’t feature the more complementary post games of either Lucas or Alexander. Indeed, based on aggregate efficiency numbers, Kansas was 0.07 points per possession worse than their opponents last season when Traylor and Ellis were on the floor together. The loss of Traylor is unlikely to have a huge effect on whether Kansas wins at Georgetown, but it’s never good news when a team’s frontcourt loses one of its key contributors. The flip side of it is that it also allows Self an opportunity to somewhat rework his big man rotations — and should the Jayhawks play well in the nation’s capital as a result, perhaps Self will further move to a rotation that limits the amount of time that Traylor and Ellis spend on the court together.

Chris Stone (136 Posts)

Chris Stone is a contributor to the Big 12 microsite. You can find him on Twitter @cstonehoops.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 8th, 2014 at 4:01 pm by Chris Stone and is filed under big 12, microsites. Tagged: feature, georgetown, Jamari Traylor, kansas, suspensions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.