Kansas is running out of men’s basketball players for Saturday’s noon battle at Iowa State.
The Jayhawks, already without Drew Gooden (wrist injury), announced Thursday they would not have Luke Axtell and Mario Kinsey for the showdown between the Big 12’s top two teams.
Axtell, a senior shooting guard from Austin, Texas, will be held out of basketball for up to seven days because of persistent lower back pain caused by a bulging disk.
Kinsey, KU’s freshman basketball point guard/football quarterback from Waco, Texas, has left the team for the remainder of the season for academic reasons.
It has not been determined whether Kinsey will return to basketball next year.
Axtell has hit just two of his last 19 three-pointers over 10 games.
“There is no exact timetable on when Luke will return,” KU coach Roy Williams said. “We do need Luke to play effectively, and you can’t do that unless you’re healthy.
“This is another big blow for our basketball team at this time, but we’ve got to move on and hope this will help us get Luke more healthy and ready to play for us as we get to tournament time.”
Kinsey, meanwhile, had trouble juggling classroom responsibilities and the time constraints of playing two sports.
“Mario struggled academically first semester and has continued to perform below expectations in the classroom,” Williams explained. “After discussing the situation with (football coach) Terry Allen and Mario, it was decided that stopping his basketball participation was necessary.
“Mario will now have more time to devote to his academics and this will allow his body to rest before the start of spring football.”
Kinsey said he didn’t leave basketball because he was in danger of becoming ineligible for football next fall.
“No. It is not an eligibility factor,” Kinsey said. “It’s the fact I want to get it (GPA) at a certain level. It’s not really hard to study, but hard to keep a focus.
“Since August, I haven’t had a break and my academics has not been where I want it to be. Now that I have an opportunity to concentrate on football, my academics will change.”
Kinsey said the decision had nothing to do with playing time in Monday’s game against Baylor and declining minutes the past several weeks.
He was allotted just one minute in Monday’s game played in his hometown.
“No, it’s nothing like that,” said Kinsey, who drew Williams’ ire by being late for a team breakfast several weeks ago. “The playing part didn’t have anything to do with it. I just used that as another opportunity to go home and see my family and finalize my decision with them.”
Kinsey said his decision to leave the team had nothing to do with any conflicts with Williams.
“No. I owe so much to coach Williams,” Kinsey said. “He didn’t have to give me the opportunity to play basketball on this team, but he did. I thanked him when I talked to him about it.”
Kinsey said he made the final call to leave the hoops team following the trip to Waco.
“On the trip home, the flight back, the drive back to Lawrence, the walk to the (Jayhawker) Towers,” he said. “It was all going on then.”
Regarding his future in hoops, Kinsey said: “I’m not looking that far in the future right now. I want to concentrate on my grades and concentrate on spring football coming up. It’s too far in the future right now. I’m just concentrating on this semester. Next year (is when his hoops future will be decided).”
Might he play hoops next year as well as football?
“It depends on how he maintains his academics,” KU football coach Terry Allen said. “The whole situation with him as a dual-sport athlete is, we said, ‘Mario, you can play basketball if you keep your academics up.’ He struggled in the first semester and he’s struggling this semester.
“This is a great chance for him to be able to improve his academics. I’m concerned where he is right now before getting into the (NCAA) tournament. Once you get into the tournament he can’t afford to miss any classes.”
“If you ask him, it might be different, but what he told me was, football is first and foremost. If we continue to have problems we would consider keeping him out of spring ball,” Allen added. “But I would like to think not missing classes, being accountable, will help him academically. He’s not in such a deep hole that he can’t get out of it.”
Kinsey was sorry to have to leave the basketball team.
“I will miss basketball and miss my teammates, too,” Kinsey said. “I did feel bad telling them I was giving it up. I think a lot of them didn’t want me to leave because I was sort of like the team clown. I made a lot of people laugh. A lot of people were down about the loss to Baylor. I cut them up a little. This is a new chapter. Another page has turned.”
Kinsey, who’s on football scholarship at KU, averaged 1.9 points while averaging 8.8 minutes in 16 basketball games played. He red-shirted last football season.
Axtell averages 5.8 points and 2.8 boards while logging 16.3 minutes per game.