Perhaps I Gush too Much at the Jazz's Pick

   Perhaps I gush too much, but here goes. 

   Udoka Azubuike -- Nigerian Nightmare II -- somehow remained available for the Jazz all the way down at the 27th pick. The guy's resume is worthy the top pick in the draft. As the top player on the top team in the land, how does that square that he's but the 27th pick? The Kansas Jayhawks boasted the top defense in the nation with him anchoring it. He graduated with the highest career shooting percentage in all of NCAA history (74.9%). At 7-foot-0 and 270 pounds with a 7-foot-8 wingspan and a 9-foot-4 standing reach, this guy is a behemouth physical presence hard to match. There might be 10 bigs in the NBA beefier than him, but how many of them have such a standing reach? 

   Twenty-six picks went by without him being taken. That's almost everyone in the league passing him by. The Jazz simply engineered an unbelievable coup. They hoodwinked everyone. They even traded down and still came away with him, giving away the 23rd pick in exchange for the 27th and 38th. 

   His 75% shooting likely cannot translate into the NBA. But, if it did, he would be a more efficient scorer than Steph Curry. Curry's 3s fall at a 43% clip, so that's a little less than 15 points per 10 shots. Udoka's 75% would put him right at 15 points per 10 shots. 

   Downsides? Only 44 percent from the line, and he's not overly mobile. Only time will tell, they say, and so now though the clock has quit ticking for the Jazz to take their turn in the draft, it begins to tick all over again, ticking as we await the Nigerian Nightmare II, to see how well he can do.