Kansas forward Landen Lucas (33) dunks before Indiana forward OG Anunoby (3) during the first half of the Armed Forces Classic at Stan Sheriff Center, on Friday, Nov. 11, 2016 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Kansas senior center Landen Lucas hasn’t been brought to recent media-availability sessions, which generally are reserved for players who aren’t battling slumps, so the “What’s wrong with Landen?” questions have fallen to others to answer.

One theory offered Monday to coach Bill Self was that Lucas misses playing alongside Perry Ellis.

“I don’t know. I can’t say that. I think playing alongside Perry helped, but I also think playing alongside Landen helped Perry,” Self said. “I don’t read into that. Landen’s going to be fine.”

Referees are calling certain fouls in the post that they used to let go because of a new emphasis on existing rules.

Quick fouls have been Lucas’ undoing. He is averaging 8.2 personal fouls per 40 minutes (22 fouls in 107 minutes). He also had trouble with excessive fouling as a seldom-used reserve, when he committed 20 fouls in 107 minutes. He averaged 5.7 fouls per 40 minutes as a sophomore and 5.5 as a junior.

“He just hasn’t played as well as he’s capable of playing yet, but he will,” Self said. “And when he does, and that’s what I told our guys yesterday, when he does, our team is going to get a lot better fast. And I said the same about Carlton (Bragg). We’re not going to be able to go through a year playing four guards all the time. We need to be able to play two bigs and count on those two bigs, and we’ll get there.”

Kansas forward Carlton Bragg Jr. (15) comes away with a board during the second half of the Champions Classic on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2016 at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Self said he has talked to both struggling big men, but is not taking on the role of emotional cheerleader and is pretty much talked out.

“I do think that it’s a matter of fact: ‘You can do this. You’ve shown you can do this. Now, what do we need to do to get you to do this?’ as opposed to a pep talk about doing it,” Self said. “They know. They’re smart. They know what they need to do.”

Self added that Bragg played better in the most recent game, vs. UNC-Asheville, and said he “had an unbelievable practice (Sunday), so that was a big positive.”

Bragg also has reached two personal fouls quickly on a consistent basis and has been whistled 18 times in 105 minutes, a rate of 6.9 fouls per 40 minutes.

Devonté Graham again answered the Lucas question after KU’s blowout victory against UNC-Asheville.

“I think it’s just a little funk that you go through, some things not going right, not as energetic or into the game, then he’ll get frustrated with himself just because he made a bad play or got a dumb foul and now he’s got to sit out,” Graham said. “I’ve said it before: He’ll be all right.”

Sophomore Lagerald Vick took the question Monday afternoon.

“Landen can be up and down,” Vick said. “He’s a good player off the court and on the court. I take tips from him as well. Landen’s pretty good.”

But he has been better, and if his coach is right, Lucas will return to form.

The fact that Lucas has played the identical number of minutes this season as he did all of his freshman year, many of them coming in garbage time, makes for an interesting, if unscientific, comparison.

Season FG-FGA FT-FTA Reb. Blk Pts.

Fr.: 12-21 10-20 30 7 34

Sr.: 11-21 5-8 25 5 27

Again, the comparison is flawed because as a redshirt freshman, many of his minutes came against reserves from teams getting blown out by Kansas. Forty-nine of this year’s minutes came vs. Indiana and Duke.

Still, the numbers do show that Lucas temporarily has lost some of his aggressiveness. Struggling with refs’ new interpretation of existing rules likely has played at least a part in that.