Jayhawks Coach Bill Self announced Tuesday that McCullar, the team’s leading scorer, will not play in the NCAA tournament because of a bone bruise on his knee that has caused him to miss six of Kansas’s past 12 games.
“Kevin’s with the team,” Self said. “I mean, heck, he tried and we know he tried and was going through rehab, and it just didn’t get any better. The other weeks, it progressively got a little bit better. And this week it just — with consultation with doctors and with Kevin and where he is mentally and physically right now, it’s best for him to go ahead and shut it down, unfortunately for us, and more so for him, but there was really no decision to be made because he can’t go.”
McCullar averaged 18.3 points and was second on the team in assists and rebounds, and his presence on the court freed up the Jayhawks’ other scoring threats. Second-team all-American Hunter Dickinson, who is expected to play against Samford after he missed Kansas’s loss to Cincinnati in the Big 12 tournament with a dislocated shoulder, is shooting 43.1 percent in games McCullar has missed, compared with 57.4 percent in games he played.
The fourth-seeded Jayhawks open the tournament Thursday night against No. 13 Samford in Salt Lake City.
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