A day after hurting his neck, Kansas Jayhawks’ Kevin McCullar burns Yale for 34 points
For more than a few moments, it looked as if Kansas super senior combo guard Kevin McCullar may have suffered a serious injury Thursday afternoon in Allen Fieldhouse.
“At practice he moved like there would be a 50/50 chance he couldn’t get back to the dormitory because of the pain, and then tonight he was fine,” KU coach Bill Self said after KU’s McCullar-led 75-60 victory over Yale on Friday night again at Allen.
McCullar — he was sensational with a career-high 34 points in 38 minutes versus the pesky (7-6) mid-major Bulldogs — suffered a neck injury during Thursday’s workout.
“I went up for a layup in practice. A dude landed on my head kinda,” McCullar said, not identifying the defender. “It gets kind of physical at KU practices. I was a little banged up, but we got ‘Chedd’ — Bill Cowgill (trainer). He got me back right. I was going to play regardless,” added McCullar, who hit 11 of 18 shots while going 8 of 8 from the line and 4 of 7 on 3-pointers.
The No. 2-ranked Jayhawks, who improved to 11-1 entering the team’s 3 1/2-day Christmas vacation, are mighty fortunate McCullar was able to play Friday.
His 14 points were instrumental in keeping KU in the game the initial half.
Yale led by 11 points with 6 minutes, 21 seconds left before the break. McCullar responded with 11 points in an 18-8 run that cut the gap to 33-32 at the break.
The 6-foot-7, 212-pound San Antonio native then responded with 20 points on 7-of-9 shooting the final half as KU finally stormed past the Bulldogs, who last led, 42-41, with 13:17 left.
“Kevin has been our best player the whole year. He proved it again today,” KU senior guard Nick Timberlake said. Timberlake hit three 3s and tied a season-high with 13 points.
“He got nicked up in practice and fought through it. He’s one of the toughest teammates I’ve ever had. All these crazy injuries he’s gone through, (hurting) his neck at Illinois, his back, then tweaking his neck yesterday. It’s crazy watching him play. I love being on the court with him,” Timberlake added.
McCullar on Friday had six rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block.
Of his performance, Self said: “He’s got to be one of the best five players in the country in college basketball so far. Who out there on the wing Is having a better year than what he has? He’s a lockdown defender. He’s a two-way player. He’s shooting a good percentage. He has played in hard games. A lot of guys get stats. He’s been getting stats in hard games. He’s playing at a really high level.”
McCullar helped KJ Adams (six points, four assists, two steals an a block in 36 minutes) guard Yale 7-footer Danny Wolf, who scored 11 points and grabbed six rebounds in 35 minutes. Wolf was 1 of 5 from 3-point range. Yale as a team was 8 of 21 from 3; KU 9 of 20.
“They play the right way, play together. They’ve got some experienced guys,” McCullar said of Yale. Guards August Mahoney and Ben Mbeng had 13 points apiece. “They did a great job moving the ball and making us guard the whole shot clock, making 3s. They were beating us down pretty bad the first half. We had to take that away the second half,” McCullar added.
McCullar said KU coach Self “was proud of us for fighting back the last four minutes of the first half. He was upset (at half). We came out a little slow and sluggish. We can’t do that again. We’ve got to clean that up and learn from it, especially us older guys. We should have known and got the younger guys ready as well. We fed off the environment, the energy,” he added of a second half in which KU outscored Yale 43-27, to the delight of a loud crowd of 16,300.
“I don’t think there’s another arena that will sell out like that right before Christmas break. We’re blessed to have that. We competed off their energy today,” McCullar added.
KU’s players will now head to their hometowns for the Christmas holiday and return to Lawrence on Tuesday. Next game is against Wichita State at 3 p.m., Dec. 30 at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.
