Kansas’ Kevin McCullar returns vs. Oklahoma: ‘We don’t win the game unless he plays’
Back on the court for the first time in three games, senior Kevin McCullar helped Kansas men’s basketball halt its four-game road losing streak Saturday at Oklahoma’s Lloyd Noble Center.
The 6-foot-7 guard from San Antonio, Texas, who practiced the last three days after missing a three-point home victory over Baylor and 29-point loss at Texas Tech because of a knee bruise, scored 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds in 35 minutes as No. 6 KU (20-6, 8-5) improved to 2-5 in league road games by defeating the No. 25 Sooners 67-57.
“I thought he was definitely out of sorts, out of rhythm, but he played within himself. We don’t win the game unless he plays,” KU coach Bill Self said.
McCullar hit 4 of 14 shots and was 2-of-8 from 3 on a day KU hit 6 of 19 3s to OU’s 8 of 23.
“What’d he still get, 10 points, eight rebounds and made arguably as big a shot as we had in the game. We don’t win the game unless he plays. We were fortunate with that,” Self repeated.
McCullar, who had three turnovers to no assists, was not quite 100% healthy for the game.
Dajuan Harris, who had 11 points with seven assists against no turnovers, said he was pleased with the toughness shown by McCullar.
“It helped a lot (having him back),” Harris said. “He is still going through some stuff, some injuries, but he’s been fighting. He’s a tough player. We trust him. Coach trusts him. We’ve got to keep his head up high going through injuries. He’s going to be all right. He’s going to get treatment. He’s going to be 100% Saturday (for home game versus Texas).
Harris and McCullar hit back to back 3s to open a 49-46 lead with nine minutes to play. Those shots were part of a 19-7 run that turned a 43-41 deficit into a commanding 60-50 KU lead with 5:57 remaining.
The Jayhawks were not threatened down the stretch. KU snapped a four-game road losing streak and indeed upped its Big 12 road record to 2-5 with games remaining at Baylor and Houston.
“It was great. Obviously it’s always good to win. Everybody around the country was kind of waiting for us to win a game on the road here,” said senior Hunter Dickinson.
Saying he felt the best he’s felt physically “in two months,” Dickinson scored 20 points with 16 rebounds and four assists with four turnovers in 36 minutes.
“We kind of felt we needed to win something on the road eventually,” Dickinson added. “Now we’ve got a week break before a big game against Texas. I think it’ll be good for us to finally get some rest now and finally kind of have the monkey off our back.”
The Jayhawks had heard a lot about their problems on the road.
“We were obviously aware of it, seeing it on social media and among our teammates, knowing we had not won a road game since Oklahoma State (on Jan. 16),” Dickinson said.
“That was our only win on the road in the Big 12. This was good for us. Oklahoma is a really good team, a top 25 team. I think this will look really good on our resume, especially as we are trying to play for a No. 1 seed here.”
Johnny Furphy hit three 3s in five attempts and scored 15 points with nine rebounds, while KJ Adams had nine points and four rebounds with two steals.
OU, which was outscored 38-23 the final half, was led by Jalon Moore and Javian McCollum who had 17 and 15 points respectively. The Sooners fell to 18-8 overall and 6-7 in the league.
“It was good we got one today,” Self said. “They’ve been really hard to come by for us in league play.”
