KU’s Kevin McCullar ‘re-tweaked’ knee in win over K-State. Self discusses his status
After missing four of five games because of a bone bruise in his left knee, Kansas senior guard Kevin McCullar returned to score 39 points combined in a loss to Baylor and victory over Kansas State.
However he suffered his first setback in a while late in the Jayhawks’ 90-68 victory over the Wildcats on Tuesday at Allen Fieldhouse. He left the game with 5:35 left and KU leading 73-49.
“He re-tweaked it. He asked to come out with six minutes left and didn’t come back after that,” KU coach Bill Self said of the 6-foot-7 San Antonio native, whose status is up in the air heading into Saturday’s Big 12 regular-season finale at Houston, the No. 1-ranked team in the country.
Tipoff is 3 p.m. at Fertitta Center in Houston with a live broadcast on ESPN.
“I don’t know if Kevin will practice today (Thursday). Hopefully he’ll be able to go tomorrow,” Self said.
Self acknowledged there’s a possibility McCullar could be held out of some of the Big 12 tournament, which for KU will start either Wednesday or Thursday of next week and runs through Saturday at T-Mobile Center.
“The answer will be, ‘I don’t know,’’’ Self said. “That’s something I certainly have thought about, but we’re too soon to talk about it. We’ll see how he does this weekend. We’ll see how he feels next week. But doing well in the Big 12 tournament isn’t as important as being healthy the next week (in the NCAAs). We’ll try to figure it out. I’m going to wait and get through this week before we actually try to get a game plan together on that.”
McCullar against K-State played at less than 100%. He was 5-of-14 shooting (2-of-4 from 3 and 7-of-7 from the line) good for 19 points and three rebounds.
“He has no explosion off his left leg and he is a left-leg jumper,” Self said Wednesday on his weekly radio show. “He’ll get it back. He has to get those quads to fire again. He gave us an awful lot considering everything.”
Self thinks missing five games costs McCullar consideration for Big 12 Player of the Year, but that he remains a likely first-team all-league performer.
Houston’s Jamal Shead could be leader for that honor with KU’s Hunter Dickinson. The Cougars (27-3, 14-3) have wrapped up at least a share of the league title. Houston wins it outright if it beats KU (22-8, 10-7) on Saturday or Iowa State loses at Kansas State.
“I’ve had an opinion on this a long time. If in fact it’s not clear cut — and I mean clear cut — the most valuable player or player of the year in the league should come from the team that wins the league,” Self said.
One example, Self pointed out, was the 2017-18 season.
“Devonté (Graham) won it (off KU’s league title team) when Trae (Young, OU) was in the league,” Self said. “We have one candidate obviously and that would be Hunter. We would have two if he would have been healthy in Kevin and ‘Hunt.’ Kevin has not played enough games. He will play in 13 of 18 as long as he can go Saturday.
“I don’t think people will vote him to be player of the year. You can vote him first-team all-league. Other guys have had great years statistically as well. I always think it’s the best player on the best team.”
Self said he thought senior forward Parker Braun (ankle) would be good to play against the Cougars.
“I think Parker is better,” Self said. He played one minute at the end of the KSU game. “The way they (Cougars) rebound the ball, any type of height, any type of size I think would be beneficial especially since since it’ll be a physical game. Even with guys not getting into foul trouble, it’s going to be a game that’d be hard for ‘Hunt’ to play 40 minutes. Parker will be very important.”
