Bill Self rules Kevin McCullar out of NCAA Tournament

Kansas was without two stars during the Big 12 Tournament, seeing Hunter Dickinson and Kevin McCullar deal with injuries. Bill Self wanted to rest both of them in order to have them available for the NCAA Tournament. While Dickinson seems set to return, the news isn’t as great for McCullar.

Self officially ruled McCullar out for the entire NCAA Tournament as he continues to deal with a knee injury. McCullar has not been in the Jayhawks lineup for the majority of the back half of the season, playing in just three games since the middle of February.

A brutal loss for Kansas just a couple of days before taking on Samford in the Round of 64.

“He’s out,” Self said on Tuesday. “We’re shutting him down for the tournament… He hasn’t practiced in six weeks, basically. He hasn’t done more damage to his knee but he tried to [play] and said that he just couldn’t go.”

The news was delivered when Kansas touched down in Salt Lake City on Tuesday evening. When speaking to the media on Selection Sunday, Self was still hopeful McCullar would be able to play despite not participating in any basketball activities.

“Kevin, I haven’t seen doing anything,” Self said. “The entire game plan with him was hopefully on Monday he can be good to go, and if he’s not good enough to go (Monday) then he won’t be and then we’ll hope on Tuesday.”

Outside of the heartbreak of not playing in the NCAA Tournament, McCullar was in his final season of eligibility. His college basketball career is now over after spending the first three seasons at Texas Tech and the final two with Kansas.

McCullar was having a career year on the offensive end, averaging 18.3 points while assisting 4.1 times per game. He was rebounding well too, grabbing six rebounds every time out. Named an All-American honorable mentioned, McCullar likely would have been on one of the teams had he remained healthy.

Now he will have to watch from the sideline and cheer his Kansas teammates. Samford was a trendy upset pick even before the news about McCullar broke but now, a lot of attention will be on how the Jayhawks perform.

Tip-off from Salt Lake City is scheduled for 9:55 p.m. ET, being the second to last game of the day. The winner of Wisconsin–James Madison will be waiting in the second round.