Tag: Kevin McCullar Jr.

Bill Self spoke out about Kevin McCullar Jr. after the Kansas star faced criticism for sitting out March Madness

Self defended his senior star.

The No. 4 seed Kansas Jayhawks will have a tough road ahead of them in the men’s NCAA tournament after head coach Bill Self announced upon arriving to Salt Lake City that leading scorer Kevin McCullar Jr. will miss the entire tournament. McCullar had been battling a bone bruise in his knee since January and had been in and out the lineup for months.

But shortly after that announcement, McCullar faced criticism for missing the tourney given Self’s own implication that doctors had cleared the Kansas senior to play. Here’s the clip from Tuesday:

Self said at the time that though McCullar hadn’t injured his knee worse, the pain had not subsided to the point where he can play. So, they decided to shut him down for the entire tournament regardless of any potential tourney run for the Jayhawks. The reaction to those comments and similar remarks from players drew a negative response from Kansas and college basketball fans.

A few hours before Kansas’ game against Samford, Self took to Twitter and spoke out on the situation. He wanted to make it clear that McCullar did not quit on the team and that it was a decision Kansas and the team doctors made.

Self added that McCullar would act as an assistant coach during the tournament. Kansas is expected to have star center Hunter Dickinson available for the game after he suffered a dislocated shoulder against Houston.

Oklahoma runs out of gas in the second half as they fall to No. 6 Kansas 67-57

No. 25 Oklahoma falls 67-57 against No. 6 Kansas as the Jayhawks sweep the season series.

No. 25 Oklahoma entered Saturday with a chance to earn their third win against a top-25 opponent. Instead, they came up short as Bill Self and his sixth-ranked Kansas Jayhawks completed the season sweep of the Oklahoma Sooners 67-57.

Oklahoma entered the day with severe doubt that two trusted rotation members would play. [autotag]Rivaldo Soares[/autotag] twisted his ankle in the second half of the Sooners’ 79-62 loss at Baylor on Tuesday after leading the team in scoring with 17 points.

[autotag]John Hugley[/autotag] IV injured his knee against Oklahoma State last Saturday and didn’t even travel for OU’s game vs. the Bears.

Soares tested his ankle pregame but ended up not playing, and he and Hugley were sorely missed.

Oklahoma started Javian McCollum, Milos Uzan, Otega Oweh, Sam Godwin, and Jalen Moore. They raced out to a double-digit first-half lead behind hot shooting and terrific defense on Kansas forward Kevin McCullar Jr., who was returning from an injury. Jalon Moore led the way with 13 of his team-high 17 points. Milos Uzan was aggressive and added 8 points, while McCollum contributed six.

Kansas pushed back towards the end of the half to cut Oklahoma’s lead to 5 at the break. OU entered the locker room up 34-29 after an excellent all-around first half minus 3/8 free throw shooting in the first half.

The second half started, and Kansas began to find themselves.

Kansa and OU played a close game with the game tied on a number of occasions before Hunter Dickinson found McCullar for a three-pointer that gave KU its first lead since 5-4. Kansas would go on a 14-4 run and would not look back.

Oklahoma continued to fight, but their first-half shooting cooled dramatically as they shot 3 of 19 from the field in the second half. The Sooners’ inability to stop Kansas in the half-court, specifically Hunter Dickinson, doomed the them despite having a five-point halftime lead.

Javian McCollum was 3 of 6 from three and finished with 15 points.

Hunter Dickinson posted a 20-point, 16-rebound double-double to set the tone for the Jayhawks. Freshman Johnny Furphy added 15 points on 5/8 shooting with three makes from distance to help his team.

For Oklahoma, the Sooners will have the week off and not play until next Saturday when they make their final Big 12 visit to Stillwater in basketball to wrap up the Bedlam season series.

Kansas will host Texas next Saturday back home in Allen Fieldhouse.

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Shaka Smart had to be held back as benches cleared during a skirmish with Bill Self at Maui Invitational

This was INTENSE.

Tensions were high between No. 4 Marquette head coach Shaka Smart and No. 1 Kansas head coach Bill Self during the 2023 Maui Invitational Semifinals.

During the first half, Kansas senior Kevin McCullar hit a 3-point shot and, as the two teams went into a break for a media timeout, it wasn’t long before both benches cleared.

While it wasn’t initially clear what caused the skirmish, the two teams were eventually separated and both of the coaches were issued off-setting technical fouls. NCAA referee Roger Ayers then huddled with Self and Smart in an effort to de-escalate the conflict.

But the two sides remained heated and ESPN clearly captured Self saying the word “unbelievable” after the interaction.

After the game, which Marquette won 73-59, Smart offered his take on what happened during his exchange with McCullar (via KansasCity.com):

“He played at Texas Tech and he always has brought an edge that is different. He’s always enjoyed having a dialogue with me. He probably does that with all coaches. That kind of started the little dust-up. Their bench got involved. Our bench got involved. At the end of the day it really had very little to do with the game.”

Self, meanwhile, didn’t want to talk about the incident after the game but he told reporters that he doubted Smart provided an accurate summary.

For what it is worth: The two coaches and their teams have not seen eye-to-eye for more than a decade. Back in 2011, VCU (then coached by Smart) faced Kansas in the Elite Eight of the NCAA tournament. Before the game, Marcus and Markieff Morris had an altercation with VCU in the tunnel.

Smart was later hired by Texas, and for many years, he and Self battled for recruits and conference titles in the Big 12. Three of Smart’s highest-ranked wins have come against Self and Kansas, per ESPN.

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