Gary Bedore
The Kansas City Star
Kansas senior guard Kevin McCullar, who takes an 18.5 points-per-game scoring average into Tuesday night’s nonconference clash against Kansas City compared to a 10.7-point scoring mark a year ago, suddenly is being projected as a first-round pick in the 2024 NBA Draft.
“I know that he’s really helped himself with the start of the season. I’ll be shocked if he isn’t thought of to be as good a two-way player on the perimeter as there is in the country,” KU coach Bill Self said on Monday.
Tipoff for KU-Kansas City is 7 p.m. with a livestream on Big 12 Now/ESPN+.
“I think his scoring has made people look at everything he does more intently and give him more credit with everything else, because now he’s become more (of) a scorer,” Self added of the 6-foot-7 San Antonio, Texas native. “It’s not like he’s 10 times better in the things we know he can do. He’s just as good, and he’s adding an aggressive offensive mentality.”
McCullar has hit 52.5% of his shots against a nonconference schedule that has included UConn, Tennessee, Marquette and Kentucky. He’s 11-of-31 from 3 for 35.5% and has secured 7.0 rebounds a game. A year ago he hit 44.4% of his shots and was 29-of-98 from 3 for 29.6%.
ESPN.com in its Nov. 30 mock draft listed McCullar as the No. 23 overall pick in Round 1. He was considered a possible late second-round selection had he kept his name in the 2023 draft.
“I think he’s off to a great start,” Self said. “He’s not going to score the ball, even though he is right now, as consistently as what Ochai (Agbaji) or J-Will ( Jalen Wilson) has done. Up to this point he has. He’s been great. Defensively and what he does with defensive rebounding and everything, that’s as good as we’ve seen. He is a terrific basketball player.”
McCullar hit 3 of 4 3s and scored 21 points in Friday’s 69-65 victory over UConn at Allen Fieldhouse.
He and the rest of the Jayhawks were feeling a bit fatigued from that battle between the last two NCAA champions a full two days after the contest.
“I could see yesterday that our guys were still exhausted after Friday’s game,” said Self, who cut Sunday’s practice short by 30 minutes since the team wasn’t accomplishing much.
“KJ wasn’t there,” he stated of KJ Adams, who headed to Austin, Texas, after Friday’s game for his mother’s funeral service on Saturday. Adams returned to Lawrence on Monday.
“Hunter’s nicked up. Juan and Kevin are nicked up and exhausted,” Self added of Hunter Dickinson, Dajuan Harris and McCullar, who Self said later are “fine” and expected to play Tuesday. “Whenever those guys don’t really practice and you’re putting it on everybody (else) … it wasn’t a good practice regardless. But we contributed to it not being good by not being ready.”
Self and his assistant coaches made the trip to Austin to attend the funeral service of Yvonne Adams on Saturday.
“It was an honor to be there and be part of a celebration of a lady that has done so much for so many others,” Self said. “It even surprised me and us (his staff) of what an impact she had, far more than we actually even knew, with all the different activities she was involved in and always fighting for others. It was very uplifting. I’m proud to have been there. It was very inspirational.”
Adams scored 18 points with five rebounds and two assists against UConn. For the year the 6-7 junior averages 11.8 points and 3.6 rebounds. Adams has made 71.2% of his shots (compared to 62% a year ago) but just 40% of his free throws (compared to 61.0% last season).
“He’s going to have to get to where he (can) shoot the ball better with range,” Self said, asked about a future version of Adams. “What we’ve tried to do … how do we play him like we did last year with Hunter in the game more? I think we probably put him (Adams) in some situations he liked the other day more.
“The confidence in a game … you are down four late-game with 10 (minutes) left, to shoot a 14-footer is a big step in the right direction. He is expanding his game, but not what a lot of people would think expanding it is. He’s not going to be a 3-point shooter this year, not to say he can’t make some from time to time, but that’s not who he is.”
Self continued.
“Crystal-ball wise, he’s improved so much so fast,” Self added. “From an offseason standpoint, there has to be an emphasis (to make him) more consistent in that area. Right now, for him playing and looking to score 15 feet in I think is big improvement from last year.”
Kansas City (3-5) snapped a five-game losing streak with a 74-44 win over SE Missouri State on Nov. 30. Junior Jamar Brown leads the team in scoring at 14.0 ppg and rebounding at 5.6 per game. Kansas City has dropped games to Baylor (99-61) and Colorado State (84-61).
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