Will Kevin McCullar Jr., Hunter Dickinson play for Kansas basketball in March Madness?
LAWRENCE — The availability of Kevin McCullar Jr. and Hunter Dickinson has been a popular topic of conversation over the course of the last week.
Both McCullar, a graduate senior guard, and Dickinson, a senior center, missed the Big 12 Conference tournament due to injury. Kansas basketball coach Bill Self has spoken to an expectation that the duo would return for the Jayhawks for the NCAA tournament. And Sunday, with the reveal of the bracket for March Madness this year, came another opportunity to address how McCullar and Dickinson are progressing.
Will McCullar be back and give No. 4-seed Kansas an All-America-caliber guard? Will Dickinson be back and give the Jayhawks (22-10) an All-America-caliber big-man? On Thursday at 8:55 p.m. (CT), in Salt Lake City, Utah, KU is scheduled to tip off against No. 13-seed Samford (29-5) in the round of 64.
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“(Dickinson)’s doing great,” Self said Sunday. “He’s actually practiced the last two days, non-contact, so we’ve done a lot of dry stuff so that way he can be out there. And then he’ll go contact (Monday). Kevin, I haven’t seen doing anything. 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. But I don’t know as much about Kevin as I do (Dickinson).”
Self couldn’t point to another time he’s had a pair of All-America-level talents both out at the same time, but he noted as well that Kansas will be much better this week than what it has been. In the Big 12 tournament, the Jayhawks were knocked out in the second round. Going into the NCAA tournament overall, they’ve struggled to maintain much consistency and have gone 9-9 across their last 18 games.
Dickinson hadn’t missed a game this season before he didn’t play in the Big 12 tournament, but McCullar has been in and out in stretches in recent weeks and practiced even less. Kansas was able to prevail at times without McCullar, but the Big 12 tournament showed how much thinner the margin for error is without them both. Having both back in the starting lineup against Samford would go a long ways toward giving the Jayhawks the confidence they need to make a run.
Confidence, especially shooting the ball, was something Self highlighted after the early exit from the Big 12 tournament. Self highlighted Dickinson as someone specifically who, with his return, would automatically give his Kansas teammates more confidence. Over the course of the past two games, losses against Cincinnati and Houston, the Jayhawks are a combined 6-for-41 from behind the arc — with one of those makes by a walk-on.
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“The bottom line is, a lot of times it’s easier to keep somebody from doing something than it is you actually doing it yourself,” Self said. “And that’s the way shooting is sometimes. You defend the arc, you don’t have to make as many 3s.”
Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.
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This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas' Bill Self talks Kevin McCullar Jr., Hunter Dickinson health
