McCormack struggles, plays three minutes in second half of KU’s win over North Texas

A completely healthy David McCormack, who was not in foul trouble, played just three minutes in the second half of Kansas’ 71-59 first-round ESPN Events Invitational victory over North Texas on Thursday in HP Field House at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports Complex.

It was what is known as “coach’s decision” to sit the 6-foot-10, 250-pound senior big man, who like last year, is off to a somewhat slow start in 2021-22.

“I don’t know if he’s being unlucky or not. Let’s be real. He’s 6-10, the biggest guy on the court. You’ve got to score the ball,” KU coach Bill Self said after McCormack went 1 for 6 from the field and 1 of 2 from the line, good for three points with three rebounds in 13 minutes.

“WIth the shots he took, that’s a 5-for-6 day and he’s a 1-for-6 day,” Self added. “I’ll be candid with you. We want to play through him and everything, but he’s got to do better. I love him and want him to do great, but we’ve been better without him in the game. He’s got to turn it around.”

Despite McCormack’s dismal day, he had perhaps the highlight film play of the game. Joseph Yesufu flipped a lob pass to McCormack, who rammed a one-handed dunk in the first half. KU led 35-27 at the break.

“I hope we don’t have to deal with last year again, because we waited a long time for him to come last year. When he did he was really good, but we need him to play now. And I think Mitch has given us pretty good minutes in his absence,” Self said.

Backup big man Mitch Lightfoot scored eight points and grabbed three rebounds in 14 minutes against a small Mean Green team that fell to 2-2 on the season. No. 3 KU improved to 4-0 heading into Friday’s tourney semifinal against Dayton (12:30 p.m., Central time).

McCormack entered Thursday’s game with 28 points in KU’s first three games on 12-of-24 shooting. He grabbed 18 rebounds and had eight blocks in the wins over Michigan State, Tarleton State and Stony Brook.

“I’m not going to say that as an excuse,” Self said of McCormack having to play against some shorter, quicker players this season. “The guy he guarded today (Abou Ousmane, three points, four rebounds) was 6-9, exactly the same size as Dave. I don’t think that’s it. I just think he’s a little sped up and rushed. He wants to do well so bad. He’s a terrific young man. You all know that. He’s kind of wishing it to happen rather than going out and making it happen right now. He’ll get better. He’ll be better tomorrow (vs. Dayton).”

That statement would suggest Self is not contemplating any lineup changes … yet.

However, KU does have a player who would be able to step in if called upon (as well as Lightfoot). He’s 6-foot-8 Jalen Wilson, who made his season debut Thursday after having missed three games because of a suspension following his arrest for suspicion of DUI.

Wilson scored seven points with five rebounds and four assists against one turnover in 18 minutes.

“I thought ‘J. Will’ did pretty well, played 18 minutes, which was probably a decent number. That’ll probably be the least he plays all year,” Self said.

“He needs to be out there. We’re better on offense when he is in the game. He is a good passer. The ball seems to move better. We didn’t have good ball movement today at all. We didn’t run our stuff to score well either.”

KU hit 6 of 14 threes to North Texas’ 4 of 27. Overall KU hit 51% of its shots to the Mean Green’s 39.7%.

“Our execution wasn’t great. Jalen Wilson will figure out a way to make us better. I thought he was pretty good today,” Self added.

Wilson, Self said, “played within himself pretty well being so excited. He was poised and under control, took good shots for the most part (in making 3 of 4). He didn’t guard his man late, none of us did. I thought for the most part we played pretty well the first half.”

Senior Remy Martin scored 15 points with eight rebounds and four assists in 29 minutes. He fared well despite playing with a bad back.

“It looked like he tweaked it there at the end. It’s probably something he deals with for a while. He’ll play tomorrow I’m sure,” Self said of Martin.

Christian Braun had 16 points and five rebounds for KU, while Ochai Agbaji had 18 points and passed 1,000 for his career. Also forward Zach Clemence had four points and three boards in 10 minutes.