Bill Self Addresses Kevin McCullar Rumors on Social Media
Bill Self put out his first personal tweet in months on Thursday, the first day of the NCAA Tournament, to address the rumors around Kevin McCullar Jr. that have been circulating.
Self used X to respond to suggestions that McCullar was either not willing or wanting to play in the NCAA Tournament, or that his knee injury wasn’t nearly as severe as some were suggesting.
Self posted, in part, “I am not on social media much but since announcing Kevin would not play in the tournament, I’ve been told Kevin and this situation have been portrayed inaccurately. What I said in a 45 second video clip is true. His knee hasn’t improved in the last two weeks. It hurts too much to continue playing. He hasn’t practiced in 6 weeks. We made the decision to shut him down. That’s all 100 percent accurate, but what I didn’t say has caused a false narrative to question Kevin inappropriately. He worked tirelessly in rehab to try to play and everyone within the program knows it. We’ve known the only way the bone bruise would heal is time off. Kevin elected not to do that and try to play.”
Here’s the full post from the Kansas head coach.
McCullar has been dealing with a bone bruise on his knee for the last several weeks. He last played against Houston in the final game of the regular season, but struggled through 15 minutes of action. He then missed the Big 12 Tournament.
McCullar finished the season as an All-Big 12 First Team selection. He averaged 18.3 points per game, 6.0 rebounds per game, and 4.1 assists per game, while shooting over 45% from the field. The senior is wrapping up his final season of college basketball after spending three years with Texas Tech before the last two in Lawrence with the Jayhawks.
The Jayhawks are set to start the NCAA Tournament as a No. 4 seed when taking on No. 13 Samford in the first round. Tip off is set for 8:55 p.m. CST on Thursday on TBS. The winner advances Round of 32 on Saturday to take on the winner of No. 5 Gonzaga and No. 12 McNeese State.
