Kansas rules out leading scorer with injury, pulls fast one on Selection Committee

The Kansas Jayhawks received a bit of rotten news on Tuesday. Kevin McCullar Jr., the team's No. 1 scorer, will miss the entire NCAA Tournament with what the team terms "knee pain." McCullar has not practiced lately and the ailment persists, per head coach Bill Self.

It sucks for McCullar, whose impressive five-year college career ends with a whimper. It's beyond his control, too. Next up is the 2024 NBA Draft, where McCullar has a real chance to come off the board in the first round. In 26 games this season, McCullar averaged 18.3 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 4.1 assists on .454/.333/.805 splits in 34.2 minutes.

Self told reporters that Elmarko Jackson or Nick Timberlake will play in McCullar's place.

While this is generally unfortunate news, it sounds like Kansas (inadvertently?) pulled a fast one on the Selection Committee.

Kevin McCullar Jr. will miss entirety of Kansas' NCAA Tournament run

Evidently, Kansas informed the committee that McCullar would be healthy for March Madness. Obviously, McCullar did not show the progress team officials hoped for. We should probably give the Jayhawks the benefit of the doubt — not that injuries should factor too heavily into the committee's decision anyway. Do we need to break out the Florida State vs. Alabama argument again?

Kansas, a No. 4 seed, will battle No. 13 Samford on Thursday at 9:55 p.m. ET. The Jayhawks already felt like one of the more vulnerable top-four seeds. Yours truly had Samford going all the way to the Elite Eight before the injury news dropped (please do not save receipts). Well, the hill to climb just got much steeper for Bill Self's crew. The Jayhawks still have plenty of talent on the floor, but McCullar is in many ways the lifeblood of this Kansas squad. It's a tough break.

The Jayhawks will shift more of the offense to freshman Elmarko Jackson, from the sound of it. Timberlake has been lightly used across 32 games this season, averaging 4.7 points on .368/.284/.788 splits in 14.5 minutes. The sixth-year transfer from Towson has put together a commendable career, but the Jayhawks probably can't trust him to truly inhabit McCullar's role.

Not mentioned explicitly by Self, but obvious all the same, is how this impacts Hunter Dickinson. The 7-foot-1 bruiser has been Kansas' No. 2 scorer all season. He now figures to take center stage, with more actions designed around his unique skill set as a post-scoring, 3-point shooting center.

Kansas can still salvage its season and mount a deep run, but it will be exceedingly more difficult.