Bill Self updates Kevin McCullar Jr.’s injury status after Kansas basketball’s win at OU

LAWRENCE — Kansas basketball finally had Kevin McCullar Jr. back this past weekend when the Jayhawks played at Oklahoma and won 67-57.

McCullar, a graduate senior guard, had missed the previous two games due to injury. In his return, he struggled with missed shots, and foul trouble, but finished with 10 points and eight rebounds. And postgame, redshirt senior guard Dajuan Harris Jr. appeared optimistic McCullar would continue to receive treatment throughout the week and be 100% for Kansas’ home game Saturday against Texas.

But on Monday, during the latest edition of the “Hawk Talk with Bill Self” show, Jayhawks coach Bill Self revealed McCullar suffered a setback during the road win against Oklahoma in Big 12 Conference play. Self said McCullar, who’s been dealing with what’s been described as a bone bruise, “tweaked it again.”

And it doesn’t sound like what McCullar is dealing with will be resolved any time soon.

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“I think it’s going to be something that is going to — until he has a substantial amount of time to rehab and do some things to strengthen some muscles around it, which doesn’t happen overnight,” Self said. “Yeah, this is going to be something he deals with probably for the rest of the year.”

It was only a couple days after the Oklahoma game that Self was speaking, but he did note McCullar hasn’t been able to do anything since they’ve gotten back. Self added Kansas took Sunday off and practiced Monday. Looking ahead to the rest of the week, Self projected the Jayhawks practicing Tuesday and taking Wednesday off before practicing Thursday and Friday.

If McCullar can play against Texas, that gives Kansas an All-Big 12 caliber talent, who might also end up being an All-American. He’s certainly earned the former. He’s averaging 19.0 points, 6.4 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game for the Jayhawks.

If McCullar can’t play against Texas, that means Kansas would be without all of that for a third time this season. The Jayhawks would need to rely upon the likes of freshman guard Elmarko Jackson and graduate senior guard Nicolas Timberlake. In the games McCullar has missed this season, Kansas has wins against Oklahoma State and Baylor at home and a loss against Texas Tech on the road.

“I thought he was definitely out of sorts, out of rhythm, but he played within himself and we don’t win the game unless he plays,” Self told reporters postgame this past weekend after the Oklahoma win. “I mean, the kid gets — what’d he get? Still gets 10 points or whatever it was? And eight rebounds. And made arguably as big a shot as we had in the game.”

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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.