Kansas on upset watch

Who had it worse on Tuesday: Virginia or Kansas?

Let’s dive in.

1. ‘We’re shutting him down for the tournament’

Kansas spent the last six weeks hoping that Kevin McCullar’s lingering bone bruise would heal. That’s gone now.

The Jayhawks will be without their leading scorer and two-year starter for the duration of the NCAA Tournament (however long that lasts), coach Bill Self said on Tuesday.

In case you’re at the office and can’t use audio, the key quote was “Kevin says his knee pain has not subsided any and it's too bad for him to be able to contribute. So Kevin will not play. We're shutting him down for the tournament.

"He hasn't practiced in six weeks, basically. He hasn't done more damage to his knee. But he tried to do [to play] and said that he just couldn't go."

A first-team All-Big 12 player, McCullar averaged 18.3 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 4.1 assists this season. The bone bruise, suffered sometime in January, became an issue last month. He missed half of Kansas’ last 12 games

McCullar posted a message about the injury.

Kansas will turn to Nick Timberlake (4.7 ppg) and freshman Elmarko Jackson (4.2 ppg). Neither can replicate McCullar’s shot creation, ball-handling and defensive prowess. But as long as they can assist in some of the ball-handling duties against Samford, a team that relentlessly pressures full-court, that’ll be the key.

It’ll also help to have center Hunter Dickinson back. He separated his should during the regular-season finale against Houston and missed last week’s Big 12 Tournament.

It’s unclear how effective Dickinson will be, though. In games without McCullar, Dickinson shoots only 43% from the field, compared to 57% with him. That means freshman Johnny Furphy — who hasn’t hit double-digits scoring since Feb. 27 — needs to step up.

2. Should we just pretend the second First Four game didn’t happen?

I’m gonna be positive this morning. I’m gonna start with the first game of the NCAA Tournament.

Subscribe to Premium to read the rest.