It seemed fitting that Kansas guard Kevin McCullar Jr. made the game-sealing play on the defensive end during a 63-58 victory over TCU on Monday inside Ed and Rae Schollmaier Arena.
Well, technically, McCullar made two different plays on the same possession.
Following a costly turnover by the third-ranked Jayhawks, the 24th-ranked Horned Frogs had a chance to tie the game with 30 seconds left. Clinging to a 3-point lead, McCullar elected to start guarding TCU’s Damion Baugh past half court.
McCullar pushed through a high-ball screen from Jakobe Coles, and stuck with Baugh’s hip as the two made their way down the lane on the left side. With a little help from KU’s K.J. Adams, McCullar swatted Baugh’s layup attempt from behind. Baugh collected his miss, so McCullar jumped with him again and grabbed the ball with both hands on the second attempt.
The baseline official called for a jump ball, as McCullar ripped the ball from Baugh’s grip with ease. Kansas regained possession, and then it became a matter of hitting a pair of free throws to ice the game.
“Coming down the stretch, you know, I gotta get stops,” McCullar told reporters after the game. “(We) did a good job of forcing baseline and I just came over and got a block. In the Big 12, you gotta make stops down the stretch to win big games.”
THE BLOCK FOR THE JUMP BALL TO SEAL THE WIN! @KUHoops ????@Kevin_McCullar an elite defender! ❌ pic.twitter.com/A0sGWkDY2o
— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) February 21, 2023
McCullar’s big play capped off a dominating defensive performance by KU’s best defender.
According to the official stat broadcast, McCullar gave up just 12 points while guarding TCU’s top playmakers for 39 minutes. He and Dajuan Harris Jr. fought through ball screens as much as possible, so that they could stick with Baugh and Mike Miles Jr. It was similar to their strategy in the second half against Baylor.
Miles and Baugh combined for 24 points, but had to take 30 shots to get there. It was a much different outcome than the last time these two teams met, when TCU made everything look easy in a 23-point win over Kansas inside Allen Fieldhouse last month.
“We just never let them get the lead, and we really guarded their lane,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “And Kevin McCullar was terrific.”
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PHOTO GALLERY: Kansas basketball at TCU
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McCullar, who was less than a week removed from suffering an ankle injury late in a win over Oklahoma State, certainly delivered for Kansas (23-5, 11-4 Big 12) to extend the team’s win streak to five in a row. He finished with 15 points, seven rebounds (all on the defensive end), two blocks, and one steal.
Ken Pomeroy awards one player an “MVP” honor after each game, and Monday’s performance was McCullar’s first such recognition since the win over Kansas State on Jan. 31. McCullar has only been labeled the team’s MVP four times this season, but his teammates understand his importance.
“He’s the heart and soul of our team,” Harris said. “He does everything. He rebounds, plays defense, (and) he can score.”
McCullar’s play on the defensive end has been especially crucial to the recent success of the Jayhawks, who jumped up to ninth in the country (from 15th) in adjusted defensive efficiency as a team following Monday’s win.
“It is huge,” Gradey Dick said of McCullar’s play. “We got guys with that much experience and they’ve been here before, and they just know how to play the game the right way.”
Evan Miya’s analytical website quantifies a player’s impact on both ends of the floor, with its Bayesian Performance Rating. McCullar’s Defensive Bayesian Performance Rating (DBPR) of 2.52 paces the team, with no other player having a mark higher than 1.56 as of Tuesday.
From a Big 12 perspective, only Moussa Cisse of Oklahoma State has a higher DBPR in the league as the shot-blocking big man has a mark of 3.31. Only 14 players in the entire country have a higher DBPR than McCullar, who is one of 15 players on the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Watch List.
To provide even more context, McCullar’s DBPR is the highest by any Jayhawk since the 2019-20 campaign when both Udoka Azubuike (3.1) and Marcus Garrett (2.8) paced this program on that end of the floor. For what it is worth, Garrett was named the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year that season.
Self even compared McCullar to Garrett during his postgame radio interview, per this tweet from Brian Hanni, who is the voice of the Kansas Jayhawks.
“That’s a bad man right there,” Self said. “I didn’t know if I’d ever coach somebody with a defensive IQ like Marcus, but he’s got it.”
Considering McCullar likely hasn’t been 100% during the last couple of games, it is extremely impressive what he has been able to provide for KU. McCullar might not get the recognition he deserves when this season is all said and done, but the Jayhawks wouldn’t be the same without the transfer from Texas Tech.
