As the Jayhawks got closer and closer to March Madness, there was a level of optimism that Kevin McCullar would return the court in time for the NCAA Tournament. However, two nights before their run tips off against Samford, head coach Bill Self has announced that will not be the case.

McCullar's injury has been a roller coaster ride throughout the second half of the Big 12 season, as he missed his first game against Oklahoma State after the Jayhawks lost against Iowa State.

McCullar played 38 minutes and scored 16 points in a high intensity matchup that came down to Iowa State making a dagger in the last minute to close it out.

Elmarko Jackson was back in the starting lineup for the first time since Johnny Furphy replaced him as this was the first game in which McCullar sat out.

Self said after the game to "expect him to be out a long time," as he called a bone bruise.

He also said that it got hit during the game at Iowa State.

"He hurt the outside of it when he got hit the other day," Self said. "It's kind of created a similar situation that the other did. It's not something that's going to keep him from playing over time. If he would've played today he would've been 50 percent, or 60 percent."

It looked to be just one game that McCullar would miss as he was ready to go in time for the big showdown at home against Houston. He played well, going 7-for-8 from the field and scoring 17 points in 37 minutes of action.

The performance did not come without pain for McCullar however:

" I think he hit it early and then he even asked to come out for a brief moment," Self said postgame

He did not get much rest after his first game back, being thrusted into action in Manhattan two days later where he played 43 minutes in the overtime loss. He scored 15 points, but it came from going 6-of-15 from the field.

The morning of the game against Baylor, McCullar was on ESPN's College Gameday set in Lawrence, where he said that 'he's a little banged up and may not be able to play."

He in fact did not, and this would be the case for the following Big Monday matchup against Texas Tech as well.

"I can't imagine Kevin being much better on Monday if he can't hardly move on Saturday," Self said after the win over Baylor.

After missing two games that took place over the span of three days, it seemed that McCullar was progressing on his way back. Two days before the game against Oklahoma, Self said that he had been practicing leading up to Saturday.

“Depending on how Kevin feels through practice on Thursday,” Self said of McCullar’s health. “If he's able to continue to go on Friday I would anticipate him being able to be out there some. I don't know if the exact role or how much he'll play but you know he practiced yesterday.”

McCullar did in fact play in the game in Norman. He was 4-of-14 from the field but made one of the biggest shots of the second road Big 12 win.

“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 said.

The stretch between the win over Oklahoma and the next game versus Texas was unique in the sense that it was a Saturday-to-Saturday gap, meaning there was not a weeknight game for McCullar's status to be in question for. When Self met with reporters on Thursday of that week, he said the McCullar was questionable for the next game.

“No I do not know,” Self said on McCullar’s status leading up the the Texas game. “He hasn't done anything yet this week, so we'll probably wait and see if he's able to do anything today. We'll probably determine if he plays on Saturday as much as anything but I probably won't tell you guys that.”

The Jayhawks still came up with an 86-67 win over Texas, but they did it without McCullar's services. After the game, the focus from Self shifted from him being day-to-day to week-to-week.

“My concern is will he play again this year?” Self said. “It's not a day-to-day deal, it's a week-to-week deal. He obviously won't go on Tuesday and so I'm not going to put him out there because he's missed so much time. “Even though you can look at games, the number of games missed, but that's not the story, the story is you know he played against OU and had what… two days of a little bit of practice, and then played and you know he wasn't effective and it didn't feel good at all."

During this press conference, he also stated what it would take for McCullar to be ready to play in the postseason.

“He's going to practice for a good week before we put him out there so we know that he can go and not re-injure it worse,” Self said. “The big thing is I like to have him for the postseason where he's in rhythm and our team has a chance to be the best it can be going into the second week of March. I'm hoping we get him back but it's not anything that I'm thinking is going to happen tomorrow or Monday.”

After playing Texas on Saturday, Tuesday night's game against BYU was quickly approaching. After Self made it known that the injury was raising concerns about McCullar's status for postseason play after the win against Texas, he ruled him out the day before the loss to BYU.

“I don't know about this week… he's not going to play tomorrow,” Self said.

He also made it apparent that the NCAA Tournament was in fact the main priority, but there would need to be a re-acclimation process before that.

“We are looking at the big picture that's exactly what we're looking at,” Self said. “The big picture if you start playing him after the Big 12 tournament, he wouldn't be worth the crap in the NCAA Tournament. So we need to get rhythm and find out who we are and play the style that you'd want to play in the NCAA tournament. So that would take you know a week to 10 days at least to do that.”

Having missed four of the last five games, it seemed to be looking worse for McCullar, but Self assured that he was improving.

“I think he's doing better,” Self said of McCullar’s health. “I don't know you know when he'll play next, but I think he's doing better. I think he's gaining on it and hopefully we can get him back out there.”

Self was asked if there was a chance if McCullar could play, and he said that with two good practices he could.

“I would say there is if he could practice full speed today and tomorrow,” Self said. “If he doesn’t practice full speed today and tomorrow I’d say no.”

Many were excited after seeing McCullar score 20 in his return against a quality Baylor team. He spoke publicly after the loss, which was the first time that had done since he went on Gameday on Feb. 10.

“It felt good,” McCullar said after the game. “I'm just blessed to be back out there with my brothers, competing with them, you know that was fun to get out there and be able to play finally.”

The decision for McCullar to play came from him improving his health. He played 31 minutes against Baylor and then played 29 minutes three days later against Kansas State on Senior Night.

"Just feeling better overall," McCullar said. "I've been busting my butt, doing treatment every day five, six hours a day.”

As the Jayhawks prepared for Kansas State, it seemed that McCullar was good to go after playing against Baylor. He was set to play consecutive games for the first time since the first Sunflower Showdown on Feb 4. in Manhattan.

"I haven't heard anything negative so I anticipate him practicing today," Self said.

The Jayhawks were up by 24 when McCullar checked out, but other starters remained in the game. McCullar asked to come out and Self revealed postgame that it had not been all positives since his return.

"Kevin is a situation where he could... he's had about five blowouts n the last two games where he can't explode off his leg yet," Self said. "He'll get better, but the whole thing is with him is he could tweak it at any time and it could be a setback."

After playing in two straight games, it seemed McCullar was on track, but him subbing himself out late in a blowout turned out to be more serious than expected.

"I don't know if Kevin will practice today,” Self said. “I don't know that he'll be able to do that, but hopefully he'll be able to go tomorrow.”

McCullar did not score in the 15 minutes he played in Houston, which is his most recent appearance on the court for Kansas. With him missing the second half and Hunter Dickinson dislocating his shoulder, Self was very concerned about the health of the team as the Big 12 Tournament was set to start on Wednesday for the Jayhawks.

"He hadn't done anything since K-State much and then today he felt better, thought he'd try,” Self said. “I wish we wouldn't have played Kevin, but yeah it's a pretty big level of concern when you know your two best players are probably questionable moving forward.”

After missing the second half of the game against Houston and with the NCAA Tournament around the corner, it did not surprise many to see McCullar not take the floor versus Cincinnati. However, Self said after the game that McCullar "probably could have" played.

With the way playing against Houston went and Dickinson's injury status, Self thought the right move was to rest McCullar as well.

“He's probably practiced three times maybe in the last four or five weeks,” Self said. “He didn't practice after the K-State game and then felt good enough to play against Houston, at least that's what he said, and then once he got out there realized it was a bad idea. Whenever Hunter went out to me it was an easy decision to sit Kevin.”

Selection Sunday took place and Self took the time to talk to reporters about his team leading up to the NCAA Tournament. He said that the hope was to have McCullar practicing on the Monday before the team leaves for Salt Lake City.

“Kevin I haven't seen do anything, but the entire game plan with on him was hopefully on Monday he can be good to go and if he's not good to go tomorrow then he won't be and then we'll hope on Tuesday, but I don't I don't know as much about Kevin as I do Hunter,” Self said.

When the team arrived to their Hotel in Utah on Tuesday night, Self told reporters that he and his staff were "shutting him down for the tournament."

"Kevin's not going to play," Self said. "Kevin says his knee pain has not subsided any and it's too bad for him to be able contribute."