Without Kevin McCullar, Jr., No. 9 Kansas cruises past Texas, 86-67

With Kevin McCullar, Jr., sidelined with an injury, No. 9 Kansas (21-6; 9-5), behind Hunter Dickinson (20), KJ Adams (16), Johnny Furphy (16), Dajuan Harris (14), and Nicolas Timberlake (13), cruised past Texas (17-10; 6-8), 86-67.

“We played great,” said Kansas head coach Bill Self on Saturday night. “The first half, we were terrific. Everybody played and contributed. The bench was good and the starters were all great. Without Kevin (McCullar, Jr.), our margin for error is even less. The ball moves like that and you guard like that to start a game, you’re going to be in a pretty favorable position.

“You’re going to be in a pretty favorable position, most times, especially at home, and that’s what happened tonight,” he added.

During the first half of Saturday's Big 12 showdown between Kansas and Texas, the Jayhawks could simply do no wrong against the Longhorns. In leading by 20 points, 45-25 at the half, Kansas was led by Hunter Dickinson (11), KJ Adams (10), Nicolas Timberlake (8), Dajuan Harris (6), Johnny Furphy (6), Jamari McDowell (2), and Parker Braun (2).

During that same stretch, Kansas shot 58.1 percent from the field, 25 percent from behind the arc, and 72.7 percent from the free-throw line. Self’s squad, at halftime, had committed just four turnovers, scored 13 points off seven Texas turnovers, outrebounded the Longhorns by three, scored eight second-chance points, tallied four bench points, scored 30 points in the paint, added seven fastbreak points, blocked three shots, and finished with four steals.

Kansas, after committing six turnovers in four minutes to start the second half, saw Texas pull to within 13 points with 15:48 left in the game, but the Longhorns would get no closer the rest of the contest. Adams, Jr., who finished with 16 points and eight rebounds, pushed the lead back to 22 points on a nasty dunk on a feed from Harris, Jr., with 11:36 left on the clock.

“It’s always refreshing having games like that, where we come off really good and stay even-keeled the whole game,” said KJ Adams, Jr. “It’s definitely a relief. We’ve just got to do that, I wish every game, but hopefully, we can have some more games like that.”

Furphy, who tallied 16 points on 3-of-3 shooting from the field, 1-of-1 shooting from behind the arc, and 9-of-11 from the charity stripe, said Kansas showed what it’s capable of against Texas on Saturday night. Even with Kevin McCullar, Jr., out of the lineup, Kansas dominated Texas from start to finish.

“Yeah, we show if we can play like that, we can beat anyone,” said Furphy. “Moving the ball around and being efficient, I think we look really good.”

For Self and Kansas, the end of the regular season is quickly approaching. The Jayhawks play host to BYU on Tuesday, play at Baylor on March 2, host Kansas State on March 5, and end the regular season at Houston on March 9.

A big key moving forward will be KU’s ability to get healthy with postseason play approaching.

“It will definitely be important,” said Adams, Jr., when asked about getting everybody healthy during the most important part of the season. “We’ve got a couple of guys nicked up, but we should be ready down the stretch of the season, just getting everybody healthy.

“I think everybody is going to be okay by the end of it,” he added.

One player who could miss significant time moving forward is Kevin McCullar, Jr. After missing back-to-back games, KU’s senior guard returned for the Oklahoma game a week ago, but tweaked the knee bone bruise against the Sooners and, according to Self, it’s unknown when or if he’ll return.

“My concern is will he play again this year,” said Self when talking about McCullar, Jr., on Saturday night. “It’s not a day-to-day deal and he obviously won’t go on Tuesday. I’m not going to put him out there, because he’s missed so much time. You can look at games and the number of games missed, but that’s not the story.

“The story is, he played against OU and had, what, two days of a little bit of practice and then played,” he added. “He wasn't effective and he didn’t feel good at all. He’s going to practice for a good week before we put him out there, so we know that he can go and not reinjure it worse. The big thing is, I’d 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, you know, going into the second week of March. I’m hoping we get him back, but it’s not anything that I’m thinking it’s going to happen tomorrow or Monday. I don’t think that at all.”