Kansas basketball end-of-season player grades: Kevin McCullar

Up third on our series of giving a letter grade based on each player’s performance this season: Kevin McCullar.

McCullar was an essential player for Kansas in 2022-23. He was one of the nation’s best defenders, finishing as a semifinalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year award, and was a terrific rebounding guard.

The senior had transferred from fellow Big 12 rival Texas Tech, where he played the first three seasons of his collegiate career. He was a familiar face for Bill Self. Over McCullar’s sophomore to junior season, he shot 40.8%, including a measly 30.1% from three and 10.2 points per game. Things did improve when he came to Lawrence, but by a small margin.

These were McCullar’s end-of-season statistics:

• 10.7 points
• 7.0 rebounds
• 2.4 assists
• 2.0 steals
• 0.7 blocks
• 2.1 turnovers
• 44.4% FG
• 29.6% 3PT
• 0.9 3PM
• 76.1% FT
• 3.4 FTA

Those numbers don’t stick out, but it is hard to use stats to determine how important McCullar was to the team. He won the Jayhawks several games with crucial defensive plays down the stretch and was one of the team’s most clutch free-throw shooters. McCullar also could get to the basket at will and muscle his way through the defense.

Offense was never his strong suit at Tech, and one season with Bill Self was not going to change that. However, his shooting inefficiencies were detrimental to the Jayhawks. He shot 23.4% from three in the final twenty games of the season, albeit on 2.4 attempts. Considering how good he was at getting to the rim and foul line, he should have ditched the outside shot entirely.

Like Jalen Wilson, McCullar was an outstanding rebounder for a player of his stature. He recorded seven double-doubles over the course of the season.

This year’s Kansas basketball team would not have made it as far as they did without Kevin McCullar. He was one of the nation’s best on-ball defenders, yielding much better results than he did with Texas Tech. His offensive struggles persisted throughout much of the year, but he made it up for it on the other side of the floor. McCullar’s one season in Lawrence was a success.

Player Grade: B+