photo by: AP Photo/David J. Phillip

Kansas's Hunter Dickinson, right, is helped after being injured during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Houston Saturday, March 9, 2024, in Houston. Houston won 76-46. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Houston — Before Kansas took the floor for its matchup with Houston on Saturday, head coach Bill Self said on his ESPN+ pregame interview that he didn’t know if Kevin McCullar Jr. would play due to his bone bruise, but that the ultimate goal was to have him healthy for the NCAA Tournament.

“You want to play him now, but I also know that we’re going to need him in rhythm in two weeks,” Self said.

That goal encountered another obstacle. McCullar did end up starting the game despite having “tweaked” his injury again against Kansas State on Tuesday, but only remained on the court for 15 minutes in the first half, during which he failed to score and recorded one foul and one turnover. Freshman Jamari McDowell replaced him in the second-half starting lineup, and afterward Self said of McCullar, “He’s hurting.”

“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 Kev. But it’s a pretty big level of concern when your two best players are probably questionable moving forward.”

That’s two best players because while McCullar continues to deal with the same bruise that has plagued him since mid-January, center Hunter Dickinson joined the injury report when he dislocated his shoulder going up against Cedric Lath for a defensive rebound with 11 minutes to go and KU down 23. He immediately ran off the court and headed to the locker room during the ensuing timeout.

Self said Dickinson’s shoulder popped back into place, but that he’ll have an MRI and they’ll “try to get a game plan moving forward.”

The pair of injuries — with McCullar’s having already caused him to miss five games in an eight-game stretch due to its recurring nature, and Dickinson’s now presenting a new source of concern ahead of the Big 12 Conference tournament — present a significant obstacle for a KU team that even when fully healthy has just nine scholarship players, and has rarely gotten consistent contributions from its bench.

“We’ve all had flashes during the season,” said reserve center Parker Braun, who had himself been dealing with an ankle injury for the past week. “We’ve played however many games, 30-something games now, it’s not a matter of if you’re comfortable or not, it’s just a matter of if you’re prepared.”

No one on the Jayhawks’ roster excelled in the 76-46 loss at Houston, and certainly not members of the bench. McDowell went 0-for-5 from the field. Elmarko Jackson hit a pair of shots but also committed a team-high four turnovers. Nick Timberlake had four points and five rebounds, and Braun went 1-for-2 in 10 minutes of action.

KU has had good moments without McCullar, like its home victories over Baylor and Texas, and extremely bad ones like its blowout loss at Texas Tech. It hasn’t had to play without Dickinson for any extended stretch.

“As long as we got five people on the floor you got to be ready to compete, and hopefully we can put ourselves in a better position than we did tonight,” Braun said. “No matter who’s out there, it’s just a matter of competing.”

Self previously said he had thought about resting McCullar for some portion of the Big 12 tournament, though didn’t have a specific plan yet. The halftime exit Saturday could affect his thinking going forward.

Self has repeatedly stressed that his starting five of Dickinson, McCullar, KJ Adams, Johnny Furphy and Dajuan Harris Jr. can go toe-to-toe with anyone when healthy.

“But we’re not right now,” he said. “And that’s not why we lost today, but that’s been a primary reason when we haven’t played well recently.”

With the loss, the Jayhawks will face the additional challenge of playing an additional game in the Big 12 tournament — they will begin by playing on Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. — because they missed out on a top-four seed.