Injured Kansas guard Kevin McCullar Jr. slaps hands with Kansas guard Elmarko Jackson (13) as the Jayhawks seal up the victory at Delta Center on Thursday, March 21, 2024 in Salt Lake City. Photo by Nick Krug

Salt Lake City — On Thursday night, Kansas’ injured guard Kevin McCullar Jr. experienced his first KU game since head coach Bill Self announced in a social media post that McCullar would serve as a sort of assistant coach during the NCAA Tournament.

McCullar, speaking to the media for the first time since he was ruled out for the remainder of the season, said he was eager to help his teammates during the first-round tournament win over Samford.

“It’s just fun to be out there with my guys,” he said from the locker room after the win. “I just try to bring a lot of energy. I wouldn’t say I’m super ‘assistant coach role,’ but I try to give guys little pieces that I see while watching the game, but really I’m just out there supporting my guys,” he said.

But he also acknowledged the immense frustration of missing out on his final postseason as a collegiate athlete.

“It’s terrible,” said McCullar, who recently earned an All-American honorable mention from the Associated Press following his disrupted regular season. “It’s my last year. It’s March Madness, it’s the best time of the year, it’s what we worked for all year going back since Puerto Rico in August with my brothers, boot camp and everything else … but I’m still going to be there for my team and support them 100%.”

Self also deemed it necessary to stress just how much effort McCullar had put into returning to the court — after dealing with a bone bruise to his knee since mid-January — and that was part of his motivation for the statement he put out on X Thursday morning defending his player against online criticism.

After winning Thursday night, Self explained his rationale for his rare post.

He said he had heard from his players that McCullar was “getting roasted on social media” based on how users had interpreted Self’s “body language” in an interview clip from Tuesday night in which he had ruled out McCullar for the tournament.

And with plenty of time remaining until the 7:55 p.m. tipoff, he decided to set the record straight and correct what he called “irresponsible thinking.”

“I thought it was the right thing to do just because anything other than him trying his butt off to be out there is totally wrong and that should be evident by what he’s gone through up until this point,” Self said.

He also said: “Am I frustrated that we don’t have our full complement of guys? Hell yes, I am. But he hasn’t done anything wrong.”

Asked what his coach’s supportive statement meant to him, McCullar noted that it had been an emotional couple of days.

“The guys in this locker room know everything that I’ve been trying to battle through this year,” he said. “It’s an unfortunate injury. It just needs time to heal, which sucks. I’m just taking it all in, kind of … I’m being here for my guys and they’ve been having my back 100%, the whole team.”