SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — Kansas basketball will be without star guard Kevin McCullar Jr. during the NCAA tournament, coach Bill Self said Tuesday.

Self, addressing the media after arriving in Salt Lake City, Utah, noted McCullar is not healthy enough to play. Although the bone bruise will not require surgery, Self explained, the pain has not subsided in McCullar’s knee to the point he would be able to contribute. And it also means that McCullar’s playing career with the Jayhawks, and college career in general, is over.

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“He’s out,” Self said about McCullar, a graduate senior and All-America caliber talent. “We’re shutting him down for the tournament. So, if we’re fortunate enough to win two games we would have done it without him. And he hadn’t practiced in six weeks, basically, and so, yeah, he hasn’t done more damage to his knee.”

Kansas’ March Madness run begins Thursday with a round of 64 matchup in the Midwest region against Samford. The Jayhawks (22-10) are a No. 4 seed, while the Bulldogs (29-5) are a No. 13 seed. The winner will go on to face either No. 5-seed Gonzaga or No. 12-seed McNeese in the round of 32, with a spot in the Sweet 16 on the line.

Without McCullar, who’s missed six games this season, Self will either go with freshman guard Elmarko Jackson or graduate senior guard Nicolas Timberlake in the starting lineup. Jackson was a starter during the early stages of the season, before being moved to more of a bench role. Timberlake has gotten more starts as of late, especially when McCullar — a lead scoring threat for the team when he’s been healthy — has been out.

Self outlined there is no added message that he’s going to deliver to Jackson or Timberlake, because this has been the sort of reality they’ve dealt with for the last six weeks. In short, he added, this is “put up or shut up time.”

“(McCullar) tried and was going through rehab, and it just didn’t get any better,” Self said. “The other weeks it progressively got a little bit better, and this week it just didn’t. So, consultation with doctors and with Kevin and where he his mentally and physically right now it’s best for him to go ahead and shut it down. Unfortunately for us, and more so for him, but there was really no decision to be made because he can’t go.”

Self did, though, provide a positive update on Hunter Dickinson. The senior center, who missed the Big 12 Conference tournament due to injury as McCullar did, has gone full-contact in practice two days in a row. So, Kansas will have its star big man.

And while McCullar won’t be available, he will still be with the team. He will still be someone who can be an asset as they prepare to face Samford. Self doesn’t want any negative energy surrounding the team.

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“Kevin’s role now will not be, ‘Oh, I can’t play,’” Self said. “His role will be, and certainly we’ll impress upon him to be this, is, ‘I’ve got to put my handprint on this in ways that I didn’t think I would be doing if in fact I was playing.’ So, that’s what winners do. They do that. So, it would be very selfish for him not to do that. He’s not going to do that.”

Jordan Guskey covers University of Kansas Athletics at The Topeka Capital-Journal. He is the National Sports Media Association’s sportswriter of the year for the state of Kansas for 2022. Contact him at jmguskey@gannett.com or on Twitter at @JordanGuskey.

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This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kevin McCullar Jr. will not participate in March Madness due to injury