SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — When Kansas basketball coach Bill Self revealed Tuesday that Kevin McCullar Jr. would miss the NCAA tournament due to injury, speculation swirled on social media about why the Jayhawks wouldn’t have McCullar as expected.

At one point McCullar, a graduate senior guard and All-America caliber talent, even went to X — the social media platform formerly known as Twitter — to further explain his perspective. He didn’t want to leave anything up in the air, as Kansas continued to prepare for its March Madness matchup Thursday. And his teammates showcased their support for him there, too.

But ahead of tip-off Thursday against Samford, Self also took to social media to express his support for McCullar. Self, who rarely posts anything on social media, had heard from players that the interview he gave upon their arrival in Salt Lake City, Utah, was being analyzed in a way that led some to criticize McCullar. And after the No. 4-seed Jayhawks (23-10) were able to celebrate a 93-89 win in the Midwest region against the No. 13-seed Bulldogs (29-6), McCullar reflected on what the week has been like for him.

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“It’s rough,” McCullar said. “Of course, I want to be playing. I wish I could be playing. Who wouldn’t want to play in March Madness? Especially for my last year. But yeah, man, I’m just here to support my guys and I’ve got my brothers’ backs. So, I was glad that we pulled out the win.”

McCullar, a lead scoring option for Kansas when healthy, understands that everyone is going to have their opinion on what’s going on. But he made a point to outline that everyone who’s in the locker room with him knows what’s going on. There’s a bond they share, that dates back to when the team took its trip ahead of the 2023-24 season to Puerto Rico.

Jayhawks senior center Hunter Dickinson, who missed the Big 12 Conference tournament due to injury as McCullar did, highlighted that McCullar’s presence on the bench Thursday shows how much McCullar cares about their teammates. Whatever McCullar can do to help the team win, Dickinson continued, McCullar is going to do. Even though McCullar wasn’t on the court to make any of the defensive stops late that Kansas needed to win, that vocal presence on the sideline didn’t dissipate.

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McCullar knew the game was going to come down to the little things. He felt how tense the game was, and how the crowd was on Samford’s side for the most part. Regardless of what was being said about him on social media, he focused on how he could help the Jayhawks go from the round of 64 to the round of 32.

“A lot of people want to infer what happens,” Dickinson said. “I feel like that kind of happens when people don’t have any clue what’s going on behind the doors. They don’t really know anything. They’re just speculating. And it was unfortunate that a lot of people ran with … straight speculation. Nobody knows what’s going on behind the doors. If they were in there, then they would have seen all the work that he put in. I think a lot of people would be giving him an apology today for it.”

Next up for Kansas is a matchup Saturday against No. 5-seed Gonzaga (26-7). Gonzaga defeated No. 12-seed McNeese on Thursday to earn its own spot in the round of 32. It’ll be another challenge for the Jayhawks to navigate without McCullar available to play.

McCullar, though, will continue to try to find ways to help his team advance as far as it can. He’ll continue to try to be an asset for the likes of graduate senior guard Nicolas Timberlake and freshman guard Elmarko Jackson, who are the two players who are looked to the most to step up in his place. It’s almost as if he’s a part of the coaching staff now.

“Coach gave me the assistant coaching job, so I guess he hired me on the staff right for a little bit,” McCullar said. “But it’s just fun to be out there and just supporting my brothers. I know that was a crazy game. So, yeah, I’m taking the assistant coaching role right now.”

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.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas basketball guard Kevin McCullar Jr. misses NCAA tournament