Three Takeaways: McCullar's importance clear in Kansas loss to Texas

Without their senior guard, the Jayhawks struggled to get anything going consistently as they lost big to the Longhorns. Here are some takeaways.

The finals of the Big 12 Championship did not go the way that most fans of the Kansas Jayhawks, as they ran out of gas in the second half en route to a blowout 76-56 loss at the hands of the Texas Longhorns. But with the NCAA Tournament brackets being release today, there are still plenty of these to take away from the game.:

Kevin McCullar is crucial.

Multiple times this season, fans have questioned exactly how much McCullar actually brings to the team. And much like Jalen Wilson did for last year's team, McCullar has done a lot of the little things that are both not consistent from game to game, and are also easy to overlook. But the one thing that no one can deny is how important he is to the defense.

Without him on Saturday, the Jayhawks were unable to get consistent pressure on Texas. And that can be directly attributed to Joseph Yesufu being out of position in a different role, Ernest Udeh being too eager to provide help defense, and a general fatigue without a key starter.

With more time to prepare, maybe the coaching staff could have come up with a solution. But it's hard to do that in less than 24 hours without one of the greatest coaching minds in the nation.

The margin is extremely thin.

Norm Roberts didn't want to make excuses after the game, but I'm willing to point out the obvious for him: This team is a delicate balance of work-horse starters and not role players, and any small disruption could be enough to derail the whole thing.

Kansas relies on lockdown defense and high basketball IQ from Dajuan Harris and McCullar, outside shooting and a nose for the ball on rebounds from Gradey Dick, energy and interior passing from KJ Adams, and of course the strong threat that Jalen Wilson brings to everything. The rest of the squad can fill in the little gaps that form from putting those pieces together, but they can't wholesale replace the giant brick that is McCullar.

In a way, the disruption caused by the absence of McCullar actually reinforced that the decision to sit him was the right one. As important as he is to this team's outlook in the NCAA Tournament, doing everything possible to make sure he is back at full strength is really the only option.

This doesn't change the ceiling.

There are many people who believe that the Jayhawks will still get the top overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. But even if that doesn't happen, the Jayhawks are still set up for a deep run.

And despite the Twitter despair about how this team isn't one that you can trust in March, I don't believe it at all. In fact, Derek Johnson of KLWN in Lawrence shared this interesting tidbit.

Wanted to see if a team got housed in a conference title made the Final 4 recently:

- 2022 Duke (lost by 15 to VT, made F4)
- 2014 UConn (lost by 10 to UL, won title)
- 2013 Syracuse (lost by 17 to UL, made F4)

Precedent is there for KU

— Derek Johnson (@DJohnsonRadio) March 12, 2023

With three examples of teams bouncing back immediately, it isn't too much of a stretch. Plus, none of those teams were missing a Hall-of-fame coach AND a key player in the blowout they suffered.

The Jayhawks will be just fine.

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