The big men of Kansas, David McCormack and Tristan Enaruna, will miss the Big 12 tournament due to COVID-19 protocols, coach Bill Self announced on Tuesday.
Himself believes both players will be up for the NCAA Tournament again, and he indicated that the rest of the series could be adjusted for the conference tournament this week in Kansas City, Missouri. It is unclear whether any player tested positive for the virus.
Kansas, which has reached the No. 2 series in the Big 12 tournament, will play the winner of the Oklahoma-Iowa State in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
McCormack, a 6-foot-ten junior center, was one of the standouts of the season in the Big 12. He averaged 13.4 points and 6.1 rebounds on the season, but was dominant at the end of the regular season. . In his last 12 games of the season, McCormack averaged 15.8 points and 5.8 rebounds and shot 56.9% from the field.
Enaruna, a 6-8 second forward, averaged 2.8 points in 24 games off the bench.
With both players out, expect a bigger role for senior grandson Mitch Lightfoot and former junior college transfer Tyon Grant-Foster.
With less than two weeks until the first round of the NCAA Tournament and less than a week before teams travel to Indianapolis, programs take every precaution to avoid positive COVID-19 tests. The NCAA announced in January that all participants in Journey 1 – which includes student-athletes, coaches, coaches, physical therapists, medical and equipment staff and officials – must show seven consecutive negative COVID-19 tests before arriving in Indianapolis. .
Kansas avoided the long COVID-19-related breaks that affected more than 100 teams this season, and even completed its entire Big 12 schedule with a week left in the season.
“My guys and our entire staff, they’ve done an amazing job,” Self told ESPN’s Myron Medcalf last week. “So much of this is luck, maybe luck. Our guys did a good job of playing the percentages. … That could change everything next week. Our guys hung in there pretty well.”