David McCormack ‘rusty’ early, great late in KU’s NCAA victory over Eastern Washington
Kansas junior power forward David McCormack said he felt a bit “rusty” during the first half of Saturday’s first-round NCAA Tournament West Regional game against Eastern Washington at Farmers Coliseum in Indianapolis.
“I was kind of slow trying to get back into my groove,” said McCormack, who returned from his recent stay in COVID-19 quarantine to score just two points and grab three rebounds while playing 11 minutes the first half of the No. 3-seeded Jayhawks’ hard-earned 93-84 victory over the No. 14-seeded Eagles.
Feeling empowered after receiving “encouragement from the team and coaches,” the 6-10 native of Norfolk, Virginia erupted for 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting (4 of 5 from the free throw line) with six rebounds in the final 20 minutes to help the Jayhawks overcome an eight-point halftime deficit and put away the pesky Eagles of the Big Sky Conference.
“It felt good. I let the game come to me naturally. Everything went well,” McCormack said in a postgame interview on KUathletics.com. He finished with 22 points and nine boards in 25 minutes.
“That our bigs need to play big, just to play our game” McCormack said when asked to relay the halftime message from KU coach Bill Self, who told reporters after the game that McCormack had “very little if any symptoms” after testing positive for COVID-19.
McCormack did not travel with the team to last week’s Big 12 Tournament in Kansas City, joining the Jayhawks in the NCAA bubble Friday morning. He practiced just once prior to his return game in the NCAAs.
Self said McCormack went through 70% of Friday’s workout and had his heart monitored.
“Just to play our game, that we need to hunker down on defense,” McCormack added of Self’s instructions with KU down 46-38 at the break.
“We definitely could have gotten more stops on defense. We used that energy for offensive possessions. We kind of outscored them,” McCormack added of KU, which put up 55 second-half points.
Eastern Washington power forward Tanner Groves scored 35 points on 11-of-18 shooting (8 of 9 from the free throw line). It’s the second most points scored by a player against KU in an NCAA Tournament game in the Self era. Ben Woodside of North Dakota State had 37 points in a loss to KU in March 2009. Groves’ brother, Jacob, chipped in 23 points on 8-of-11 shooting. Tanner was 5 of 11 from three; Jacob 4 of 5.
“I’ve got to give credit to Groves,” McCormack said referring to Tanner, a 6-9, 235-pounder from Spokane, Washington. “He was a great shooter and great big man on the perimeter. I definitely had to close out on him and stay down.”
Groves played so well that Self sought him out and spoke to the big man after his career-best scoring outing.
“He just said he had a lot of respect for my brother and I. Said we had a heck of a game. We both did,” Tanner Groves said. “It’s really cool to get some crazy recognition like that from one of the premier coaches in the entire NCAA.
“I didn’t really think about it at the time because I always usually do that, I usually go up to the other coach, even with the COVID, I’ll always go up to them and I always got to show respect to my opponent. But, yeah, it’s kind of cool. It’s really surreal that Coach Self came up to me and said he respected my performance today.”
Of his own game, Tanner Groves, who was guarded at times by McCormack, said: “I’ve got great teammates that were finding me all game. I was knocking shots down. I was feeling good. But we come up short. That’s all right. I was just really happy with the performance that our team put together today for the most part.
“It was a dogfight the entire game. It feels really cool that we were able to keep it pretty close here with Kansas and make it a game, give them a little bit of a scare. I played pretty well. That’s just all credit to my teammates and coaches. It’s just been such a fun season. I’m already excited for next year.”
Self obviously is happy with his own big man, McCormack, whose performance obviously was pivotal in KU advancing to the second round.
“For him to play that many minutes and play that well was terrific,” Self said of the 6-foot-10 McCormack after the game.
“I didn’t feel he looked as good moving, considering all the time off. I thought he looked very patient once we got into the second half. I thought David’s attitude coming back (on Friday from Lawrence) was tremendous,” Self added.
This story was originally published March 20, 2021 at 4:42 PM with the headline "David McCormack ‘rusty’ early, great late in KU’s NCAA victory over Eastern Washington."
