KU basketball’s Kevin McCullar up for major national defensive honor ... again
Kansas senior guard Kevin McCullar has been named a Naismith Defensive Player of the Year semifinalist, the Atlanta Tipoff Club announced Tuesday. McCullar, a 6-foot-6 San Antonio native, was also one of 10 semifinalists for the award a year ago when he played at Texas Tech.
KU’s Marcus Garrett won the award in 2020.
Other semifinalists: Chase Audige (Northwestern), Moussa Cisse (Oklahoma State), Jaylen Clark (UCLA), Zach Edey (Purdue), Trayce Jackson-Davis (Indiana), Ryan Kalkbrenner (Creighton), Caleb McConnell (Rutgers), Marcus Sasser (Houston) and Zakai Zeigler (Tennessee).
McCullar is second in the Big 12 and 24th overall in the country with 2.1 steals per game. His 58 steals are second most in the Big 12 and that mark ranks 27th nationally. McCullar has scored 986 career points, 14 shy of 1,000 and has 170 career steals. His 60 steals this season are 20 from Kansas’ single-season top eight list.
Garrett was the ESPN.com national defensive player of the year in 2020. Other Jayhawks to win defensive player of the year awards: Jeff Withey by the NABC in 2013, and Udoka Azubuike by the NABC in 2020.
KU will play host to Texas Tech at 8 p.m. on Tuesday at Allen Fieldhouse.
This story was originally published February 28, 2023 at 12:01 PM with the headline "KU basketball’s Kevin McCullar up for major national defensive honor ... again."
