The great men from Kansas, David McCormack and Tristan Enaruna, will miss the Big 12 tournament because of the COVID-19 protocols, coach Bill Self announced on Tuesday.
Self believes both players will return to the NCAA tournament and has indicated that the rest of the list will be able to adjust for this week’s conference tournament in Kansas City, Missouri. It is unclear whether any of the players tested positive for the virus.
Kansas, who won 2nd place in the Big 12 tournament, will play the winner of the Oklahoma-Iowa state in the quarterfinals on Thursday.
McCormack, a 10-meter junior center, was one of the best players of the season in the Big 12. He averaged 13.4 points and 6.1 rebounds this season, but was dominant for stretches toward 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% of the field.
Enaruna, a 6-8 year old striker, had an average of 2.8 points in 24 games on the bench.
With both players out, expect a bigger role for the big man, 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 the teams travel to Indianapolis, the programs take every precaution to avoid positive COVID-19 tests. The NCAA announced in January that all participants in the Level 1 travel party – which includes student-athletes, coaches, coaches, physical therapists, medical and equipment staff and officials – must take seven consecutive negative COVID-19 tests before in Indianapolis.
Kansas has avoided long breaks related to COVID-19 that have affected more than 100 teams this season, even ending the entire Big 12 program with one week left in the season.
“My boys and our entire staff did an incredible job,” Self told ESPN’s Myron Medcalf last week. “A lot of that is luck, maybe luck. Our boys did a good job putting them in a position to play maybe percentages … Everything could change next week. Our boys were pretty good there.”