Kansas rallies past E. Wash.
KANSAS 93 E. WASHINGTON 84
Kansas was booted from the Big 12 Tournament by COVID-19. It entered the NCAA Tournament shorthanded, with leading-rebounder Jalen Wilson and reserve Tristan Enaruna ineligible to return for the team’s first round game. Fortunately, David McCormack was cleared just in time. After being sidelined the past two weeks by a positive COVID test and first joining his team in Indianapolis on Friday, the 6-foot-10 junior came off the bench to finish with 22 points and nine rebounds and help No. 3 Kansas overcome a 10-point second half deficit to advance past No. 14 Eastern Washington, 93-84, on Saturday.
The Jayhawks (21-8) will face the winner of No. 6 USC/No. 11 Drake in the second round. Without McCormack — the team’s second-leading scorer and rebounds, as well as the Big 12’s Most Improved Player — convincing Bill Self to ignore his plan to limit the key big man’s minutes, his coach could have suffered his first opening round loss since 2006.
McCormack, who hadn’t played since March 4, made 9-of-15 shots from the field, adding two steals, two assists and a block.
“It was pretty impressive how he played, his conditioning, considering all the stuff he’s come off of,” coach Bill Self said. “He played great. It was good to see .... I didn’t think he was going to give us much offensively, or defensively, just give us five fouls.
“The guys that contracted COVID, they’ve handled it well. Their maturity level has been really high. Wasn’t a ‘woe is me’. We told all our guys we need to play as hard as we can to make sure your teammates get a chance to experience the tournament.”
Eastern Washington (16-8) scored the game’s first nine points, and took a 46-38 lead to halftime, fueled by brothers Tanner and Jacob Groves. Tanner scored a career-high 35 points, while his younger brother added 23 points and nine rebounds.
“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,” Tanner said. “[Self] said he had a lot of respect for my brother and I, said we had a heck of a game. It’s really surreal that Coach Self came up to me and said he respected my performance.”