Kansas big men David McCormack and Tristan Enaruna will miss the Big 12 tournament due to COVID-19 protocols, coach Bill Self announced on Tuesday.
He himself believes both players will be back for the NCAA tournament, and indicated that the rest of the squad could adjust to this week’s conference tournament in Kansas City, Missouri. It is unclear whether either player tested positive for the virus.
Kansas, which earned the No. 2 seed in the Big 12 tournament, will play against the Oklahoma-Iowa state winner on Thursday in the quarter-finals.
McCormack, a 6-foot-10 junior center, was one of the season’s breakout performers in the Big 12. He averages 13.4 points and 6.1 rebounds in the season, but was dominant for pieces by 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 sophomore attacker, averaged 2.8 points in 24 games off the bench.
With both players out, expect a bigger role for senior big man Mitch Lightfoot and former junior college transfer Tyon Grant-Foster.
With less than two weeks to the first round of the NCAA tournament and less than a week until the teams travel to Indianapolis, the programs take every precaution to avoid positive COVID-19 tests. The NCAA announced in January that all Tier 1 tour group participants – including student athletes, coaches, trainers, physical therapists, medical and equipment personnel, and officials – must pass seven consecutive negative COVID-19 tests before arriving in Indianapolis . .
Kansas avoided the long COVID-19-related breaks that hit more than 100 teams this season, even shutting down the entire Big 12 schedule with a week to go into the season.
“My boys and all of our staff, they’ve done an incredible job,” Self told ESPN’s Myron Medcalf last week. “So much of this is luck, maybe luck. Our boys have done their best to allow them to maybe play the percentages. … That could all change next week.