🏀 McCormack Looking Forward to Junior Season at KU

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Like most regulars on top men’s basketball teams in the country, at the end of a season underclassmen will look to NBA teams for advice about their future.

“Me and my family have looked into my NBA draft prospects the past few weeks to get some input from the NBA teams on what areas of my game I need to improve on,” Kansas forward David McCormack said. “It was a great opportunity to hear from them and I’m looking forward to putting those on display this next season at Allen Fieldhouse. We have a great coaching staff who can help me and my teammates reach that next level.”

A 2020 Academic All-Big 12 First Team selection, McCormack started 18 games for Kansas and finished second on the team with a 52.9 field goal percentage. The Norfolk, Va., sophomore averaged 6.9 points, 4.1 rebounds and 14.6 minutes per game and was efficient while on the floor. For example, McCormack posted a career-high 28 points, on 11-of-14 shooting, in just 16 minutes against Kansas City. He also recorded his first career double-double with 17 points and 11 rebounds in 16 minutes against Monmouth. In all, McCormack had seven games with 10 or more points and six with seven or more rebounds in 2019-20.

“David had a really good year this past season,” KU head coach Bill Self said. “The reason he didn’t play as many minutes was he had a first-team All-American (Udoka Azubuike) who had a really good year. I anticipate David being a guy we can play through and I believe he could be a double-double guy, similar to what Dok was, or real near to those numbers. He’ll get them in ways Dok did not, which could also make our team more versatile.”

Kansas returns 11 letterwinners from last season’s 28-3 team which won the Big 12 regular season at 17-1 and finished No. 1 in both the Associated Press and USA TODAY Coaches’ polls in the shortened season due to the pandemic. KU will be anchored by seniors-to-be Marcus Garrett and Mitch Lightfoot, who was a 2019-20 redshirt. Other returning regulars include juniors-to-be McCormack, starter Ochai Agbaji and Silvio De Sousa. Sophomores-to-be Christian Braun and Tristan Enaruna also played significant roles in 2019-20.

“We’ve known all along that going into this past season we were probably going to lose Devon (Dotson) and we were definitely going to lose Udoka (Azubuike) and Isaiah (Moss),” Self said. “To have the remaining team returning and a good recruiting class, it puts us in a position not to take a step backward at all in our program. I look forward to Marcus (Garrett), Ochai (Agbaji), David (McCormack), Mitch (Lightfoot) and Silvio (De Sousa), our upperclassmen, taking ownership of everything that goes with this team and see where they can take it.”

Kansas’ signed four players last November who will be joined by redshirt freshman guard Dejuan Harris as first-year players for the Jayhawks. Incoming newbies are headlined by McDonald’s All-America guard Bryce Thompson from Tulsa via Booker T. Washington High School. Guard Tyon Grant-Foster, from Kansas City, Kan., was Junior College All-America Honorable Mention selection last season for Indian Hills Community College. Forward Getro Muscadin, 6-10 from Haiti via Aspire Academy in Kentucky, and guard Latrell Jossell, from Keller Central High School in Texas, round out KU’s incoming newcomers.