🏀 McCullar Named Naismith Defensive Player of Year Semifinalist for Third-Straight Season

ATLANTA – For the third-straight season, Kansas graduate Kevin McCullar Jr. has been named a Naismith Defensive Player of the Year semifinalist, the Atlanta Tipoff Club announced today. Last season at Kansas and in 2022 at Texas Tech, McCullar was also one of 10 semifinalists for the award.

In its seventh year, the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Award originated in 2018. McCullar is looking to become the second Kansas player to win the honor, joining 2020 recipient Marcus Garrett.

Joining McCullar on the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Award semifinalist list are Adrian Baldwin Jr. (Penn State), Reece Beekman (Virginia), Johni Broome (Auburn), Devin Carter (Providence), Zach Edey (Purdue), Ryan Kalkbrenner (Creighton), Tamin Lipsey (Iowa State), Jamal Shead (Houston) and Zakai Zeigler (Tennessee).

Named to most every national player of the year late watch list and an All-Big 12 First Team selection, McCullar leads the Big 12 in scoring at 18.3 points per game. The San Antonio guard’s two triple-doubles are the third most in the NCAA. McCullar is second on the team with 39 three-point field goals made and his 6.0 rebounds per game are also second on the team. McCullar ranks in 11 Big 12 statistical categories.

A three-time All-Big 12 selection and two-time member of the Big 12 All-Defensive Team, for his career McCullar has scored 1,517 points with 745 rebounds, 338 assists and 217 steals. He has 107 starts in his 137 games played, including 58 starts in 59 contests in his two seasons at Kansas.

Also, in 2020, Garrett was the ESPN.com national defensive player of the year. Other Jayhawks to have won national defensive player of the year honors include Jeff Withey, a co-recipient by the NABC in 2013, and Udoka Azubuike in 2020 by the NABC.