Former Wagner grad Kevin McCullar ready to lead at Texas Tech
https://www.expressnews.com/sports/...rad-Kevin-McCullar-ready-to-lead-16496641.phpZach Mason, Correspondent
Sep. 29, 2021Updated: Sep. 29, 2021 4:16 p.m
Texas Tech was 12.9 seconds away from winning its first national championship in program history when Virginia guard De’Andre Hunter sank a corner 3-pointer to send the game into overtime.
Still recovering from a devastating injury to his leg suffered during his senior year at Wagner, redshirt freshman Kevin McCullar Jr. could do nothing but observe from the sideline as the Cavaliers delivered a heart-wrenching 85-77 loss to the Red Raiders.
“Once you get that feeling, all he thinks about I’m sure is playing on Monday night because he’s seen it before,” said Darryl Dora, Tech men’s basketball director of player development. “I think it helped him be the player he is today because he got to watch a lot of good players. I thought he did a great job that year sitting out and soaking up the game that we had going on. We happened to have a magical run, so it was big for him to see.”
Two years later, Chris Beard — the coach who resurrected Tech basketball from the depths of irrelevance — announced he was taking the same position at Texas, leaving the program’s future in doubt.
While the move blindsided many in West Texas, McCullar was aware Beard’s departure was a possibility and held no grudges.
“Me and Coach Beard, we communicated and stuff,” he said. “The opportunity came up. At this level and the next level, it’s all a business. Once he told me he’s gonna go ahead and take the job down there, I just wished him the best, and he wished me the best.”
McCullar, who averaged 10.4 points and 6.3 rebounds per game last season for Texas Tech, didn’t want to change schools.
The 6-foot-6 guard had no interest in going through the chaos of recruitment again and liked the home he made for himself in Lubbock. But with no immediate indication of who would take over as Tech’s coach, the veteran guard — and two other teammates — entered the transfer portal the same day Texas hosted Beard’s introductory news conference.
“It was up in the air,” McCullar said. “Everybody was kinda confused on what to do and how to handle it and stuff. While all that was going on, I was just down in San Antonio working out a lot, just kept working on me and the grind didn’t really stop for me. I just was waiting to see who would end up getting the job up here at Tech.”
Minutes after assistant coach Mark Adams was promoted to Beard’s vacated position, McCullar tweeted he’d be returning to Lubbock for the upcoming season.
“He (McCullar) was the first one to say he was going to stay as soon as Coach Adams was hired,” Dora said. “I think he’s locked in. I think he’s comfortable here. Lubbock loves him; he knows that. He knew the best place would be here for him. He’s already used to this league, which is one of the best leagues in America. He knew he would come back here and be one of our main players.”
With nine new players joining the Red Raiders — and practices beginning this week — Adams and the rest of the coaching staff are leaning on McCullar to serve as a locker room leader, acclimating the transfers and freshmen to the Red Raider basketball culture.
“(It’s) pretty much doing what we do, which is working hard every day,” McCullar said. “Not taking a possession off, just being together and being the most connected team out there. Bonding on and off the court, gotta have that chemistry, it carries over. Coach Adams, he’s got a thing he says, ‘Together we attack.’ We gotta be together to go out and do what we want to do.”
Through the midst of all the coaching and roster turnover, another major change arrived at McCullar’s front door this offseason — new NCAA rules on athletes profiting off of their name, image and likeness (NIL).
“It was brand new,” McCullar said. “This kind of came out of nowhere and threw me for a loop. ... There was really no rules to it and there’s still not really not too many rules, we’re still trying to figure it out day by day.”
Hours after the NCAA removed the restrictions on college athletes profiting off of NIL, McCullar launched a website to field sponsorship requests. He then created an account on Cameo, a website that allows celebrities to send personalized video messages to recipients for a fee — a popular platform used by student-athletes to earn their first dollars early in the NIL era.
“We’re kind of in a business world now, but we’re still in college,” McCullar said. “So I’m trying to figure out which companies I can trust and partner with, get all the contracts situated and different things like that. A lot of people were hitting me up, but me and my mom and my family were just trying to find people we could partner with for the right reasons.”
One of the priorities McCullar identified as he signed his first few deals was to ensure a portion of the revenues he generated went back to charity.
“That just speaks to the way he was brought up,” Dora said. “His family is a big-time family. He has his sister, that’s his best friend. He’s real close with his dad and his mom. That doesn’t surprise me that he’s gonna give his money to help other people. That’s just Kev.”
Competing for the Big 12 championship is always tough, but the upcoming season seems more difficult for Tech than any year in recent memory.
With one of the most successful coaches in program history now standing on the sidelines of Tech’s rival, a defending national champion in Baylor and elite talent and proven coaches throughout the rest of the league, McCullar knows the Red Raiders will have to gel quickly to stay in the race.
“With the guys we got, we have more than enough talent to do what we need to do,” he said. “Now it’s just about putting the pieces in the right place. Keep building that chemistry and seeing what we can do and try to make a run at this thing.”
