KU coach Bill Self comments on pair of Jayhawks being selected in 2024 NBA Draft

Approximately two dozen college and overseas basketball standouts were invited to sit with family members and friends in the green room for the first round of the 2024 NBA Draft held Wednesday night at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Just two athletes — freshman Johnny Furphy of Kansas and sophomore Kyle Filipowski of Duke — and their loved ones left the home of the Brooklyn Nets dejected after failing to hear their names called by commissioner Adam Silver.

“Last night was a very tough and humbling night for Johnny,” KU coach Bill Self said Thursday after learning 19-year-old Australia native Furphy had been selected by the San Antonio Spurs with the fifth pick of Round 2, then shortly after was part of a trade with the Indiana Pacers.

Self spent a few hours in the green room with Furphy on Wednesday. The two did not attend second-round action Thursday afternoon at ESPN’s Seaport District Studios in lower Manhattan.

“The anticipation of being in the green room and the assurance that he and his representation had been told that he would be drafted didn’t turn out that way. It was a tough night and I thought Johnny handled it very maturely and very well, but it was not easy for he or his family,” Self stated.

“For him to come back, get drafted and find out he is traded to the Pacers is great,” Self added. “It’s an up and coming franchise (that reached the 2024 Eastern Conference finals). They’ve got really good players. I spoke with them (the Pacers) this morning and they were very excited about Johnny. They ended up trading up a pick to get him.

“I’m excited for Johnny,” Self added. “I think they will do a great job in developing him. Johnny knows that he needs time to improve his strength for the NBA game. I think it’s a good landing place for him.”

The Pacers are led by former KU guard Kevin Pritchard, who is president of the franchise. Head coach Rick Carlisle employs an up-and-down style.

Meanwhile, KU senior wing Kevin McCullar, who was considered a likely first-round pick before getting injured late in the 2023-24 season, then missing the postseason, was taken at No. 56 overall Thursday by the New York Knicks, who had traded with the Phoenix Suns.

“Kevin is a first-round player and I think anybody that saw him healthy this year would agree to that,” Self said. “Kevin will play in the league for a long time and the Knicks got one of the toughest players we have had in our program. We are all excited that Kevin heard his named called. He will be a great fit to a playoff team and such a storied franchise.”

Self noted that, “unfortunately, Kevin got injured at the end of January (and) wasn’t the same the rest of the season and had a setback after the season as well.”

In fact, he had a surgical procedure that has kept him from working out for teams.

“He wants it bad and he will respond. He will do well in New York,” Self added of the team coached by Tom Thibodeau, who is known to embrace defensive-minded players such as McCullar.

A 2024 first-team all-Big 12 selection, McCullar led the conference in scoring in 2023-24 with an 18.3 points per game average. The San Antonio native was a finalist for the 2024 Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award and, including 2023-24, was a three-time semifinalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year award.

The 6-foot-6, 205-pound McCullar concluded his career with 217 steals, which ranks 11th on the Big 12 career steals records list. He finished with 1,517 points, 745 rebounds, 338 assists and 217 steals after playing three seasons at Texas Tech (2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22) and two at Kansas (2022-23, 2023-24).

Meanwhile, the 6-foot-8, 190-pound Furphy averaged 9.0 points and 4.9 rebounds per game his one season at KU. The Melbourne, Australia native started 19 games, including 18 of the last 19 contests. Furphy averaged 11.4 points and 6.1 rebounds in Big 12 play and led Kansas with 44 3-point field goals made.

Prior to Kansas, Furphy played prep basketball for Centre of Excellence (CoE), Australia’s development program hosted at the Australian Institute of Sport alongside NBA Global Academy. He reclassified to the class of 2023 class and garnered attention of college coaches when he participated in various NBA Academy events in the United States. Additionally, Furphy played for Victoria at the 2023 Australia-U20 Championship.

With the pair of draft picks, Kansas now has 89 all-time selections, including 31 in the Self era. Since the NBA adopted a two-round draft in 1989, Kansas has had 29 first-round selections and 44 total draft picks.