After offseason foot surgery forced him to get more in touch with his patient side, Kansas senior David McCormack is fully cleared and ready for the start of the 2021-22 season.
Officially, that came Wednesday, when the Jayhawks held their first full practice of the new season.
But the real beginning, the one that includes a party atmosphere and fans and memories that last a lifetime, arrives Friday night with Late Night in the Phog, and McCormack said this week that he is beyond ready for that both mentally and physically.
“Ohhhh, I can’t wait to be back,” McCormack said during a Wednesday media session.
Asked if he was fully healed from the foot fracture that affected him late during the 2020-21 season and forced him to miss time in the offseason, McCormack shrugged and smiled, saying he was “completely” healthy.
“It’s not even a thought to me,” he said. “I’m back to the same way I used to play — same spring, same touch, everything. I wouldn’t say anything’s different.”
It’s not just McCormack’s physical state that has him feeling good entering his fourth season as a Jayhawk.
One year after struggling out of the gate after a bunch of early-season hype, McCormack believes he’s in a better frame of mind at this time this year. And that, he says, should help him start the 2021-22 season the way he finished 2020-21.
“I feel great,” he said. “Early last year I was thinking a lot more, and now I feel free, playing with a free mind, free heart, so it’s great.”
