Nick KrugYou don’t have to be paying close attention to the Kansas men’s basketball season to realize that KU coach Bill Self has not been too reliant on his bench so far this season.
But the numbers paint an even clearer picture.
According to KenPom.com, Kansas ranks 305th nationally in bench minutes through the season’s first 10 games, with Self’s reserves playing just 25.6% of the time.
That’s notably lower than the national average of 31.1% and there are many reasons for it.
Just three players on KU’s bench are averaging double-digit minutes per game and two of the three — Bobby Pettiford and MJ Rice — have missed multiple games. Junior guard Joe Yesufu is the only player on KU’s bench who has played in every game this season. And even that has been hit or miss.
Nick KrugAlthough Yesufu’s usage has been on the rise of late — he has averaged 21 minutes per game in the past four outings — he has played single-digit minutes in five of the 10 games in which he appeared. His season-high for minutes played of 29, came during his lone start of the season, when Kevin McCullar Jr., sat out of the Texas Southern game to rest his groin.
Inexperience, injuries and the production of KU’s starting five, which has been the same for all but one game this season, have all played a role in KU trusting his starters to carry the load thus far. But that’s not to say Self wants it or expects it to stay that way.
“I think we need a lot of improvement,” Self said Thursday, when asked to evaluate the play of his bench to date.
He then broke down where he thinks that improvement can come, noting that he probably trusts Yesufu and Pettiford the most of all of his bench players at this point.
Pettiford’s role is simple — he’s the back-up to starting point guard Dajuan Harris Jr., and if his body allows him to and the injuries stay away, he has the potential to play upwards of 20 minutes per game, some with Harris on the floor and some in his place.
Nick Krug“I do think that Bobby has to be in the game when Juan’s not,” Self said Thursday, repeating a stance he has had throughout the season. “And they can be in the game together.”
The Jayhawks’ other top option as a sub in the backcourt is five-star freshman MJ Rice, who also has dealt with injuries but had to manage inconsistency and limited opportunity, as well.
“I do believe Joe is definitely a spark that can help us off the bench,” Self said Thursday. “MJ isn’t quite that spark. MJ’s more of a scorer. If he could tighten up a few things defensively and everything, I do think he could get extended minutes to become a scorer.”
That’s what Rice was known for throughout his high school days and what Self still thinks he will become at Kansas. Self said Rice was just “time away” from finding his footing.
“It’s hard for a scorer to be a scorer if you’re only playing two or three minutes,” Self said. “So, he needs to get some extended minutes. But he’ll probably do that by being more in tune with what we’re trying to do defensively and taking care of the ball. … He can’t show what he can do yet because we haven’t let him show it because we need him to do the other things (that are) more valuable to our team.”
And then there’s the situation with KU’s big man rotation, which has been a soft spot in KU’s lineup throughout the season.
Sophomore forward KJ Adams has started every game at the 5 for the Jayhawks and done an admirable job for an undersized center. His strength, athleticism and motor have allowed him to survive — and occasionally thrive — while playing out of possession.
Self is still hopeful that one of KU’s four big men on the bench — Zach Clemence, Zuby Ejiofor, Cam Martin and Ernest Udeh Jr. — will emerge as a factor before long.
“I told (ESPN’s Dick) Vitale today, we’ve got four pretty good bigs, they’re just not quite there yet,” Self said Thursday. “And I say that especially with (freshmen) Zuby and Ernest, and Zach because he’s young, too. All three of those guys are going to be really good collegiate players. Zach’s being asked to play a way that probably doesn’t best fit him individually, but it’s best for our team. Zuby and Ernest are just maturity and experience away from being really good. And I do think it’ll happen this year.”
Together, that quartet is averaging just 6 minutes per game, although that includes just one game by Martin, who played just over 2 minutes in KU’s win at Missouri, after missing the first nine games of the season with a shoulder injury.
Udeh and Pettiford have fairly routinely been the first big and first guard off the bench for the Jayhawks, and Self said he likes the outlook for this team even more if those two, along with Rice, could turn into key parts of the rotation.
“We don’t need all three to come through if one of those guys can separate themselves and be a guy that can play 15 or 20 (minutes) a game,” Self said of Clemence, Ejiofor and Udeh. “If we get that and we get MJ to the point where he can do something comparable, I think it changes our whole look physically because (then) you’d be bringing off the bench two of our best three or four athletes. So, I’m hopeful that can occur.”
KU junior Jalen Wilson, who leads the team in both scoring (22.1 points per game) and rebounding (9.4 rebounds per game), said he believed it could.
“I have a lot of confidence in them,” Wilson said of the KU bench. “We’ve just got to continue to get guys ready. When conference play comes around, you never know what’s going to happen and guys are going to have to be ready to play. It may not be, ‘Oh, I have to win this game (for us).’ It may be, ‘If I win these couple plays we can end up winning the game.’ I think if we build that mindset now then it’ll help out.”
Next up, No. 8 Kansas (9-1) plays host to No. 14 Indiana at 11 a.m. Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse. The game will be televised on ESPN2.
