Tuesday’s Kansas basketball loss at K-State an effective case study on the status of the Jayhawks’ bench

By Matt Tait     Jan 18, 2023

In back to back games — one close win and one close loss decided by a total of three points — Kansas basketball coach Bill Self was left discussing a play by KU sophomore Bobby Pettiford.

That sets up a bit of a chicken-or-the-egg discussion about Pettiford’s role with the Jayhawks and, perhaps more to the point, about KU’s entire bench as a whole.

Self is demanding and preaches the importance of perfect preparation. Things happen in the actual games that you can’t always be ready for. But you can do your best to prepare for all of them, and, the way Self sees it, you might as well expect to be perfect while you’re doing that. After all, in moments of preparation, you’re in charge.

That brings us to Tuesday night at Kansas State, late in overtime, with the Jayhawks needing a bucket to win the game.

“We talked about what exactly to do,” Self said. “Bobby’s never thrown it in side-out. … We practice stuff, but they haven’t been out there in those situations before.”

Pettiford, who, along with Zach Clemence and Joe Yesufu, was pressed into action in that moment because three of KU’s starters had fouled out, was inbounding the ball by the KU bench with 11.7 seconds to play and Kansas trailing 83-82.

With junior forward Jalen Wilson already having scored 38 points, all eyes were on KU’s leading scorer and most people in the building surely figured Kansas would find a way to get Wilson the ball.

It never happened. Self said the Jayhawks tried to run “some fake stuff” to confuse the K-State defense and get Wilson the ball in the post. But the ball never went there.

“I thought he was open,” Self said of Wilson. “And Bobby makes the safe play and throws it to Juan. But he’s just never been in that situation before.”

Now he has. Once, at least. But how do the Jayhawks get to the point where guys like Pettiford, who are legitimately key parts of this Kansas team’s rotation, have that kind of experience when they need to draw on it?

The only answer is by playing them more, and while Self has been criticized by some — fans, mostly — for his sparse usage of his bench this season, it’s important to note

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Written By Matt Tait

A native of Colorado, Matt moved to Lawrence in 1988 and has been in town ever since. He graduated from Lawrence High in 1996 and the University of Kansas in 2000 with a degree in Journalism. After covering KU sports for the University Daily Kansan and Rivals.com, Matt joined the World Company (and later Ogden Publications) in 2001 and has held several positions with the paper and KUsports.com in the past 20+ years. He became the Journal-World Sports Editor in 2018. Throughout his career, Matt has won several local and national awards from both the Associated Press Sports Editors and the Kansas Press Association. In 2021, he was named the Kansas Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Matt lives in Lawrence with his wife, Allison, and two daughters, Kate and Molly. When he's not covering KU sports, he likes to spend his time playing basketball and golf, listening to and writing music and traveling the world with friends and family.