So much of the conversation about this Kansas basketball team, which may be destined to tumble out of the top 10 in the AP poll on Monday after receiving first-place votes during each of the past two weeks, has been about how the Jayhawks can and need to get more from their bench.
Right now, however, the bench is the last thing KU coach Bill Self seems to be worried about.
That certainly was his message following Saturday’s 83-60 home drubbing at the hands of TCU that dropped Kansas to 16-3 overall and 5-2 in Big 12 play.
TCU’s bench outscored KU’s 39-8 on Saturday, with three of those Kansas points coming by way of a late 3-pointer from walk-on guard Michael Jankovich.
Given the minutes discrepancy between what TCU’s bench played (70) and the time KU’s reserves logged (41), Self said the final numbers were probably a little misleading. But they also underscored the ongoing depth problem with this Kansas team.
“Their bench really did a nice job of contributing, there’s no doubt about it,” Self said.
So rather than dwelling on what KU’s reserves are doing — or not doing — and hoping that the 19-game sample size does not provide an accurate picture, Self is turning his attention to the Jayhawks’ first unit.
Earlier in the week, Self acknowledged that not getting enough from the KU bench was “an issue.” But the reserves are almost always asked to play a complementary role to the starters, and when that group struggles the way many of KU’s starters have during the past week or so, highlighting what the bench is or is not doing seems a bit like nitpicking.
So, Self won’t do it.
“I think what we’ve got to do is get our starting five playing better,” he said after Saturday’s loss. “Our bench isn’t such where they’re going to make a huge difference in us winning or not winning. The way they can contribute the most is defending, not turning it over, getting confidence from doing the things that don’t show up in the stat sheet and then they’ll get more confidence moving forward.”
On the heels of the fourth worst defeat in Allen Fieldhouse history on Saturday, Self emphasized that the bench was not the problem.
“We can talk about bench,” he said. “We can talk about getting more production and all that stuff. That (was) not the problem today. The problem (was) the guys that played the majority of the minutes didn’t really do anything, nor did we (as coaches) get them to do anything to get the other team to play poorly. That’s where the issue lies and we’ve got to clean that up.”
That last part — making other teams play poorly — has long been a staple of the Bill Self way at Kansas. And KU junior Jalen Wilson said after Saturday’s loss that the Jayhawks need to dig deep to get back to doing that.
“Two games in a row where teams (were) way too comfortable against us,” Wilson said. “We have to take pride in the other end and not even worrying about offense. … We have to take pride in winning our matchups.”
Self agreed and said Wilson, during his postgame meeting with the media, was “echoing” a lot of what was said in the locker room after the loss to TCU.
Because the two sides seem to be on the same page in that regard, Self said there was no need to yell and scream and lose his mind to try to get his point across. Especially not with a game at Baylor on the docket in two days.
“This league is so good, there’s no reason to come at them in a way that that loses what’s most important,” Self said. “The most important thing is trying to get your bodies back fresh and let’s be ready to go on Monday.”
Added Wilson, who scored 30 points against TCU, giving him 68 points total in the Jayhawks’ two losses this week: “We know exactly what we need to do. So, it’s not like we are confused on how we are losing games.”
Monday’s clash with Baylor, in Waco, Texas, is set for an 8 p.m. tipoff on ESPN’s Big Monday.
