Why aren’t MJ Rice, Ernest Udeh playing more for KU basketball? Bill Self talks bench...

Kansas freshman guard MJ Rice and first-year center Ernest Udeh have combined to play just 4 minutes, 49 seconds in Big 12 Conference games this season.

Rice, a 6-foot-5, 215-pound native of Durham, North Carolina, did not take a shot while playing 4:48 in combined appearances against Oklahoma State and Texas Tech, while Udeh, 6-11, 250 from Orlando, Florida, entered for one possession that lasted one second in the Oklahoma State game on New Year’s Eve.

KU coach Bill Self was asked for an update on the McDonald’s All-America duo on Thursday at a news conference held in advance of Saturday’s game between No. 2 KU (16-2, 5-1) and No. 14 TCU (14-4, 3-3). It will tip at noon at Allen Fieldhouse.

“Ernest had his wisdom teeth out last week. He was limited some in practice. MJ is not 100%,” Self said. “There have been games this year MJ has warmed up for and he’s told me at halftime, ‘I can’t play (because of back injury).’

“That’s not a reason we didn’t try to put him in (during KU’s 83-82 overtime loss to Kansas State on Tuesday). It was (that) he is not whole. It’d be nice if we were able to get those guys whole. If you don’t have a couple of perimeter guys in the game then Juan (Harris) and Jalen (Wilson) have to stay in. Let’s just call it like it is, that’s what happened the other night.”

Forward KJ Adams and guards Kevin McCullar and Gradey Dick all fouled out in the Kansas State game. The Jayhawks finished the overtime contest with Harris and Wilson on the court, as well as guards Bobby Pettiford and Joseph Yesufu and forward Zach Clemence.

Three KU starters topped the 40-minute mark at K-State, while Adams played 34 minutes and McCullar 23. The bench consisted of Yesufu (22 minutes), Pettiford (six minutes), Clemence (six minutes) and Zuby Ejiofor (five minutes).

“Forty-five-minute games and guys play 45, I think there’s a chance they are going to get tired. That’s what made Jalen’s game (38 points, nine rebounds) even better. He actually played his best defense in overtime and the last three minutes (of regulation),” Self said.

He continued.

“It (bench play) is an issue,” Self said of the high minutes for starters. “Of course Joe and Bobby had chances to play. Both did some good things. Our bigs had chances to play. We just didn’t play as well as we hoped. I’m not going to make any excuses for them because it’s my fault we weren’t used to having the pieces in the game at the end of the game that actually were in the game. If we are in that position again we’ll be better prepared for it.”

Self said he’d ideally like an eight-man rotation.

“Joe and two guards and one big would probably be the best number,” Self said.

Harris banged head on the floor at K-State

Dajuan Harris had to head to the locker room for a short period of time in the second half after hitting the deck against K-State.

“I think Juan got tired,” Self said of Harris, who had three points on 1-of-7 shooting (1-of-6 from three) and 11 assists in 43 minutes.

“Did you guys see how hard he hit his head on the floor on the replay? It’s amazing he didn’t get a concussion, amazing,” Self added of a play in which Harris tumbled with KU on offense. “We can talk about he didn’t do this and he missed some wide open shots he’d been making, but the guy he guarded had a season low, too.”

Guarded by Harris, KSU’s Markquis Nowell scored four points on 2-for-8 shooting in 42 minutes.

“His value is in so many ways. He had 11 dimes. He had a couple bad turnovers (four total) in large part because we didn’t execute very well,” Self added of the junior point guard. “But I’ll definitely go to the house with him each and every night.”

Self discusses timeout

Self commented Thursday on his calling a timeout in overtime with the shot clock running down and Wilson gaining possession of the ball well past the three-point line with 40.8 seconds left. At the time, KU led by one.

Wilson released a shot just after the ref granted the timeout. The ball dropped through the net but of course didn’t count because time had been called with four ticks on the shot clock.

KU did not score on the possession as Wilson missed a shot following the stoppage of play.

“Of course I actually called the timeout before he ever touched it, when the ball was in the air (coming to Wilson), but the official didn’t grant it until right before he shot it,” Self said. “That (calling time) was unfortunate. I asked Jalen. … I said, ‘You heard me call timeout, that’s why you went and shot it didn’t you?’ He said, ‘No, I really didn’t,’ so that made me feel even worse. That could have certainly put a different end on that game. I take sole responsibility on that. That didn’t have anything to do with our guys.

“That tells you what type of game that was. Any one play, any one moment in the game was going to be the difference in any one team winning and any one team not.”

Of the thriller on Tuesday, Self added: “That’s a game that will be talked about by others but it won’t be talked about by us and it wont be talked about by him (Wilson) because we didn’t do the objective. We didn’t come out of there with a ‘W’ and I love that attitude about (Wilson).”