We’re going to break away from the normal “Recap” format just for this game, as I was interested in what landed Kansas center Jeff Withey in the doghouse during the Jayhawks’ 84-58 victory over North Dakota.

Though Withey started, he played a season-low eight minutes.

“Jeff has really had a pretty good year so far,” Self said after the game, “but that was ridiculous tonight.”

Let’s take a look. I pieced together all of the significant plays that Withey had during the North Dakota game to try to figure out why Self was ticked off.

Withey’s bad day starts in the first highlight (click for cued-up highlight) on a missed free throw from Travis Releford.

A potential offensive rebound his Withey in the hands, but bounces away as he can’t secure it.

Withey actually makes a nice play in the next highlight, jumping to knock away a pass for a steal.

The next highlight is another nice play from Withey, helping on defense to stop a driver before blocking his shot (though I don’t think this block made it into the box score).

What follows, though, is two more plays that typically drive Self crazy.

Following a missed three from Conner Teahan, Withey has weakside position only to let a shorter (and much smaller) UND player go right over the top of him for the rebound.

To hurt his case even more, Withey ends up falling down, and the ball ends up going out of bounds off his butt.

After failing to put in a tip on the weakside on another Teahan missed three, Withey once again lets a UND player out-tough him for a rebound.

Following a North Dakota missed shot, Withey has perfect rebounding position, only to let the man on his back go over him to swat the ball back to a Bison player. If you watch the video, notice Self goes to his bench to sub out Withey immediately after that.

Notice also in the screenshot on the right how far Withey’s mid-section is in front of his feet. This appears to show that Withey was unable to stand his ground and was pushed forward by the UND player behind him.

This leads to my favorite video, which is taken just after Withey is benched.

I’m an amateur lip-reader, but I was able to make out what Self says in the cued-up video below. Give it a click.

“You missed three rebounds!” By the way, later video shows that Withey is the closest player to Self on the bench.

And, from the images above, you now know exactly which three rebounds Self was talking about.

Withey gets one more chance in the highlights to be tough on the glass, but he doesn’t take advantage.

He appears to be in decent position for an offensive rebound on this shot by Naadir Tharpe, but Withey can’t control the ball and loses it out of bounds.

The final straws for Withey are a three-second call (which looks like a questionable call, as Withey appears to step out of the lane 1 1/2 seconds before getting whistled) …

and an ill-advised pass right into a defender for a turnover.

Withey checked out of the game after that and didn’t return. His final line: Two points, 1-for-1 shooting, two rebounds, two turnovers and one steal in eight minutes.

I think I went into Saturday with the wrong thoughts about Self’s mind-set for the final non-conference game. I thought this would be the perfect game for him to use his bench players and not have the final result be in jeopardy.

Instead, Self went the other way. He used this game to send a message, as it was the last game he could bench a starting player and not be in jeopardy of losing the game.

“The thing that concerns me is how soft we are,” Self said after the game, and this quote I think relates to Withey pretty directly. “Everybody sees it. You have balls hitting guys in the hands, and they don’t come away with it, and we are getting ready to play big-boy ball starting Wednesday (against Kansas State). I am really concerned with our big guys because other than Thomas (Robinson). I don’t think we have a big guy that can get a rebound in traffic against men. That would be my biggest concern right now.”

This blog isn’t meant to rip Withey. The highlights above actually show good defensive plays from him here and here and a good offensive play here that we didn’t even mention above. And he did that in just eight minutes.

Withey perhaps also hasn’t gotten as much credit for KU’s success this year as he deserves. For example, basketballreference.com measures a stat called “win shares,” which estimates of the number of wins contributed by a player due to his offense and defense.

Thomas Robinson is first for KU with 3.1 WS. Withey is second with 2.4 WS.

KU needs Withey, and Self surely knows that KU’s best chance to win will put Withey on the court for extended minutes.

Then again, Self also values toughness in players, and Withey didn’t appear to show too much of it above.

It will be interesting to watch Withey’s minutes going forward. Even if KU is softer when he’s in, the team is also better when he’s in.

Withey still is an efficient shooter, an outstanding defender and one of the nation’s best shot-blockers.

Will any of that matter to Self, though, if Withey doesn’t play tough enough?