Kansas State players celebrate after winning an NCAA college basketball game against Kansas Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2023, in Manhattan, Kan. Kansas State won 83-82 in overtime. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

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 that in the past two games one of his most important bench pieces was on the floor at game point.

The play didn’t work out at K-State and Kansas lost. Sure, Pettiford could’ve thrown it to Wilson, but even if he had Wilson still would’ve had to make a play from there to win the game. The way he was playing, he very well might have done just that, but it’s still no guarantee.

Against Iowa State, Pettiford was on the floor for the final defensive possession, this time because Self chose to put him out there for Gradey Dick and not out of necessity.

Although Pettiford did not fully execute the game plan to purposely foul with Kansas having two fouls to give, Self still came away impressed by the way he defended that final ISU possession.

“He may have fouled there at the end,” Self conceded this week, noting that the officials just might have chosen not to call it. “But if you just take that out of it, good gracious how impressive was he sliding his feet?”

KU used its bench for 39 minutes on Tuesday, which, believe it or not, is 4 minutes less than its per-game average this season. It was, however, the second highest number of bench minutes by KU in Big 12 play so far, and the Jayhawks remain well below the national average (31.1%) for bench usage, at 22.7%, per KenPom.com.

Self has talked a lot this season about using — and not using — his bench, both as a whole and in an individual sense, with guys like Clemence, Zuby Ejiofor, MJ Rice and Ernest Udeh Jr. all being storylines in their own right at some point this season.

But the bottom line is until those players consistently show they can execute what Self wants them to execute, he’s going to have a hard time turning to them on game nights.

You may not love that. And you may belong to the camp that says the only way for them to prove they can do it is by him giving them a chance. Perhaps. But, you have to remember that the KU coaches see these guys in practice all the time. If they’re not executing there, what makes you think they’ll do it on game night?

Tuesday was a decent example of that and the latest reminder why Self prefers to stick with his first five whenever possible.