Bob Lutz: No one-and-done, Wayne Selden took longer to find his game

Regardless of those who promoted Wayne Selden as a potential one-and-done player when he arrived at Kansas in 2013, Selden himself says he was then a mere boy.

Now, more than two years later, he’s a man. A 6-foot-5, 230-pound man with a three-point shot to die for and a couple of guards — Frank Mason and Devonte Graham — who know how to get him the basketball.

Just more than nine months removed from a nightmare of a game against Wichita State in the NCAA Tournament, when he did not score in 23 minutes during a 78-65 WSU third-round win, Selden is asserting himself as the best player on the nation’s best team.

Selden’s 24 points, 13 of which came as the Jayhawks were building a 26-6 lead Saturday against Baylor, led Kansas to a 102-74 win.

“I can’t really say that last game last season motivated me,” said Selden, who is averaging 15.5 points and shooting a ridiculous 55.4 percent from three-point range (36 of 65). “It didn’t really end how we wanted it to end. But it wasn’t really the last game, it was the season as a whole.”

KU coach Bill Self said he has done a better job of constructing the team and that having Mason and Graham as the Jayhawks’ primary ballhandlers has freed Selden to do what he does best.

Score.

“We had Wiggy (Andrew Wiggins) the first year and Kelly (Oubre) and some others the second and now Wayne feels like it’s more his team,” Self said. “He feels like he has a much bigger role now than he’s ever had.”

Selden averaged 9.7 points as a freshman, so the decision to return to KU wasn’t difficult. His sophomore season, though, wasn’t as good when his shooting percentage dipped to 38 percent.

Baylor won’t soon forget the new-and-improved Selden.

“For sure, he’s definitely improved as a three-point threat,” Baylor senior Taurean Prince said. “He’s always been good at driving the ball, so when you become a good three-point shooter, it opens things up a lot. He definitely put on a show tonight.”

Yet Selden isn’t about the show. He’s a modest person and player. His 16 shots against the Bears were four more than he’s taken in a game this season, when he had been averaging fewer than 10.

Selden averaged 18.9 points and 6.5 rebounds as the United States — all but two players were from KU — won the World University Games in South Korea during the summer.

Fortunately for the Jayhawks, Selden was able to pack that game and bring it 6,500 miles back to Lawrence.

“Playing there was a good kick-start for our season,” Selden said. “It gave us a lot of confidence and a lot of cohesion. The team needed me to score more this summer so I’m just trying to fill that role.”

Selden had actually cooled off some from the three-point line in recent games, making 1 of 9 in wins over Montana, San Diego State and UC Irvine. He had his stroke going Saturday, though.

“Playing with these two small guards makes it a lot easier for me,” He said. “They get into the paint and I get open and they’re able to find me. So I’m taking a lot of open shots.”

Baylor coach Scott Drew, whose Bears vexed KU with a zone defense in last season’s Big 12 Tournament semifinals though they still lost, tried the zone again Saturday.

And Kansas scored 24 points in the game’s first 6:24, Selden leading the charge.

When a national basketball writer chose Selden as a preseason second-team All-American a few months back, I wrote a column chiding him for not bestowing that honor on Kansas senior Perry Ellis. Ellis, too, is off to an impressive start for the Jayhawks and had 17 points and six rebounds Saturday.

Now it’s fair to trumpet Selden for first-team All-America honors and put him in the discussion for national player of the year.

“He’s just such a more mature player, confident and he can do more,” Drew said. “So at the end of the day you look out there and you see a man now. And that’s what you get when you have juniors and seniors. That maturation probably took place a lot over the summer in what they were able to accomplish.”

Self said the one-and-done reviews about Selden were unfair.

“Just because you’re a top-20 player and recruit in the country doesn’t mean you’re a one-and-done guy,” Self said. “Wayne had a great freshman year but probably an average sophomore year, probably right where he needed to be in his natural maturation.”

Selden has started all 84 games in which he’s played at Kansas. He paid his dues, learned his lessons and grew into his potential.

“Wayne’s been lights out, our best player hands down,” Self said.

Selden is a man. He’s the man.

This story was originally published January 2, 2016 at 7:09 PM with the headline "Bob Lutz: No one-and-done, Wayne Selden took longer to find his game."