Eight games into the season, the most significant development for Kansas hasn’t been Cheick Diallo‘s clearance by the NCAA. Instead, it’s been the revitalization of once-heralded five-star recruit Wayne Selden. After two mostly unspectacular seasons, the junior had a fantastic summer run at the World University Games, and he’s carried that over into a strong start to this season. The idea that Selden will be a second-team All-American still seems a little far-fetched, but at the quarter-pole, the Massachusetts product has become a completely different player than the one who left Jayhawks fans wanting so much more out of his first two campaigns.

Wayne Selden Has Been Outstanding This Season (USA Today Images)

Selden has become the Jayhawks’ most reliable three-point shooter on a team with big-time firepower. Brannen Greene came into this season shooting 38.8 percent from deep and is already 8-of-9 from distance this season, but he’s also also been in and out of Bill Self‘s doghouse. Frank Mason, who came into his own last year, is making treys at a 47.4 percent clip. Perry Ellis has always been known to step out to the perimeter from time to time and is at it again this year, connecting on four of his 11 tries. Guard Devonte’ Graham can shoot it, too, but it’s Selden who leads the team with 21 makes on just 36 attempts (58.3%). As the below graph shows, the evolution of his shot selection has played a key role in elevating the Jayhawks from a good offensive team prone to slumps to one that’s firing on all cylinders (1.22 PPP).

This season’s version of Selden is an embodiment of basketball’s larger trends: He has eschewed two-point jump shots in favor of a combination of high-percentage looks at the rim and more valuable three-pointers. Selden’s shot distribution among attempts at the rim, two-point jumpers and three-pointers was nearly identical in his first two seasons, but it’s been a different story this year. With Kansas primarily utilizing a two-point guard lineup and Kelly Oubre long gone, Selden now hovers around the wing, and as a result, his shot selection has improved tremendously.

As a junior, Selden has essentially cut his mid-range attempts in half, going from 31.6 percent of all shots last season to just 16.0 percent this season. He’s getting to the rim slightly more often this year than in prior seasons, but it’s his long-range shooting that’s benefited the most from the decline in two-point jumpers, as his three-point rate has climbed from 44.0 percent to 56.0 percent of his shot attempts.

Selden almost certainly won’t shoot so well from distance all season long, and Kansas could still stand to make greater use of the three-pointer in their overall arsenal, but credit is due. This revamped Jayhawks’ lineup instituted by Self has allowed Selden to effectively operate from the wing as the Jayhawks mount one of the country’s best offensive attacks, and he’s capitalizing at an incredibly efficient rate.

Brian Goodman (987 Posts)

Brian Goodman a Big 12 microsite writer. You can follow him on Twitter @BSGoodman.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 11th, 2015 at 12:01 pm by Brian Goodman and is filed under big 12, microsites. Tagged: bill self, feature, kansas, Wayne Selden. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.