Column: Jayhawks a blend of talent, attitude

By Tom Keegan     Oct 22, 2014

Nick Krug
Kansas guard Wayne Selden raises up the fieldhouse during a Jayhawk run against Texas on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2014 at Allen Fieldhouse.

This Kansas University basketball team has four more McDonald’s All-Americans on the roster than it had when the Jayhawks reached the 2012 national-title game.

That’s another way of saying KU has five fewer McDonald’s All-Americans than Kentucky has this season.

Kentucky beat Kansas twice in 2012, and to keep that from happening again, KU will need to blend McDonald’s All-American talent with the blue-collar approach that defined the firepower-shy Jayhawks of three seasons ago.

This Kansas team has depth, versatility, decent though not great experience, and there is reason to believe it has a willingness to make winning plays that don’t show up in the box score.

All Wayne Selden had to show in the box score for the defining play of his career was an assist. The numerical data from the game didn’t show he chased a ball all the way into the stands and whipped a pass to Joel Embiid for an easy bucket, two points he watched from the laps of paying customers.

Boston-tough, Selden knows how to make winning plays not reflected in the box score. Plays such as:

“You can defend your man the whole game and not let him touch the ball and you’re not going to have any steals,” Selden said. “You’re not going to have any blocked shots. But if your man didn’t touch the ball, you had a great game.”

And:

“Loose balls on offense don’t show up, but they’re huge,” Selden said. “Making that extra pass. Making the extra, extra pass. Even though you’re not getting an assist, you made the right pass to get to the next pass. Being tougher and being more alert are the biggest things. Taking pride in stopping somebody.”

Perry Ellis, four-time Kansas Gatorade Player of the Year for four-time state champion Wichita Heights High, arrived at Kansas polished but with unsharpened elbows and clean knees.

“Screening,” Ellis said when asked to name a valuable play for which there is no column in the box score. “That’s huge, setting good screens for teammates. Setting a good screen, you’re hitting the man, you’re really having contact with the man, and you’re making him go around you, go in a different direction.

“I’ve gotten so much better at it. My freshman year, coach would get mad at me a lot because I would not set a good screen, or I would miss him or not have contact. Now I’ve learned, and I know how to do it, how to get him open.”

Kansas won’t have better basketball players than Kentucky on Nov. 18 in Indianapolis but can win if it plays better basketball than Kentucky.

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