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What's wrong with Wayne Selden Jr.?

When Wayne Selden Jr. committed to Kansas back in the fall of 2012, I did what any good hoops fan does and immediately looked up his mix-tape on YouTube. The high school basketball mix-tape has become somewhat of a must have for any top 20 ranked recruit coming out of high school. Of course all these videos should not be used as any type of evidence of the type of player your school is getting as I have yet to see a hoops mix-tape that shows any missed shots unless it results in an awesome put-back opportunity for the player. Despite the massive grains of salt I try to take these highlight videos with, it's almost impossible to not get way overexcited seeing the awesome athleticism and skills on display from the players in the videos. I doubt there were many KU fans not left drooling after viewing the famous Andrew Wiggins mix-tape video and currently for my money the best video out there now is of a player KU is recruiting-Thon Maker.

For those that never saw Wayne Selden Jr.'s high school highlight videos or have forgotten, here they are.

Wayne Selden Official Senior Year Mixtape (Kansas Jayhawk 2013)

6'5" Freshman Wayne Selden is a MONSTER Addition for Kansas: Official High School Mixtape

There are definitely things in those videos that should stand out to KU fans who have watched Selden Jr. the past 2 seasons. While they are highlight videos and of course aren't representative of how Selden Jr. actually played during the entirety of his high school career, his slashing ability and willingness to attack the basket routinely led to the plays that were used in Selden Jr.'s highlight videos. He seemed willing to seek out contact to finish at the hoop whether it was "and one" layups or ferocious dunks over other players.

That player who made a living driving to the basket and trying to dunk over everyone in high school has 2 dunks this season so far. Yes I realize college is different than high school basketball and he was going against much shorter and weaker competition, but when is the last time you saw Selden Jr. even try to dunk on anyone? Unless he has an undisclosed injury, what possibly could be going on that would explain his apparent regression in aggression and willingness to attack the basket?

After last season came news that explained the absence of the athleticism and attacking of the rim many expected of Selden Jr. when it was revealed he had played much of the season with a knee injury that required arthroscopic surgery in the off season. This knowledge even made me very excited about the potential for a great season from Selden Jr. this year. If he could average 9.7 points per game on 43.7% shooting as a freshman on a bum knee, what could he do when healthy? Many people predicted a big season for Selden Jr.

Instead this year we have seen a regression from his freshman year that was played on a bad knee. 8.9 points per game on a bad 34.5% shooting average, though his rebounds, assists, and 3 point shooting percentage is slightly up from last year. The fact that his overall shooting percentage has gone down so drastically when he has actually improved slightly as a 3 point shooter is an indictment of his ability to attack the basket this season. Luckily the emergence of Kelly Oubre Jr. and Devonte Graham, along with the improvements of Frank Mason III and Brannen Greene this year have masked the alarming trend of Selden Jr.'s play.

It seems against Texas this past Saturday, Coach Bill Self finally decided that keeping Selden Jr. in the game during crunch time was inadvisable and we saw a line up where Graham and Greene both took Selden Jr.'s end of game minutes. It remains to be seen if this develops into a trend or if Selden Jr. will step up his game and regain the minutes everyone at the beginning of the season thought he was a lock for. Nevertheless, for now the mystery remains- what is wrong with Selden Jr.? Is this just a rough patch where he is simply not feeling confident? Does he again have some injury that we'll discover after the season is completed? Regardless, I hope Selden Jr. figures it out because I like him as a player immensely and I think he has the potential to be a first-team all-american level talent. Here's to hoping he can either regain his confidence and dunk on everyone and everything like we've seen he is capable of in the past, or get healthy so we can see his athleticism truly shine at Kansas for the first time. If not, the game at Texas Saturday may have been the beginning of a trend of seeing other players steal Selden Jr.'s end of game minutes.

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