#KU50: 44 Wayne Selden

Wayne Selden came into Kansas as a McDonald’s All-American, and a thought to be one-and-done who was supposed to be a better Travis Releford. Thanks to some injuries as well as both an offensive and defensive game that was slow to get going, it didn’t quite work out that way, but at the end of his career Selden had turned himself into a very nice college player, and a worthy inclusion on our list.

Selden currently sits 38th in KU’s all time scoring list with 1,202 points. He had his best year by far as a junior, posting an offensive rating of 111.3, with a 56 percent effective field goal percentage (thanks to shooting 38 percent from deep on 183 attempts), and an assist rate of 15.7 percent. Selden was 5th in the Big 12 in threes that season, 5th in points, and 10th in both offensive and defensive win shares. Although the win shares don’t back it up, I think he was equally good defensively in 2015, when he routinely guarded the opposing team’s best perimeter player and helped Kansas have the 10th best defense in the country. Notably, he helped hold Oklahoma superstar Buddy Hield to 7-19 shooting from two and 6-19 shooting from three over the two games the teams played that season.

Much of Selden’s impact came in spurts. Who could forget the “Summer of Selden,” when he averaged 20 points and 6.5 rebounds per game in the World University Games, leading team USA to the gold medal. Or his 33-point effort against Kentucky in his junior season. Or his 25-point effort (on just 11 shots) in the Maui title game. Sure Selden had a habit of disappearing in games, and a lot of his value was in his compiling of numbers, but his legitimately great junior season and his brief explosions land him a deserving 44th on our list.

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#45 Otto Schnellbacher

#46 Ryan Robertson

#47 Xavier Henry

#48 Mark Turgeon

#49 Paul Mokeski

#50 Charlie T. Black