Reclamation project: Selden regains touch, leads rally

Jayhawks overcome 18-point deficit

Kansas guards Devonte Graham and Wayne Selden celebrate a forced turnover against the Gators before Florida forward Jacob Kurtz (30) during the second half on Friday, Dec. 5, 2014 at Allen Fieldhouse.

• Box score

Wayne Selden Jr. grasped the basketball near center court and pounded it twice, thoroughly enjoying the closing seconds of Kansas University’s monumental 71-65 comeback victory over Florida in the Big 12/SEC Challenge on Friday night in Allen Fieldhouse.

Selden — who, by the way, went 0-for-10 in his previous game — scored 21 points off 9-of-15 shooting as the Jayhawks were able to erase an 18-point second-half deficit.

It’s the second-biggest comeback in a home victory in KU history. The Jayhawks, most everybody remembers, trailed Missouri by 19 in 2012 and also were down by 19 to UCLA in 1995.

“It’s one of the best games he’s played since he’s been here,” KU coach Bill Self said of Selden, a 6-foot-5 sophomore from Roxbury, Massachusetts, who had 14 points off 6-of-9 marksmanship the second half. “He’d been laboring. He needed something good to happen. He got a layup to start the game. It may not seem the biggest thing, but it took the lid off.”

Selden scored 11 points in a remarkable 38-9 run that turned a 45-27 deficit (at 16:41) into a 65-54 advantage at 1:11.

“You’ve got to stick with it, keep playing through it. You know you will miss some shots,” Selden said of his strong comeback from his 0-fer shooting in a win over Michigan State. “At times I would get unconfident last year. There’s no reason to get unconfident. You’ve got to be persistent. Hard work pays off. You have to keep shooting the ball.”

Freshman Cliff Alexander, who had 12 points and 10 rebounds (10 points, eight boards, 6-for-6 free throwing the second half), had 10 points in that surge, while Frank Mason III had seven and Devonté Graham five.

It was quite a difference in halves for the No. 11-ranked Jayhawks (6-1), who outscored unranked Florida (3-4), 47-26, the second 20 minutes.

“Our guys played great the second half. We were as good the second as we were bad the first,” Self said. In trailing by 15 at half, Friday’s rally erased the biggest halftime deficit in school history. KU also trailed UCLA by 15 in 1995.

“They were so much faster and athletic in the first half. Our best players had miserable halves (including Perry Ellis three points first half, seven the second). We had to change our attitudes. We played like spoiled little rotten brats the first half and probably coached that way, too. We tried to shrink the floor the second half. Our fans wouldn’t let us down. I kept telling them (Jayhawks), ‘If we play good, play hard, make a couple baskets, the place will go nuts.’ Certainly it did.”

Self was impressed with the transformation of freshman center Alexander the second half after scoring two points with two boards in the first.

“We were not very pleased with Cliff the first half,” Self said. “I thought about … I said, ‘I don’t know if I’ll play him the second half.’ It’s as upset as I was with (his) alertness and focus. The second half, he was great. We try hard, but our focus is not good at all,” Self added of the squad as a whole.

KU outrebounded Florida 24-9 after intermission.

“The guys played like it was a long game,” Self said. “They played smart the second half. We are probably a little tougher than I thought we were going in the game. The first half, we were a soft team and not a competitive team. They (Jayhawks) changed it the second half.

“It was a terrible start,” Self went on. KU hit 34.3 percent of its shots the first half and 48 the second. “Who would have thought Frank cutting the lead to 15 (with layup before halftime buzzer) would be a big play? One thing about this place, if you can hang around, if you are able to win each four minutes (during a comeback), the crowd will get into it. Once they did, we played with so much energy. The roles reversed the second half. We played well, but we also defended them so much better.”

The Jayhawks never felt it was a lost cause.

“Chipping away,” Selden said of the key to victory. “The TV timeouts … trying to win each four minutes. There are no 18-point plays or 10-point plays. It’s being consistent. It’s hard for them (Gators) when you have 16,300 people going crazy like they did tonight. It’s not like playing against five on the court, it’s playing against 16,315. It’s to the fans. They brought us to this one.”

Noted Alexander of the comeback: “I kept telling the guys on the bench, ‘We’ve got to keep fighting.’ That’s what we did.”

“Like Wayne said, the crowd definitely helped us win tonight,” noted freshman Graham, who scored nine points, all at the line. He hit nine of 10 free throws on a night KU made 27 of 32. Alexander’s 8-of-8 shooting, of course, led the way.

Of the game’s hero, Selden, who was 1-for-3 from the line, Self gushed: “Nobody drives it like Wayne when he puts his head down because he is so strong.”

KU will meet Georgetown at 7 p.m. Central time Wednesday in Washington, D.C.