Kansas guard Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk puts up a shot during warmups prior to tipoff against UNLV on Sunday, Jan. 4, 2015 at Allen Fieldhouse.

One of the players key to the 2015-16 Kansas University basketball season hasn’t come up much in conversation lately because he wasn’t eligibile to play in the World University Games.

So it’s time to talk about sophomore Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk. If he can play high-speed basketball well enough to be the guy who can spell both Frank Mason and Devonté Graham, that will enable Wayne Selden to stay at one position.

After Selden’s Asian awakening, anyone who can enable the junior from Boston to stay in the role he played overseas becomes a key to the upcoming season.

Playing primarily as the second ballhandler last season, Selden encountered a bizarre shooting slump inside the three-point arc. He shot just .395 on two-point attempts, missed dunks routinely and couldn’t get driving shots near the rim to fall. It was as if he built up such a huge head of steam driving in from the perimeter he couldn’t ease up on the accelerator and didn’t have control of his body or touch near the hoop.

Clearly, Selden has spent the offseason working on doing a better job of controlling his body to the extent he has a better idea of where he is in relation to the hoop and does a better job of focusing on his precise shooting target.

In Gwangju, despite making just 5 of 22 two-point attempts in the final two games, vs. Russia and Germany, Selden hit .551 for the tournament inside the arc.

Why the reversion to last season in the final two games? It would be tempting to surmise that the uptick in competition had a lot to do with it, which of course, would not be a good sign.

It probably was at least a minor factor, but given his numbers against two of the tournament’s other top teams, Serbia and Lithuania, it would not be fair to jump to the conclusion it was the primary cause. Selden made 10 of 12 two-point shots vs. Serbia and Lithuania.

Heading into the final two games, Selden had been shooting .786 inside the arc. The final two games were the seventh and eighth in a 10-day span. That’s a prescription for legs to lose their spring.

The move to small forward helped Selden in other ways as well. In part because he was able to crash the offensive boards, instead of retreat on defense, Selden showed his value as a rebounder. Guarding players who don’t play as far away from the hoop made more defensive rebounds available to him. He tied Perry Ellis for the team lead with 6.5 boards a game.

Selden’s performance in South Korea was convincing enough to conclude he’s more effective at small forward than shooting guard, which brings us back to the need for Svi to become the latest Jayhawk to make a huge leap forward from freshman to sophomore season.

For a 6-foot-8 player, the Ukrainian teenager who just turned 18 on June 10 grades high in the areas of quick feet, seeing passing opportunities others don’t, dribbling with speed and running the floor swiftly.

Also, when teammates talk about a young player shooting great in practice, eventually that tends to translate to games. Svi shot just .288 from long range a year ago, but it doesn’t take a great leap of faith to believe he could take that up to .388 as a sophomore, based on how impressed teammates consistently are with his shooting ability.

Brannen Greene is better suited to backing up Selden, and freshman Lagerald Vick needs major seasoning, particularly defensively, before joining the rotation. So it’s up to Svi to show he’s up to backing up Mason and Graham.