Column: KU’s stars still haven’t aligned

Kansas forward Perry Ellis (34) grimaces on the bench during the Jayhawk’s loss to Iowa State in the championship game of the Big 12 Tournament Saturday.

Kansas City, Mo. ? The stars on the preseason magazine cover still haven’t aligned for the Kansas University basketball team. When Perry Ellis emerged as a strong candidate for Big 12 Player of the Year honors, the guy laying bricks wasn’t the one named Mason. It was Wayne Selden Jr.

That was the regular season. Then came the Big 12 Tournament. Selden terrorized opponents with drives to the hoop, finished them in style and became the only Kansas player to land a spot on the all-tournament team. Ellis sat one game and winced through the other two legs of the tourney, unable to move sideways or skyward with typical quickness, diminished by a sprained right knee.

So maybe it shouldn’t be so surprising that Kansas had its share of trouble putting together two sensational halves of basketball on the same night on its way to an 11th consecutive Big 12 title, earned with an undefeated home record, a 4-5 road mark, and several gritty victories.

• Box score

The Big 12 championship game was no different for the not-half-bad Jayhawks. They blew a 17-point lead and lost to Iowa State, 70-66. The Cyclones dusted KU with a 34-11 second-half run, winning the rubber match of the season series by winning the second half battle of the boards, 21-11.

So the oft-asked question of the season remains in the air: Just how good is this Kansas team? Iowa State is the best team Kansas beat, and it did so once in three tries and it was in Allen Fieldhouse.

A healthy Ellis likely would have been the difference Saturday, but it doesn’t work that way and there is no guarantee Ellis will return to form in time to lead KU to back-to-back good halves.

“It’s going to be nagging me for the rest of the season,” Ellis said after the game. “Can’t get around that. So I just have to keep working at getting it stronger.”

Ellis, playing with a brace, tried one of his famous spin moves early in the second half and, “I kind of tweaked it. That’s when he took me out. It’s just kind of bugging me, but I’m going to fight through it because there’s not much time I have. I’m just going to have to fight through it and figure out how to work with it. And it’s getting better and better each day, so I think it’s going to be fine.”

Ellis and coach Bill Self had a decision to make in advance of the conference tournament after the junior from Wichita was cleared by doctors. Play him or rest him for the NCAA Tournament. After Ellis told Self the day before Thursday’s game vs. TCU that he could play but would feel even better with an extra day of rest, Self decided not to play him. He totaled 11 points and six rebounds in 26 minutes in a semifinal victory Friday against Baylor and gave the team 30 minutes (seven points, nine rebounds, 2 of 10 field-goal attempts, sub-par defense) Saturday.

“I could have done it either way, but I wanted to get some reps in,” Ellis said of the decision not to skip the Big 12 Tournament. “I felt good enough to get out there, so I wanted to get out there with my team and do the best I could.”

His best was better Friday, playing on a rested knee, than Saturday. Ellis didn’t make excuses, just answered questions about his knee honestly.

“Some of the moves I was kind of limited, but I think this period it should heal up even more and it should almost be close to being pretty good,” Ellis said.

With Ellis not up to speed and freshman Kelly Oubre Jr. coming up empty (three points, two rebounds, three turnovers in 17 minutes), Selden took over the game early and powered his way to 25 points and five rebounds. He averaged 17.3 points in the tournament. He shot 38 percent on two-point field goals in the regular season and made 17 of 22 of them in the tourney.

Heading into this season, Selden was no more familiar with having trouble finishing at the rim than Ellis was playing with a significant injury. It took Selden all season to shed the nagging, mysterious problem. Ellis doesn’t have that luxury. He’s never had experience at distinguishing between pain and re-injury, an inevitable game of a mental ping-pong for athletes unaccustomed to injury.

“It’s different,” Ellis said. “It’s probably the worst injury I’ve ever had. Fortunately, it wasn’t that bad. But I would say it (worrying about re-injury) was in my head a little bit.”

Ellis has two factors working in his favor. First, Omaha, KU’s almost-certain destination for the first two games, is a Friday/Sunday site, giving him an extra day of rest. Second, NCAA Tournament games are not played on back-to-back days.

No one on KU’s roster is talented enough to carry the team far without Ellis helping.

Self said that “offensively, it’s a grind every day,” and added, “Wayne did a nice job of stepping up today. But it would be nice if we could stretch it (make threes) and play inside-out again, and we will do that when Perry gets healthier.”

If the magazine-cover stars align properly, Kansas could have its best days in the NCAA tournament. If not, just how good is this team?