Kansas guard Wayne Selden Jr. talks with media members in the locker room on Wednesday, March 16, 2016 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa. The Jayhawks will take on the Austin Peay Governors, Thursday.

Des Moines, Iowa ? Nobody on Kansas University’s roster needed this basketball season to start in July instead of the customary November more than junior guard Wayne Selden Jr., even if it meant flying all the way to South Korea to cleanse the stench of another premature March exit.

“It was great being able to turn around and play so soon as a group,” Selden said from the chair in front of his locker at Wells Fargo Arena, site of KU’s first-round NCAA Tournament game today vs. Austin Peay State University. “It was great for us because right then and there, we were so down, we were so expired. We needed something, and we took advantage of it.”

Selden took advantage of the World University Games so well that he earned MVP honors in leading to a gold medal Team USA, a roster made up of all Kansas players and two additions.

It helped to bury the memory of a 78-65 loss in the second round of the NCAA Tournament to Wichita State. Selden went scoreless and without an assist in 23 minutes, extending his two-year tournament slump — if, that is, four games qualify as a slump. In those four starts, Selden averaged 2.5 points and one rebound, made 25 percent of his field-goal attempts, 50 percent of his free throws and none of his five three-pointers.

In the same breath as acknowledging “the stats don’t lie,” Kansas coach Bill Self said he is “confident” that Selden can “turn it around. … I like where his game is right now. I thought he was very good in Kansas City, and I think he’s on an uptick right now.”

Selden looks at today’s game not as an extension of his tournament career, rather of this season, one in which Kansas has compiled a 30-4 record and takes a 14-game winning streak into the tourney.

“We don’t really think about the past too much with this group,” Selden said. “This is a different team from the past years, a different group of guys, a different mindset. We’re focused on building on what we’ve done this year and not trying to get back something we didn’t accomplish.”

What Selden has done is play strong defense and keep the ball moving at the other end, whether he’s in the midst of a hot shooting streak or cold one, of which he has had both. As is the case with most college basketball players, it took him a while to master not letting shooting woes keep him from maximizing contributions in other areas.

“It’s just growing up,” Selden said. “I have to thank coach for that. He used to really pound it in my head. You don’t have to make shots to play well. When I’m not making shots, I feel like everything else in your game has to step up, and I feel like I can do that.”

Selden, averaging 13.3 points and shooting .408 from three, both career highs, had the two most memorable shots of the Big 12 tournament. His three at the end of the shot clock killed West Virginia’s last chance in the Big 12 title game.

Uncle Anthony’s nuclear reaction to his nephew’s dunk over Baylor’s Ishmail Wainwright in the semifinal turned the uncle into a bigger national celebrity than the nephew. Uncle Anthony Pitts has been wearing gigantic clocks on a chain around his neck in honor of Wayne since the Jayhawk’s freshman season. He usually catches the games on TV in Boston, but was in Sprint Center last week and plans to attend Saturday’s game in Wells Fargo, assuming Kansas doesn’t become the first No. 1 seed to lose to a No. 16.

“He’s excited about it all,” Selden said. “My best friend has made my uncle a Twitter account (@TheRealUncleAnthony), and those two have been hitting it off. They’re really, really excited, so I’m just trying to let him know we’ve got to take this one game at a time.”

Uncle Anthony’s reaction was not out of character, according to his nephew.

“He wakes up like that,” Selden said. “That’s him. People might have thought he was intoxicated or something like that. That’s just him. That’s how he is. He’s just a really excited, energized human. He would act like that if he’s in his home.”

Nephew Wayne has a much cooler head. These days, it’s not easy to tell whether he has just posterized a defender or clanked a three-pointer. Either way, he resets his clock, retreats to the other end and plays attentive defense, makes his physical presence felt and plays with more confidence than at any point during his career.