Scoreless Selden goes pass-happy in rout of Rider

Kansas sophomore Wayne Selden Jr. drives to the basket against Rider in the Jayhawks 87-60 win Monday, November 24, 2014.

• Box score

Kansas University sophomore Wayne Selden Jr. failed to score a point for the first time in his 38-game college career on Monday night.

Before anybody thinks he had an off night … the 6-foot-5, 230-pounder from Roxbury, Massachusetts dished a career-high nine assists against one turnover in an 87-60 rout of Rider. He took just four shots in 28 minutes.

“I felt it was a good thing,” Selden said of choosing to move the ball on a night freshman point guard Devonté Graham was sidelined because of a sprained shoulder sustained in last Tuesday’s 32-point loss to Kentucky.

“I feel we had a lot of guys getting off tonight and felt I could be a good distributor. I feel I can play different roles and I feel tonight I played the passing role,” added Selden, whose previous high was seven assists last season against Texas.

He was not at all stressed about failing to score a point on a night Perry Ellis and Brannen Greene clicked for 17 apiece. Cliff Alexander and Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk each had 10 points, all in the first half, as KU led, 51-22, at the break.

“Especially in a game like that,” Selden said. “Say we lost big, then maybe I have to be more aggressive. In a game like that, you are worried about your man — will he score? You are worried about rebounds. Not necessarily worried about that (scoring) at all.”

Sophomore wing Greene, whose 17 points (off 5-of-7 shooting, 2-4 threes, 5-5 free throws) marked a career high, loved running the floor with pass-first Selden.

“In practice the last couple days he’s been taking that as a focus, to facilitate more,” Greene said. “I feel like with him and Perry (5-6 shooting, 7-10 from line), also being one of our team leaders, they’ve got to set the example to these young guys and I think that’s what Wayne was trying to do. He was trying to make a statement, ‘I don’t have to score, get rid of the ball, pass it.’ As you could see he made a number of very good passes but that’s the result of us running our offense right, too.”

Selden agreed that he was trying to help out KU’s newcomers on Monday.

“That is a big part of it, just trying to figure out the right way to play the game,” Selden said. “Even though I’m still young, too. I can’t really say I know it all. I don’t. I’m still trying to figure out the game. We’re trying to learn together.”

KU coach Bill Self liked Selden’s crisp passes and wasn’t fretting about his getting shut out in the points column.

“Wayne had seven dimes and no turnovers the first half. The ball moved,” Self said. “He had some nice passes the second half too. He’s learning how to play. He’s more patient and trying to do what we want to do as opposed to some guys who are very impatient. When it doesn’t work initially, they shut it down. Wayne is good enough to keep trying to do what we want to do because he’s old enough to know it’ll work if we keep doing it. I think that’s a good thing. He’s a good example for the younger guys.

“It’s not often your starting 2-guard or 3 does not score a point,” Self added. “Tonight he didn’t look to shoot. He looked to be aggressive, to drive to pass. I’m not going to worry about that (not scoring) but that can’t happen very often. That’s a formula (for team) to not have a good night if one of your best players doesn’t scratch (the scoreboard). But it wasn’t because of poor play but because he kind of chose to be someone different tonight.”

In the final analysis, team leaders Ellis and Selden had productive nights as the Jayhawks tried to put last Tuesday’s loss to Kentucky in the rear-view mirror.

“I mean, our loss to Kentucky wasn’t on Wayne and Perry at all,” soph Greene said. “It’s more of a team thing They can’t do it by themselves. We can’t do it without Perry and Wayne.

“It’s all of us being a team and them being our leaders and leading us and leading the young guys. They’ve taken it upon themselves, Wayne with nine assists, Perry coming out and being aggressive, attacking the rim, ferocious dunk (first half), but its a collective effort.”

KU, 2-1, will next meet Rhode Island at 1:30 p.m., Central time, Thursday, in the Orlando Classic in Kissimmee, Florida. Rider, 2-2, will meet Michigan State at 5:30 p.m., Thursday, in another first-round battle in the bracketed portion of the event.