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Wayne Selden bypasses NBA Draft, returns to Kansas for junior year

By Patrick Schmidt

Mar 14, 2015; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas Jayhawks guard Wayne Selden Jr. (1) celebrates after scoring a three point shot in the game against the Iowa State Cyclones during the championship game of the Big 12 tournament at Sprint Center. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 14, 2015; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas Jayhawks guard Wayne Selden Jr. (1) celebrates after scoring a three point shot in the game against the Iowa State Cyclones during the championship game of the Big 12 tournament at Sprint Center. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports /
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Kansas got good news on Friday afternoon with the news that Wayne Selden is bypassing the NBA Draft and returning to the Jayhawks for his junior season.

Wayne Selden, Jr. is returning to Kansas for his junior season.

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The news was made official by the school on Friday afternoon as Bill Self gets one of his top players back for next year and should be a top-10 in preseason team, perhaps even a top-five team.

“I’m using that last game and the season as my everyday motivation to get better,” Selden said in a statement, via CBS Sports.

Selden is referring to the third round loss to Wichita State when he failed to score a single point in the defeat to the in-state program from the Missouri Valley Conference.

The 6-5, 230-pound guard averaged 9.4 points, 2.8 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 29.4 minutes per game as a sophomore. His averages were nearly identical to the numbers he put up as a freshman, but for the second straight year, Kansas was ousted before the Sweet Sixteen in the NCAA Tournament.

His unfinished business at Kansas was a primary reason in his decision to bypass the NBA Draft and Kansas head coach Bill Self thinks he can put himself in a spot to be a high draft pick as soon as next year and have some more team success in the 2015-2016 season.

“Wayne is such a great kid and competitor and feels that there are so many things to accomplish, not only as an individual, but as a team,” Kansas coach Bill Self said. “He is committed to this program and I know he’ll work his tail off to put himself into in a spot to be a high draft pick, hopefully next year, and put our team into position to have another great year.”

Kansas has already seen freshmen Kelly Oubre and Cliff Alexander declare for the draft and are waiting to hear if Perry Ellis will enter the draft after receiving his report from the draft committee.

Selden was projected as a late second round pick or undrafted prospect by ESPN’s Chad Ford who didn’t even have him listed in his top 100 prospects for the draft this year, so I think it is safe to say that he made the right decision to return to school for at least one more year to improve his draft stock and help Kansas win another Big 12 title and get deeper into the NCAA Tournament.

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