Every member of Jayhawk Nation and college basketball fans in general could hardly wait for December 18th to finally arrive. That’s the date that everyone circled on their calendars when Kansas’ top recruit Josh Selby, fresh off a 9 game suspension to begin the season, was set to make his NCAA debut.
Many KU students remained on campus even though it’s Winter break and lined up at the crack of dawn to bear witness to Selby’s first game as a Jayhawk at Phog Allen Fieldhouse. The capacity crowd at the legendary arena was electric in anticipation of coach Bill Self’s highest ever rated recruit playing his first meaningful minutes for the program, even though he’s likely a one-and-done player.
After nearly 5 minutes of play, the fans got exactly what they wanted as the #1 ranked player in the 2010 HS class (as ranked by Rivals) and last year’s star of the McDonald’s All American Game was sent to the scorers table. As play stopped, every fan rose out of their seats and cheered for their beloved fantastic freshman as he replaced Tyrel Reed on the court.
At first, Selby played within the offense, becoming a willing passer to team leaders Tyshawn Taylor and Marcus Morris. But after a pair of untimely turnovers, the young man who became known as “Sensational Selby” in high school arrived at the Phog in star-studded fashion, as he scored 10 points over the next 4 minutes to eventually finish with a game high 21 points for the Jayhawks.
No shot was any bigger than the one Selby took with :24 remaining in the tightly contested game against USC. With the Trojans holding a 2 point lead with under 30 seconds remaining, Selby received a pass on the right wing, and without hesitation, knocked down what would be the game winning trey(his 5th of the game), to seal a 70-68 win and keep Kansas’ 65 game home winning streak intact.
While his debut wasn’t without faults(he did commit 4 turnovers), the sky is the limit for Selby and Kansas. With Duke now losing their own fabulous freshman Kyrie Irving indefinitely because of a toe injury and several other elite programs showing vulnerability like Michigan State, Kansas State, and Tennessee, is Kansas poised to become the best team in the country?
Check out Josh Selby’s game winning 3 pointer in his NCAA debut:
Allen Moll has been a lifelong NBA and NCAA College Basketball fan who watches and studies games religiously, and coaches youth basketball in his native Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. Allen also provides content to Bleacherreport.com, Upperdeckblog.com, in addition to being a tenured NBA and NCAA columnist for TheHoopDoctors.com.
