Four Jayhawks Named to Wooden Award Men’s Preseason Top 50
LOS ANGELES – Four Kansas men’s basketball players were named to the Wooden Award Preseason Top 50, the Los Angeles Athletic Club announced Monday. Junior forward Perry Ellis, sophomore guard Wayne Selden, Jr., and freshmen Cliff Alexander and Kelly Oubre, Jr., were named to the preseason squad. Selden was also named to the Wooden Award Preseason Top 50 last year.
Kansas and Kentucky were the only two schools with four individuals named to the 2014 50-man list. Alexander and Oubre were two of seven freshmen on the list and the Big 12 Conference led the way with 10 picks.
Ellis and Selden are KU’s returning starters from 2013-14, where the Jayhawks won their unprecedented 10th-straight Big 12 regular-season championship going 25-10 and 14-4 in league play. Ellis posted his seventh career double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds in KU’s 69-59 season-opening win versus UC Santa Barbara on Nov. 14. The Wichita, Kansas, native is KU’s leading returning scorer at 13.5 points per game in 2013-14, and rebounder at 6.7 boards per contest.
Selden, from Roxbury, Massachusetts, scored 10 points in the season opener and averaged 9.7 points per game his rookie season at KU. He and Ellis were named to the 2014 All-Big 12 squad with Ellis a third-team selection and Selden honorable mention. The duo also earned weekly conference honors during the 2013-14 season.
Alexander and Oubre were each named 2014 McDonald’s All-Americans. A power forward from Chicago who was ranked No. 3 by ESPN100, Alexander was the 2014 Naismith High School National Player of the Year and Mr. Basketball USA. He scored nine points and pulled down four rebounds in his KU debut against UC Santa Barbara. Oubre, from New Orleans, was ranked No. 11 by ESPN100 and both he and Alexander competed for Team USA at the Nike Hoop Summit and the Jordan Brand Classic in the spring 2014. Additionally, Oubre was invited to work at the Kevin Durant Skills Academy and the adidas Nation’s camps in the summer of 2014.
Last year, KU’s Selden, Andrew Wiggins and Joel Embiid were named to the Wooden Award Preseason Top 50. Wiggins ended being selected to the 10-member Wooden All-American Team.
No. 5/5 Kansas (1-0) will face top-ranked Kentucky (2-0) in the State Farm Champions Classic, Tuesday, Nov. 18, at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, at 8 p.m. (Central). The two teams met in the 2011 Champions Classic and later squared off in the 2012 NCAA Championship game in New Orleans.
For a complete list of the Wooden Award Preseason Top 50, one can go to www.woodenaward.com.
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